USA: Molson Coors Brewing is optimistic about further steady growth

Beer is still the alcoholic beverage of choice with adult consumers, but it lost luster in recent years to more image-savvy spirits and wine marketers. Beer's share of the alcoholic beverage market slipped to 51.6% in 2005, from 56% in 1999. Meanwhile, wine and spirits climbed to 48.4% from 44% during the same period, USA Today published October 23.

Nonetheless, Molson Coors Brewing is optimistic that there's room now for some heady growth, with beer retaking some of that market share.

"There's room for beer to grow, but more importantly there's room for Coors Light to grow," says Jim Sabia, vice president, marketing for Coors Light.

After nine quarters of declining volume, Coors Light this summer racked up a fifth-consecutive quarter of growth. For its most recent quarter ended June 25, volume for Molson Coors Brewing's biggest brand is up 3%. Coors Light, about 70% of the Molson Coors business, has come a long way back in the two years since Molson and Coors announced a merger.

Benj Steinman, president, Beer Marketer's Insights, says the brand is "doing well," even if it "is not setting the world on fire. Over the last 18 months they've turned the corner and started back to growth."

Coors Light's growth is consistent with the beer business overall, which is up 3% this year, according to the beer newsletter and research firm. "It's an ungodly good year for beer," Steinman says.

He says Coors Light's marketing has helped drive sales growth because, "They've focused on one key message, and they've been consistent."

That message: "Rocky Mountain cold refreshment." The brewer has been highlighting its Colorado home to seek an edge in promoting "cold" in advertising and packaging.

This summer the company introduced high-tech insulated labels for bottles and insulated barware to keep Coors Light colder, longer. Coors also has offered a one-time-use "cooler box" that lets buyers add ice and go. Ads, by Foote Cone & Belding, Chicago, have promoted a high-speed train that resembles a Silver Bullet and cools people wherever it goes.

In one ad, hot, tired young workers line a subway platform at the end of a day. Moments later the Coors Light Silver Bullet train rolls along to cool them down with bottles of Coors Light.

In another ad, two young men at a wedding opt for bottles of Coors Light over champagne and cause a scene when they decapitate an ice sculpture to fill their cooler box.

Coors Light had aired more general, lifestyle ads for years before introducing the Silver Bullet Train two years ago.

The old ads did a "better job selling the category rather than selling Coors Light," Sabia says. "We really tried to find a good product difference between us and our competitors."

Consumers give the ads a higher mark for effectiveness than likability, according to results from Ad Track, USA Today's weekly survey. Of those familiar with the ads, 14% like them "a lot" compared with the Ad Track average of 21%, but 17% rate them "very effective" vs. the average of 20%.

The findings are on track, Sabia says. "We're onto something here," he says. "It's working for us, and we're going to continue marketing Coors Light this way to consumers. It's not great advertising if it doesn't sell beer."

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