Miller, Coors can't fight over light; Brewers must cooperate to cannibalize A-B's Bud rather than each other.(News)(Miller Brewing Co.)(Coors Brewing Co.)(Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.)

Advertising Age, October, 2007 by Mullman, Jeremy

Byline: JEREMY MULLMAN

The pairing of Miller Lite and Coors Light could create a duo dynamic enough to take down Bud Light. But it could just as well break down into a sibling rivalry that damages one brand, if not both.

The announcement last week of a U.S. joint venture between Miller Brewing Co. and Coors Brewing Co. creates a spending powerhouse of $330 million that is likely to create a major challenge to No. 1 brewer Anheuser-Busch and its $417 million budget. But it also creates a marketing conundrum for the newly merged MillerCoors entity: how best to deploy its two fiercely competitive premium light lagers against A-B's Bud Light.

While MillerCoors CEO Leo Kiely described the current positioning of Miller Lite ("more taste, less...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.