Battle of the Beers Essay

IntroductionThis case is about the intense participation between beer rivals in the United States, particularly between Anheuser-Busch (A-B), the worlds largest brewer, and SABmilling machine, the worlds second largest brewer. It discusses about how the companies used announce in their stigma positioning in order to compete with each otherwisewise and increase the sales.This case starts by describing the strategies used by the both phoner when the battle began since the South African Breweries (SAB) purchased moth miller Brewing Company in 2002. The 2 starring(p) beer brewing companies uses incompatible strategies to fight with each other in order to communicate how its beer differ from competition to draw in more than consumers. First, Miller emphasized on the light beer, taking benefit of the health conscious trend where consumers were looking for low-carb beer by using comparative advertising campaign claiming that the Miller Lite has half the carbs than Bud Light.This prompted income tax returnoffensives from A-B that scoff Miller Lites low-carbs claims and challenge beer supers to choose on admiration. To counter that, Miller then attack nates by emphasizing withal on the try on of the light beer. Things establish worse when Miller in like manner launched a new offensive campaign which lampooned Budweiser for its self-proclaimed title as major power of Beers and Budweiser lashed back by designate take Miller Lite as poof of Carbs. Miller filed a lawsuit against Budweiser asserting the false and misleading claims by Budweiser to Miller Light which entrust definitely affect the image of SABMiller.Then, Miller used blind examine tests and shifted to emphasizing taste and flavour preferably of stuck with a carb positioning. In 2004, the companies used comparative advertising, where Miller launched new advertising campaign attacking Budweiser, and A-B also launched direct counterattack, and this made the battle become even more intense that others be being pulled into the fray. Television networks were refusing commercials on both sidesbecause their unduly disparaging or appear to contain taste claims that are unsubstantiated and misleading.While Miller continue to press on the taste issue, A-B introduced a new crossroad promoting as having no stay aftertaste and also emphasizing the freshness of its beer. The battle between the 2 companies goes back and forth.Questions1. What arrogates are most important in determining beer clouding finales? How does this transmute by market segments?There are many important attributes that affect to be considered in determining beer purchasing decisions. As described in the case, these includes taste, aroma, and coming into court.(i) Taste/Flavour/ aromaTaste is the most important attribute in determining beer purchasing decisions as consumers buy beer for the taste. As unmixed in the case, Miller spent huge amounts on advertising the taste advantage they hold over Bud weiser. They held blind taste tests where consumers were seen to choose Miller over Budweiser in the tests. Their success in providing good taste led to Miller recording a 2.6 % increase in sales ledger in 2003 as consumers felt that Miller beers were better in taste. Aroma is extremely important to beers overall taste and it determines the purchase decision of a beer. The market segments that emphasize on aroma in their beer purchasing decision are mostly experienced beer drinkers. The repeat beer purchase willing takes place when the taste of the beer suit the customers.Health-conscious consumers who are looking to reduce their cabbage intake might opt for beer which are slight sugar. Consumers who give more preference to the aroma of beer might look for strong aroma beer or beer which suit his or her taste. Some market segments might prefer beer with no lingering aftertaste.(ii) AppearanceThe process of purchasing a beer begins with its visual appearance. many an(prenominal) people make hasty judgments of taste (food or beverage) based completely on sight alone. In terms of beer appearance, what consumers looking for are colour, clarity, and passport retention. Although one colour is not necessarily better than the others, and none indicates at a time how the beer will taste, but many beer drinkers will honourable pee their consume preference and perception of beer colour. Also, if a beer cant form a head, either its improperly carbonated or the vessel into which its poured is dirty.Many beer drinkers will most probably emphasize on the appearance of the beer and are obsessed with beer clarity if the beer is not crystal clear, they would not drink it. Some markets segments might prefer darker beers like stouts whereas others might prefer light source beers such as wheat beers.(iii) PriceMany people sample or determine a product quality based on the price. This is also true for beer purchases, and is especially true for those non-experienced bee r drinkers. Higher price could have one of two effects on consumer preference it could cause the product to seem higher in quality, or it could make the product less desirable because of the extra expense. Although most of the time price may smoothen the quality of the beer (higher quality, higher price, and vice versa), but this is not all the time.For those who are emphasize on the quality of the beer, they might probably prefer to buy the higher-priced beer. Higher-income beer drinkers also might choose the higher-priced beer which they perceived that the beer has higher quality. For those market segments who just drink beers for enjoyment for example peers gathering, they might just buy the cheaper beers.(iv) make name mug is the most important non-sensory factors affecting consumers choicedecisions of products. It seen as a promise, a guarantee or contract with the manufacturer and a symbolic mean and sign of quality. Beer drinkers will choose their beers based on their own b eer brand preferences too. Researchers had found that ultrapremium beer was rated higher than inexpensive beer when brand name calling were unknown, hence shows that brand name do affect beer purchasing decision.In the market segments which earned a higher-income might prefer branded (usually higher-priced) beers. younger generation might also choose those cheaper but well-known brand due to the exposure of the advertisements and they tend to follow the trend.2. How would you construct a reasonable taste to determine beer buyers preferences?The methods used to construct a valid taste to determine beer buyer preferences based on different attributes would be as followsBased on taste/flavour/aroma take over blind-taste tests by providing the participants the cups of different beers to be tested which labelled A through E. Participants will be asked to taste each of the beers, and then spit out the beer into an give up glass. Between each beer taste, participants will rinse out the ir mouths with water to keep down cross-contamination among trials. After tasting all the beers, participants will point order the volt beers on the basis of the quality of their taste.Based on appearanceConduct tests by providing the participants different beers with differences colour and level of clarity. For example by providing the participants different cups of beers with different colour and clarity labelled with A, B, C, D, and so forth without the accommodate the participants what type or brand of the beers are. Differences in preferences across the samples will face whether consumers prefer one colour (eg. darker colour) than the others. The preference of beer based on the label colour, design, logo, orthe shape of the packaging can be tested as well.Based on priceConduct tests by providing the participants different selections of beer with different prices to assess whether consumers use price to disambiguate taste. For example, the beers selected varied in price, fr om $7.99 per sixpack to $2.69 per six-pack. The prices per six-pack were as follows Brand A $7.99 Brand B $5.99 Brand C $3.99 Brand D $3.49 and Brand E $2.69. Participants will govern the different beers according to their own preferences and on the basis of their prior experience about these beers.Based on brand nameConduct tests by providing the participants different selections of beer with different brand names. For example, different beer brands such as guts Steam, Samuel Adams, Budweiser, Miller Genuine Draft, and Schlitz will be provided to participants. Participants will be asked to rank the different beers according to their own preferences and on the basis of their prior intimacy about these beers.ConclusionConsumers attitudes, beliefs, and feelings play important role in decision making if they are going to purchase the Anheuser-Busch or SABMiller beer brand such as Budweiser or Miller respectively. The beer marketers need to be able to identify the patsy markets s hopping, purchase, spending, and consumption patterns in order to predict what consumers want from such product. Consumer innovation acts as a helpful indicator to the types of marketing activities to carry so that they are able to retract the right market segment, thus leading to high profits. In conclusion, understanding consumer behaviour is significant because marketers want to attract the right consumers to purchase their brand.