Molson's Rant Case

Issue #1: Molson’s overall market slipping from increasing competition: The first main issue that Molson is facing is that their overall market share is slipping. They have experienced approximately $100 million in lost profit as a result of this decreased market share. Adding to this issue is the fact that their main competitor, Labatt, is gaining market share and have increased their market share and profits by around $30 million. Small, regional breweries like Sleeman’s and other microbreweries are also adding to this competition, making the beer industry a fiercely competitive one. In 1988, there were 50 breweries in Canada. Just 11 years after this, the number had grown to 75. People are beginning to be more open to trying new brands
It received large media coverage on the television, radio, and newspapers and even received advertising awards. Molson was rewarded by gaining two points in the market share after the campaign, which is extremely significant as each point in market share is worth approximately $15 million. Despite the popularity of the Rant campaign produced by Molson, they were forced to address the question of where to go next. Molson was unsure of how long they could execute the patriotic theme of Rant without people getting bored. They also wondered how to maintain the momentum of The Rant campaign, while keeping the advertising fresh and interesting to their target audience (19-24 year old Canadians). The Rant was also unique in that it did not show a bottle of beer or people socializing in the commercial. Molson is faced to decide whether to keep using this type of non-traditional beer commercial or if making the more traditional beer commercials would result in more success. If their next campaign is not successful, the problem of decreased market share being lost to competition may escalade even further. Unfortunately for Molson, in an industry such as this, there is room for
We have determined two alternatives that could be considered for guidance on where to go next. Our first alternative is to switch to the more traditional beer commercials. This would be to make one similar to what Sleeman and the microbreweries have been producing for years. This advertising tactic has worked well for Sleeman by staying away from the national campaigns such as yourself and Labatt’s and targeting the microbreweries market. Advantages to conducting a traditional advertising campaign would be the emphasis on the quality of the product. Many times these commercials are depicting a historical view on the brand and how it got to where it is today. Another advantage is it would attract old customers back to the brand. With your recent lost of market share, a traditional advertisement would encourage people that were once familiar with the brand to go back to their roots and give it another try. A disadvantage would be stepping out of the national life style advertisements and leaving Labatt as the only one producing those style of commercials. This could severely hurt market share as the disloyal 19-24 year old market many times buy what they