blog # 3

The champagne of beer

We’ve all seen those commercials of with the heavy set black guy, who goes around liquor stores and asks the proprietor of the establishment how much he’s selling Miller High Life for. If it’s too expensive he takes all the beer out of their cooler and continues to verbally punish them. If anyone has ever tasted a high life you’d know that, well, it’s not the best tasting beer in the whole world. So Miller of course will sell it cheaper than their other beers. So therefore they are making their liability of not tasting the best, into their strength of selling it cheaper.

Another way they are making their weakness better is carbonating the hell out of it. On the side of the bottle it even says their slogan, “the champagne of beer”. With comparing it to other beers I would agree, it really is the champagne of beer because of its carbonation. My thoughts on putting more carbonation in it are killing the flavor and making it. We’ve all tried to chug a soda to realize that your tongue is on fire. That’s from the bubbles, and I could see why they want it more carbonized for drinking it and then the taste will soon turn into a slight burn.

Another thing they are using to get their liability of a bad taste, into a positive issue, is appealing to a younger crowd. In the show and movies of Jackass, every beer you see them drink is miller high life. Is this a coincidence? I think not because I’m almost certain that they’re being endorsed by Miller. Also there aren’t many older people watching, it’s all pretty much the younger generations tuning in to see their crazy antics. And with appealing to younger audiences, the taste of the beer doesn’t really have that big of a role because younger beer drinkers don’t have that sophisticated of a palette because they haven’t experienced that much as far as tasting different beers.

Older people on the other hand are a different story with beer. Consumer loyalty is a key factor in beer choice. Let’s take my grandparents as an example. Every time I see them with a beer in their hand, they’re either drinking McMasters whiskey, or Milwaukee’s Best Light. For 20 years, that’s a lot of the same brand of beer, and I can name numerous people that stick to their favorite beer and that’s all that they drink. I think it somewhat has to do with the status of every beer. It’s kind of like a car, different brands relate to your social status. Like let’s take Chevrolet, they’re the backbone of America because, the buyer likes a good quality vehicle, but it’s not going to break the bank. I would consider them more upper middle class. The beer that they drink is probable either Miller Lite or Bud Lite. These beers have a lot of taste, but yet a case of it isn’t very expensive compared to other beers.

Miller High Life uses a lot of twists and bends in their advertisement by using they’re flaw into their strength. Funny commercials and the slogan of the beer is what got me hooked. In a lot of rap songs you hear about popping bottles of champagne, well I can’t afford champagne, so I just figure the next best thing is the champagne of beers. I will admit their advertisement has gotten me hooked, So I would consider it as being successful.