Dominating Domestics
How Has 2005 Been For the Big Three?
By Andy Ashby
Many years ago, beer companies in America figured out that their
products go hand-in-hand with sports. They figured out that only one
thing is better that a sporting event: a sporting event with beer.
So, they recruited athletes to sell their products. The Big Three took
it a step further, sponsoring athletic facilities such as Coors Field
in Denver, Busch Stadium in St. Louis and Miller Park in Milwaukee.
That’s why when you see domestic beer, sports isn’t far behind.
Proximity to Profit
The Sports Column in Denver is just down the road from Golden, Colo.,
which is home to Coors Brewing Co. Although they have all of the Big
Three’s light beers on tap and in bottle, it’s no surprise what is the
best seller at that bar.
“Coors Light is by far the No. 1 seller for us,” Sports Column Owner Mark Kinsey says. “After that, it’s Bud, and then Miller.”
As Kinsey says, The Sports Column is only 96 steps from Coors Field,
where the Colorado Rockies play baseball. Those games really work for
their bottom line.
“The proximity to Coors Field definitely helps in the summertime,” he says.
Although Coors is king around Denver, that doesn’t mean the others have quit trying to sell there.
“Miller Lite has been a strong competitor in draft sales. I think their
national advertising is helping their sales,” Kinsey says. “They’re
constantly making moves. Bud and Miller have been going after each
other with advertising. You can definitely see Miller making moves.”
Kinsey says his bar doesn’t offer many specials to move beer, however.
They offer a traditional Happy Hour, taking 50 cents on the dollar off
of draft beer prices for good measure.
“Being in the heart of Denver, we don’t have too much of the pricing
game going on. We don’t have to discount our product to move it,” he
says.
At Yankee Doodle’s in Santa Monica, Calif., Miller Lite is the
best-selling beer, followed by Budweiser products and then Coors
products. Draft beer sells better than bottles.
“I think the presentation with the glass and the foam helps,” General
Manager Chris Roache says. “It just seems fresher than a bottle.”
It also helps that Yankee Doodle’s can serve draft beers in big, 34-ounce mugs.
“It’s a big, monster mug, and I think people enjoy that,” Roache says.
How well the beers sell depends on how they are working to get their brand name out there.
“Marketing-wise, you don’t see Coors as much, but Bud and Miller hammer it hard.”
Roache says Budweiser representatives come into the bar monthly and
offer taste tests, putting a focus on the company’s born-on dating.
Miller accentuated its recent ad campaign by bringing in girls dressed
as referees. If they saw someone drinking a Budweiser product, they
threw a penalty flag and blew their whistles. Then, they did a Miller
tasting.
“The customers really enjoy it. It’s something different,” Roache says. “It makes quite an impact and adds a little excitement.”
One way Yankee Doodle’s moves their domestics is by paying attention to what’s going on around them.
“If there is a big event, we piggyback on it,” Roache says. “If Bud
sponsors an Oscar De La Hoya fight, we’ll talk to them, and they will
bring in Bud for specials. It’s just like last year, when Miller
sponsored the Super Bowl or when the Raider Nation was sponsored by
Coors. We try to utilize what they’re doing.”
Yankee Doodle’s also has a Happy Hour from 3 to 7 p.m. It’s good for $3 off domestics.
“For our profit margin, we still make a good percentage off the
discounted products,” Roache says. “Plus, you bring in a lot of
business when there normally isn’t any, which is the purpose of any
Happy Hour.”
Sluggers in Seattle sells all of The Big Three’s products among the bar’s 15 taps.
They use consistent specials to increase sales, and they have 32-ounce domestics for $6.
Other than that, they don’t do a lot of promotions for beers.
“The most they do is bring signs for our bar,” Bartender Alicia Berry says of the distributors.
Sluggers isn’t far from Seattle’s baseball field and football stadium.
When those places are full, the bar tends to fill up as well. “We cater
to the football and baseball crowds,” Berry says. “We sell mostly
domestics, but we have some call for micros. On a game day, we probably
sell $6,000 in domestics for football games. For baseball we do about
half that. We move about six to 10 kegs of Bud and Bud Light and about
four to six kegs of Miller Lite.”
The domestic beers sales extend beyond football and baseball season, too. It also extends beyond this country’s borders.
“To me, it’s an American thing,” Berry says. “Even the people we get
for soccer games — people from Europe — they want Bud and Bud Light.”
A Trend Roller Coaster?
The Big Three also try other ways to increase their sales. One recent
example is how the Atkins diet sparked an interest in low-carb beers
last year. The Sports Column sees good sales from The Big Three’s
low-carb offerings.
“We had a resurgence of the low-carb beers, they’re still selling,” Kinsey says.
Roache says the low-carb phenomenon was really big about four or five months ago in Santa Monica, but it has settled down.
“I think the low-carb thing is kind of wearing off here in Los Angeles
and California,” Roache says. “I see that trend slowly diminishing.”
Domestic beer companies tried other ways to get more sales. The Los
Angeles area was one of the test markets for B to the E, the new energy
drink from Budweiser.
These days, however, Roache says he sees The Big Three returning to
their marketing roots, and he thinks that will help their sales.
“I think Miller High Life was on the right track when they went back with what was successful for them,” he says.
Just as bars are returning to more brick and wood for atmosphere,
domestics are returning to traditional marketing. “I think they do a
good job of saying, ‘This is who we are. If you like us, great, if not,
then that’s fine, too,’” Roache says.
“They’re selling beers for the customers they have instead of trying to get everyone,” he says. NCB
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