USA: SABMiller unveils new image at Oscars

SABMiller used on March 4 night TV screening of the Academy Awards Oscars film ceremony for the first relaunch of a "full carb" beer since the demise of the low carbohydrate Atkins diet two years ago, Financial Times News posted on March 5.

The promotion of MGD beer, the second largest US beer brand in SABMiller's portfolio, is an attempt to breathe new life into standard lager beer in the US after the low carb trend prompted the creation of light beers that now account for half of all beers sold.

The effort is also an important relaunch for the London-listed brewer in the US since the acquisition of Miller Brewing of Milwaukee in 2002. SABMiller is trying to maintain Miller's market share in the face of stiff competition from market leader Anheuser-Busch. The larger brewer has aggressively discounted to rebuild market share.

SABMiller's strategy has been to attempt to alter consumer perceptions that its beers are bland, mass-produced products that are barely differentiated from the beers made by its larger rival.

Younger drinkers, a key market for brewers, also have been defecting from mass-produced beers to wines and spirits.

SABMiller is investing $40m behind the re-launch of MGD, which accounts for over 15 per cent of its beer sales. Sales of MGD, as well as of Anheuser's Budweiser beer, have fallen consistently since 1999, with MGD sales off almost 9 per cent last year.

However Norman Adami, SABMiller's chief executive in the US, said the company believed that it could "turn the brand around if we can effectively bring to life a positioning that is distinctive from other beers?…?and move with conviction until it's fixed".

Caroline Levy, beverage analyst at UBS, said Miller was the first of the "big three" domestic brewers to address volume declines in non low-carb beers. "If Miller can turn around the brand, or reduce volume declines, it would support our view that some of the weakness in domestic full calorie stems from insufficient of ineffective marketing," she said.

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