Case Study for Mountain Man Brewing Company

Founded In 1925 West Virginia’s Beer Premium Market leader for

almost 50 years Legacy Brew family owned

Business

Mountain Man Brewing Company

Name Designation

Guntar Prangel Founder (1925)

Oscar Prangel Current President and Owner

Chris Prangel Marketing Head

Notable People Working for the Company

Recent MBA Graduate Stood to inherit the family business

in 5 years Managing marketing operations of

the company currently

Chris Prangel

Guntar Prangel in 1925, reformulated an old brewing recipe and launched it as Mountain Man Beer.

By 1960’s, Mountain Man Lager’s reputation as a quality beer was well entrenched throughout the East Central region of the United States.

By 2005, Mountain Man was generating revenues above $50 million and selling over 520,000 barrels

Held top market position among Lagers for almost 50 years.

The Growth of Business

High Brand equity in premium segment Sold at off premise location Company facing declining sales for the first time in its history 2% decline in revenue Growth in light beer segment due to youth preferences

The Current Situation

The Competitive Market Share

Consumption by type of Beer

Beer Drinker Profiles

Chris wants to launch Mountain Man Light Beer for the youth to drive up revenues without damaging the brand’s core equity of Mountain Man Lager

What to do?

Pro’s- Original Brand name remains intact and no need to alienate loyal customers.

Con’s- The Declining sales may continue

Option 1-Don’t launch Light

Beer

Option 2-Launch Light beer

under brand name

Pro’s- Less money required for branching out and expansion in a new market segment.

Con’s- Core brand value may get damaged.

Option 3-Launch Light beer

under different brand name

Pro’s- Core brand name intact and brand can expand to different markets.

Con’s- Huge competition and huge amount of money required for marketing new brand.

Chris’s Analysis

2% annual loss until 2010 Regional revenue growth of 4%

annually Mountain Man shall steadily grow

its market share of regional beer at the rate of 0.25% of total regional market share annually

Chris’s Estimate

Oscar’s View

Targeting new segments will alienate the existing customers

The core brand equity shall get eroded

Mountain Man shall never receive the same loyalty among customers

Oscar’s View

Conclusion

Light Beer is a growing market. The revenues are going down. Sticking with the core brand values

is also important, so Chris should launch it under a different brand name.

Conclusion

This presentation was created by Tanmay Bhatia, Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology, New Delhi under the guidance of Prof. Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow.

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