Mountain Man Brewing Company
1. What is Mountain Man Brewing Company’s positioning relative to its competitors?
Mountain Man Brewing Company (MMBC) is a 2nd tier domestic beer manufacturer based out of West Virginia. MMBC is positioned as a leader among local brewers in the East Central region, being one of the four regional breweries still operational in West Virginia. MMBC brews only one type of beer – the Mountain Man Lager, a dark bitter tasting beer. Target market for the product is middle aged men from the blue collared working class. Branding includes an image of coal miners on the bottle suggesting a strong taste and reinforcing target market segments to a niche. The beer sells mainly in off-premise locations. There is no variant of Mountain Man Lager available.
Although MMBC is a local brewer it really competes against national brands such as Anheuser Busch and Coors. Priced at the same level as national brands, MMBC’s product is a legacy brew and enjoys high brand awareness in the regions it sells the beer. The brand also enjoys high brand loyalty in its target market segment against national brands. MMBC has been able to achieve this brand equity without significant spending on traditional advertising but rather pursuing on grass-roots advertising.
The company however is losing market share and revenues in line with the lager market. Since MMBC does not manufacture a light variant of its lager product the company has not been able to maintain its profits over the past few years. All its competitors are invested in the light beer segment given this scenario. MMBC has also seen shifting market segments due to an aging initial target market segment. The company is also at the risk of losing distributor loyalty thanks to increasing pressure on distributor margins.
Summing it up, MMBC is losing market share due to changes in market dynamics while still seeing significant brand loyalty and awareness in its home turf. 2. What factors have contributed to making MMBC a strong brand?
Mountain Man Brewing Company (MMBC) is a 2nd tier domestic beer manufacturer based out of West Virginia. MMBC is positioned as a leader among local brewers in the East Central region, being one of the four regional breweries still operational in West Virginia. MMBC brews only one type of beer – the Mountain Man Lager, a dark bitter tasting beer. Target market for the product is middle aged men from the blue collared working class. Branding includes an image of coal miners on the bottle suggesting a strong taste and reinforcing target market segments to a niche. The beer sells mainly in off-premise locations. There is no variant of Mountain Man Lager available.
Although MMBC is a local brewer it really competes against national brands such as Anheuser Busch and Coors. Priced at the same level as national brands, MMBC’s product is a legacy brew and enjoys high brand awareness in the regions it sells the beer. The brand also enjoys high brand loyalty in its target market segment against national brands. MMBC has been able to achieve this brand equity without significant spending on traditional advertising but rather pursuing on grass-roots advertising.
The company however is losing market share and revenues in line with the lager market. Since MMBC does not manufacture a light variant of its lager product the company has not been able to maintain its profits over the past few years. All its competitors are invested in the light beer segment given this scenario. MMBC has also seen shifting market segments due to an aging initial target market segment. The company is also at the risk of losing distributor loyalty thanks to increasing pressure on distributor margins.
Summing it up, MMBC is losing market share due to changes in market dynamics while still seeing significant brand loyalty and awareness in its home turf. 2. What factors have contributed to making MMBC a strong brand?