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Why Blue Moon’s new marketing campaign helps the craft beer industry

March 23, 2016Chris Crowell

White IPA Bottle New LookMillerCoors has some big new plans for Blue Moon, which I posit is ultimately a good thing for the craft beer industry. I’ll get to that. First, the new plans, which involve some design tweaks, new packaging, new beers and even a new brewery.

“Since the drinker’s world has evolved quicker than our creative expression, our articulation of creativity started to feel old and heavy,” the company noted in its press release. “Our campaign pivot is to retain the creative roots of Blue Moon while evolving our articulation of creativity.”

The new packaging will hit the shelf on April 1. Blue Moon also announced a new brewery in Denver’s RiNo Arts District, which will join the SandLot brewery as a canvas for creating, testing and enjoying new Blue Moon beers. The facility will include a brewhouse capable of 20 to 35 barrels (bbls). Annual capacity projects to be 10,000 bbls.

Here is the commercial:

Within the news release, the company calls Blue Moon “the No. 1 craft brand in America.” Such claims have led to at least one customer suing the company, citing deceptive marketing practices. As of yet, courts have not agreed, although the tax code might officially decide this “craft beer” debate at some point. While we are skeptical of Blue Moon being dubbed a “craft beer” — in the idea that craft beer companies promote community, environmentalism, charity, small businesses, fellow brewers and experimental brewing — we might be OK with parent company MillerCoors promoting it as craft.

Take this scenario: If the huddled masses turn to Blue Moon over bland lagers as a craft beer, knowingly decide to drink this “craft beer” that comes with an orange slice, and they like it, this might help folks consider your brewery, right? Just take this delusional quote from its rebranding press release:

“It became clear we needed to recruit new consumers into craft, and welcome drinkers into a beer that is both confident and playful, sophisticated and fun.”

RELATED: The insecure giant: A psychoanalysis of AB InBev’s Super Bowl commercials 

This is an idea openly being promoted by a Big Beer company. You can focus on the fact that they are kind of misrepresenting the company’s position within the beer marketplace, or you can focus on the fact that a billion-dollar company is throwing its marketing weight behind promoting the concept of craft beer.

I know, it is their “craft beer,” but what do we know about people who become craft beer drinkers? They are experimenters. They seemingly have no brand loyalty. They like to try things, but they all don’t start that way. Take VFWs, Elks clubs and seedy drinking haunts that have no sign like “The Cotton Club” (our personal northeast Ohio fave) that have endless card games and a fridge full of Genesee, Budweiser, Old Milwaukee and that’s it. Those patrons will need more than a zany tap handle or cool end cap display to feel experimental. Some of that is generational, but maybe, the new idea just hasn’t reached them or sunk in yet.

This is where Blue Moon works against its Big Beer brethren brands. Mass marketing is a powerful and dangerous thing. Keep beaming that message at people and over time, like waves against a rock, an impression imperceptibly forms. Someone whose brand-loyal foundation erodes enough to try and enjoy a Blue Moon is now more likely to take a chance on your wheat beer. It might just be 5 percent more likely, but it is still an increase.

Big Beer can hurt craft beer by gobbling up shelf space and vertically integrating distribution, but marketing the shit out of a beer that has “a touch of coriander” seems like a win for the craft beer industry.

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MillerCoors sued for deceptive ‘craftiness’ of Blue Moon
This new Blue Moon commercial is quite curious and cute
Dang, the Foy Vance song behind MillerCoors’s new Saint Archer ad campaign is one hot jam
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MillerCoors and Pabst Brewing go to trial today, begin fight over cheap beer market

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. craftbeerzen says

    March 25, 2016 at 2:31 pm

    Couldn’t agree more. As a matter of fact blue moon and Bell’s Oberon are what brought me into the craft beer market. It is a step in the right direction to have people try something different and open up their curiosity to what else is out there. So please millercoors, bring in the masses, and let good beer whisk them away to the delightful world of choice that is; Craft Beer.

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  2. Alex Leutwiler says

    March 24, 2016 at 6:06 pm

    Alex Leutwiler liked this on Facebook.

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  3. BeerBoheme says

    March 24, 2016 at 12:09 pm

    RT @wryan1618: Why Blue Moon’s new marketing campaign helps the craft beer industry https://t.co/KJjF75x2lN via @craftbrewingbiz

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  4. Kevin Watkins says

    March 24, 2016 at 11:00 am

    I tend to agree with the article. I grew up thinking that bud, miller and the likes was good beer. I’m in my early 50s. anyhow I develped a problem that when I drank these clear drinks I would get headaches that were horrible. I ventured first with Fosters, you know that Austrailian beer. It worked, no headache. Blue moon is one of those that is readily available in the market not to mention almost any resturaunt that has a set of taps has blue moon at least here in Oregon, or Widmer Hef. Then I tried Grolsh, in the green fliptop bottle. Even better. This set my coarse to try more and more varieties of beer and even begin to home brew. Today I will try anything once, but there is such a variety out there and for me blue moon was one of those swing beers, so yes I agree that if they want to advertise that craft is better, and this causes some other poor sap to try something new and better. Who knows where it will lead. It could cause some guy to start brewing and build his own brewery and do that nano thing. I love nano brewers because they tend to love the craft more than the market. They experiment with wild flavors and don’t have all those stock holders directing them to make more money. Just don’t see what this will hurt and I believe it will bolster the craft I love.

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  5. jacobsberg says

    March 23, 2016 at 4:29 pm

    Why Blue Moon’s new marketing campaign helps the craft #beer industry https://t.co/L25uT5EEpx

    Log in to Reply
  6. LVRGLLC says

    March 23, 2016 at 2:16 pm

    #CraftBeer #CraftBrewing #Beer #BeerBiz Why Blue Moon’s new marketing campaign helps the craft beer industry https://t.co/zbqnld6OpA

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  7. Lou Harper says

    March 23, 2016 at 1:36 pm

    Lou Harper liked this on Facebook.

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  8. Julian Paul Butt says

    March 23, 2016 at 1:36 pm

    Julian Paul Butt liked this on Facebook.

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  9. wryan1618 says

    March 23, 2016 at 1:21 pm

    Why Blue Moon’s new marketing campaign helps the craft beer industry https://t.co/KJjF75x2lN via @craftbrewingbiz

    Log in to Reply
  10. Joel A. Ohmer says

    March 23, 2016 at 1:04 pm

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  11. crsimp01 says

    March 23, 2016 at 12:55 pm

    Why Blue Moon’s new marketing campaign helps the craft beer industry https://t.co/VYoxr1dliv via @craftbrewingbiz

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  12. Danny Danny says

    March 23, 2016 at 12:51 pm

    Chris Crowell – This article, written by a group that claims to be “craft” advocates – is the exact type of close minded op-ed that multi national alcohol conglomerates are hoping happens to the market. Shameful!

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    • Craft Brewing Business says

      March 23, 2016 at 1:29 pm

      Thanks for your take. Sorry you feel that way. I tried to be open-minded with how I approached it. I think the logic is sound, but maybe I’m wrong.

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Trackbacks

  1. Can Blue Moon’s new marketing campaign help the craft beer industry? | Craft Counsel says:
    March 31, 2016 at 8:05 pm

    […] In a recent article in Craft Brewing News, writer Chris Crowell suggests that Big Beer campaigns promoting their “craft beer” will indeed help the craft beer industry. While he does note some of the potential negative impacts of such Big Beer campaigns on the industry, the essence of his argument is quite simple – “If the huddled masses turn to Blue Moon over bland lagers as a craft beer, knowingly decide to drink this “craft beer” that comes with an orange slice, and they like it, this might help folks consider your brewery, right?” Read the full article here. […]

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