Bringing the Brand to Light
MOUNTAIN MAN BREWING COMPANY CASE ANALYSIS

Pei-Chi Lee
Rahul Lakhanpal
Feridun Sarihan
Saim Onur Tamer
Weiqiong Vivi Zhuang

March 29th, 2011
Problem Definition
Facing decline in annual sales, changes in beer drinker’s preference and continuous growth in light beer sales in the whole beer industry, Mountain Man Brewing Company (MMBC) is standing at a crossroad as to whether or not introduce Mountain Man Light to expand consumer demographic into younger consumer segment and capture light beer drinkers. Advantages of doing so were obvious, however, the possibilities of diluting the Mountain Man brand equity, alienating the core customer base and cannibalizing sales of Mountain Man Lager were some real risks that could irreversibly damage the brand. Thus they need to address two issues: whether or not to launch Mountain Man Light and what strategy to employ for the introduction of Mountain Man Light.
Pros of Launching the Mountain Man Light
As the only beer category demonstrating consistent growth, light beer had been steadily gaining market share, increasing from 29.8% in 2001 to 50.4% in 2005. This was high growth rate that any beer manufacturer should not ignore (Exhibit1). Furthermore, Mountain Man Light would have different customer demographic and different distribution channels from that of the existing Mountain Man Lager thus minimizing the risk of cannibalizing Mountain Man Lager’s current sales.
First of all, launching light beer would bring younger drinkers to the company’s customer segments, which primarily drove the changes in beer consumption. Most industry observers identified that younger drinkers between 21-27 years of age were the key consumer segment for beer companies. It represented about 13% of the adult population and accounted for more than 27% of total beer consumption and was growing. Mountain Man