A little over two months back, MillerCoors announced they were about to reveal turnaround strategies for their "value brands"-- the 30% of the brewery's volume accounted for by cheap beer. We were quick to send some helpful advice their way:
Find the provocative, appealing product distinctiveness your low-priced brand can offer. Focus your strategy--advertising, packaging, promotion, social media--on that difference.
And begin winning... again.
So did product distinctiveness find a place in the new High Life ad?
See what you think, before we give you our take...
Find the provocative, appealing product distinctiveness your low-priced brand can offer. Focus your strategy--advertising, packaging, promotion, social media--on that difference.
And begin winning... again.
So did product distinctiveness find a place in the new High Life ad?
See what you think, before we give you our take...
We're pleased to say that the 15-second effort really does focus on the beer inside the classic clear bottle with "Estd 1903" molded into the glass. A win for product distinctiveness!
Before the resurrected "If you've got the time, we've got the beer" jingle and "Welcome to the high life," the only statement in the ad is devoted to the distinctiveness of the beer itself: "Known for its perfect storm of tiny bubbles, it has long been called the champagne of beers."
So maybe we've been asleep for a few decades, but this is the first we've heard of High Life's "tiny bubbles." Or the logic link suggesting they're akin to champagne bubbles. Is that even true?
Who cares?
Product distinctiveness is where you find it, or cleverly create it.
8-wheel logic to the rescue
Back in the 1920s, long before television even existed, when every major beer brand was pushing "purity" as a selling premise, advertising history was made. Product distinctiveness was the key.
On the strength of advertising copywriter Claude Hopkins' observation of its brewery operations, Schlitz chose to differentiate its beer with the claim "Bottles washed with live steam." While other brands used similar bottle-cleaning processes, the clever live-steam expression got people's attention and made sense. Schlitz went from #5 to a tie for #1 on the claim.
A wise advertising pro once described this kind of selling as employing "8-wheel logic." He said he remembered his very young son pestering him with a series of arbitrary questions, the way kids sometimes do, finally wondering how huge railroad cars managed to stay on the tracks. The dad--mildly annoyed and occupied with some vexing business problem at the time--quickly shot back, "Because they have eight wheels." That was enough for the boy.
So, is a "perfect storm of tiny bubbles" enough to suggest Miller High Life is distinctive versus other beers? Is it enough to make plausible the "Champagne of Beers" claim? Is it enough to cause this brand... to begin winning again?
The Miller people sure think so... and we're inclined to agree.
Before the resurrected "If you've got the time, we've got the beer" jingle and "Welcome to the high life," the only statement in the ad is devoted to the distinctiveness of the beer itself: "Known for its perfect storm of tiny bubbles, it has long been called the champagne of beers."
So maybe we've been asleep for a few decades, but this is the first we've heard of High Life's "tiny bubbles." Or the logic link suggesting they're akin to champagne bubbles. Is that even true?
Who cares?
Product distinctiveness is where you find it, or cleverly create it.
8-wheel logic to the rescue
Back in the 1920s, long before television even existed, when every major beer brand was pushing "purity" as a selling premise, advertising history was made. Product distinctiveness was the key.
On the strength of advertising copywriter Claude Hopkins' observation of its brewery operations, Schlitz chose to differentiate its beer with the claim "Bottles washed with live steam." While other brands used similar bottle-cleaning processes, the clever live-steam expression got people's attention and made sense. Schlitz went from #5 to a tie for #1 on the claim.
A wise advertising pro once described this kind of selling as employing "8-wheel logic." He said he remembered his very young son pestering him with a series of arbitrary questions, the way kids sometimes do, finally wondering how huge railroad cars managed to stay on the tracks. The dad--mildly annoyed and occupied with some vexing business problem at the time--quickly shot back, "Because they have eight wheels." That was enough for the boy.
So, is a "perfect storm of tiny bubbles" enough to suggest Miller High Life is distinctive versus other beers? Is it enough to make plausible the "Champagne of Beers" claim? Is it enough to cause this brand... to begin winning again?
The Miller people sure think so... and we're inclined to agree.
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