MillerCoors redesigned by Landor

13 October 2008 | By Popsop Team

MillerCoors, the second largest brewer in the United States, relies heavily on its packaging to attract consumers and build brand equity and preference.

Over more than two decades, the company’s flagship brand, Coors, had slowly slipped from first to third in company sales.

The primary reason was a shift in consumer preference toward light and craft brews over premium regular beers. In its heyday, Coors had been a cult classic, coveted by America’s President Gerald Ford, who took cases of it back to Washington after trips to the West, and was the inspiration for the hit 1970s movie Smokey and the Bandit.

coors_01

Challenge

Landor’s challenge was to recapture some of the Coors magic from those earlier days and reestablish an emotional connection with consumers. Landor turned to the iconic Coors can design of the ’60s and ’70s for inspiration.

Since then, the design evolved in a direction that downplayed key equity elements: the buff brand color, Rocky Mountain water, the banquet beer moniker, and the griffins that reinforce the founder’s German roots. Being careful not to create an old-fashioned or retro design, the Landor team contemporized the brand equities and elevated them in the communication hierarchy.

coors_02

Solution

The new packaging possesses a more appealing brand color and recounts the banquet beer story for the first time. Within four weeks of relaunch, and in the absence of other marketing support, Coors went from a three-month decline of seven percent to an increase of one percent—growing for the first time in 21 years.

The brand also improved its velocities and gained market share from the segment’s leaders (AC Nielsen, 28 April 2007). Twelve months later, sales were up 5.9 percent for the year, a swing of 17swing s (AC Nielsen, 22 March 2008).

Popsop.com
Tags: , , ,