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Case Code: MKTG359
Case Length: 10 Pages 
Period: 2002-2016   
Pub Date: 2017
Teaching Note: Not Available
Price:Rs.400
Organization : MillerCoors and Anheuser Busch InBev .
Industry : Brewing
Countries : US 
Themes: Marketing Communication  
/Advertising
Case Studies  
Business Strategy
Marketing
Finance
Human Resource Management
IT and Systems
Operations
Economics
Leadership & Entrepreneurship

Bud Light Vs Miller Lite: Comparative Advertising and Question of Ethics

 
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EXCERPTS

ABOUT BUD LIGHT

 

Bud Light introduced in 1981 as Budweiser Light, was American brewer Anheuser-Busch’s flagship light beer. Despite Bud Light’s late entry into the beer market, Anheuser-Busch promoted it as a strong brand. Bud Light was marketed under the premise that people drank light beer to have fun. The brand’s ads were funny and brilliantly executed. Bud Light became the number one light beer by 1994 and emerged as the category leader. By 2007, it had grown into the world’s best-selling beer. In 2008, Anheuser-Busch merged with Belgium brewer InBev to form Anheuser-Busch InBev...

 
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MILLER LITE vs. BUD LIGHT AD WAR

By the early 1990s, Miller Lite was losing market share and the company dropped its “Tastes Great, Less Filling” campaign. However, it continued to launch witty ads filled with adolescent humour to attract young male beer drinkers. But this did not help in pushing sales...
 

CRITICISM

Analysts criticized the ad war between Miller Lite and Bud Light saying that it was not ethical to directly make a negative comment about a competitor’s product. Hoag Levins, editor and executive producer of AdAge.com, said, “To some degree, it has become unusually personal. When you mention the competitor you’re trying to crush, are you inadvertently burning the competitor’s brand in the consumer’s mind?” .
 

THE ROAD AHEAD

In September 2016, AB InBev completed its takeover of SABMiller in a US$103 billion deal. The deal would consolidate AB InBev as a global brewing powerhouse with an estimated 46% of global beer profits and 27% of global volume. In order to receive regulatory approval in the US, SABMiller gave up ownership of the Miller brands by selling its 58% stake in MillerCoors to Molson Coors for US$12 billion...
 

EXHIBITS

Exhibit I:Top Ten Beer Brands in the US (as of September 2016)
Exhibit II: Market Share of Brewers in US as on 2015.
Exhibit III: Some Comparative Ads of Miller Lite.
Exhibit IV: Declining Beer Market Share in the US.