B2B MKTG

By: Jared Saad,

Sarah Bombara,
Joseph Jackson,and
Jennifer Doherty

Mountain Man Brewing Company

MMBC was founded in 1925 by Guntar Prangel
Reputation for quality working mans beer
West Virginias beer
working mans aging demographic has built strong brand
loyalty
Has helped MMBC survive against leading beer giants

Mountain Man Brewing Company

2005 MMBC revenue of over $50 million
sold 520,00 barrels of lager
Recently MMBC has faced a decline in sales
Change in beer drinkers preferences and shrinking of their
target demographic

Mountain Man Brewing Company

Chris Prangel has recently earned his MBA and stands to inherit the Mountain Man Brewing Company in a short five years. Chris
has returned to the company early to manage marketing operations and quickly diagnoses their problem and contributes it to two
major issues, only offering one single product Mountain Man Lager and the change (large increase) in light beer demand. Over
the last six years, light beer sales have been growing at a compound annual rate of 4%, while traditional premium beers sales
have declined at the same percentage. Chris Prangels solution to the company problem is to implement a new light beer product,
Mountain Man Light. This solution is very controversial and the majority of leadership within the company (including his father)
strongly disagrees with this decision for many reasons that are backed by rational justifications.
Single shrinking demographic
Giant bullish competition
Dilemma on implementation of new product and whether or not it will take away or diminish the original product

Facts
I. Declining sales for the first time in company history.
II. Light beer sales in the U.S. have been growing at a compound annual rate of 4%, while
traditional premium beer sales have declined by the same percentage.

III. Chris Prangel stands to inherit MMBC in five years.

IV. Chris Prangels solution is strongly opposed by all company leadership.
V. Generated $50 Million and sold 520,000 barrels in 2005.

Facts
VI. MMBC lager has slightly higher alcohol content than its competitors.
VII. Bullish giant competitors with enormous money to spend.
VIII. Increased awareness of moderation and health concerns. (Also pushed consumers
towards light beer)

IX. Single aging demographic

X. MMBC neglects the most important alcohol demographic of 21-27 years old.

Problems and Issues

Marketing Options
Marketing Option 1- Close the idea
This strategy will close the entire idea of implementing Mountain Man Light and focus on
expanding the existing consumer base from the BOTTOM.

Mountain Man Challenge

Market efforts towards High Alcohol Content

Expressing tradition advertising in beneficial manner (Father giving his son MMB on 21 st

Birthday)

20s demographic expansion ***

Marketing Options
Marketing option 2- Implement Mountain Man Light
This strategy will heavily rely on the marketing department to produce a new light beer product
that will not interfere with their original lifeline product.

20s demographic marketing (Same bottle pic but with the same men in their early 20s)

Lighter color visuals (Lighter brown bottle etc.. )

Mountain Man Challenge

Maintain and market high alcohol content

Marketing Options
Marketing option 3- Implementation of a light beer
**with separation from the existing brand**

Segregate new light beer from existing MMBC in order to safeguard the original brand and

identity Ex: Mountain Dew By: Pepsi

Maintain the tuff beer gene that MMBC does so well

Focus on college branding starting with Virginia Tech

Recommendation
We recommend that the Mountain Man Brewing Company should implement a new light beer product
with a separation from the existing brand (recommendation 3). This is in order to protect the original
product that enabled them to reach the success they have achieved. When you take a look at giant
soft drink companies such as Coca-Cola or Pepsi, it is easy to see that this marketing strategy has an
existing playbook of success. The majority of consumers do not make the connection between buying
Mountain Dew and Pepsi, but In fact Mountain Dew is made and distributed by Pepsi. This will
mitigate competition in brand identity between MMBC and the new product, which is exactly what we
believe Mountain Man Brewing Company needs to accomplish.

Recommendation Continued
The Mountain Man Brewing Company was established in 1925 by Chris Prangels grandfather. However, it is the year
2015 and many trends, lifestyles, and expectations have changed and MMBC has adapted very little in marketing
strategy. Chris stands to inherit the company in a short five years and is faced with the dilemma of whether or not to
implement a new light beer product because of the changing trends in light beer. Light beer sales have grown 4%
annually at a compound rate with premium beer sales declining at the same rate. The majority of the leadership at
MMBC believes that creating a light beer product is a terrible idea and would diminish their existing product. This is
exactly why we believe this specific marketing strategy will be a perfect solution for this type of company circumstance.
This recommendation is also the best option for maintaining internal company camaraderie. It satisfies a healthy
medium for adapting to current trends while lowering the risk towards the original brand identity that has the leadership
at MMBC worried. No matter what the organization is, it needs its leadership in all departments on the same
page and excited about reaching company objectives.

Recommendation Continued
The implementation of this separate identity light beer product will focus its entire marketing efforts on
the 20s age group demographic. High involvement social media campaigns, frequent promotions,
exciting advertising, and free sampling will all be carefully directed towards this demographic in a
manner that completely detaches itself from the known brand image of MMBC. A lighter color bottle,
lighter taste, half the calories, higher alcohol content, simplistic logo, and an overall separation from
the heavy original MMBC lager. We believe this has the potential to surpass the original lager for
many reasons. This is mostly because of current light beer trends and capturing a demographic that
is the most frequent user, as well as consuming the highest quantity of product in single uses.

Where are they now?

http://www.mountainmanbrewing.com/
https://twitter.com/MountainManCork