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The Marketing of Samuel Adams Beer

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Submitted By ewest81
Words 4464
Pages 18
MRKT 5000 Marketing

September 04, 2011

Jim Koch

And The Marketing of Samuel Adams Beer

Executive Summary

Currently, the United States beer market is segmented into many segments. The two largest domestic brewers, brewers located within the United States, are Anheuser-Busch and Miller. These two companies control 50 percent and 29 percent of domestic beer sales, respectively. With 80 percent of the beer market controlled by the two megabrewers the United States is a tough environment for a small craft brewer like Samuel Adams to survive.
The U.S. population is over 311 million people, the world’s third largest population after China and India. American consumes nearly 200 million barrels of beer a year, or 20 gallons per person, second only to China which has four times the amount of people the United States.
Samuel Adams Boston Lager is brewed by the Boston Beer Company and founded by 1984 by Jim Koch using his great–great–grandfather’s 1870 beer recipe.
Due to the economic downturn and other environmental forces the general beer market has been flat in recent years, yet quality craft beers like Samuel Adams has seen double-digit growth. The craft brewing industry has had a strong growth curve over the past decade and Samuel Adams has been positioned perfectly to capture this momentum.
Technological advances have been a positive development for the Samuel Adams brewing and packaging process. Samuel Adams brewers are constantly experimenting with new techniques and pioneering tools to get freshly brewed beer into the hands of the customer faster. Sociocultural forces are constantly changing and over the past decade consumers have demanded healthier products and Jim Koch has answered the call by supplying a Samuel Adams Light beer, while keeping the original Samuel

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