This paper will discuss the marketing strategies of Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Budweiser beer and some 50 other beer products, and the Philip Morris Companies, the owners of Miller Brewing, which makes Miller beers. For this analysis to be beneficial, we must keep in mind that the data concerning strategies such as pricing does not reflect the simplistic "Bud versus Miller" but instead suggests the competition between a company that is essentially a single-brand company and a single brand within a multiple brand company. In such a situation, the challenge is slanted toward the single brand within the multiple brand company (Biehal & Sheinin, 1998).
All of Anheuser-Busch's efforts can be, and are, directed toward praising the benefits of drinking Budweiser (whether Bud light, Bud dry, Bud ice, Bud light ice and so on) while Miller's is a brand category within the giant Philip Morris operation, and as such, must compete for marketing support with several hundred food brands and tobacco products. In terms of market share, Bud controls between 47 and 52 percent of the market (depending on the system of analysis used, while Miller controls between 18 to 21 percent of the market, again with the same qualifications (Hoover's Online). In the following sections, we shall discuss the following: A) The Competitive Landscape, B) The positioning of the two beers, C) The advertising used, and D) Pricing strategies.
The beer industry is one of the world's most competitive. Those breweries that are surviving are doing so by paying daily and hourly management attention to innovation, cost control, marketing, developing new strategies and utilizing technological advancements in every step of the manufacturing process from ingredient purchasing through brewing, bottling, and distribution.
The competitive landscape of the American beer market today can be described as one in which there is heavy discounting of famous-name beers to faci...