Narragansett Brewing Company Case Summary

Facts: Matt Theurer was an 18 year old adult that worked at McDonald’s part time. His friends and family worried about him because he had many extra-curricular activities, worked for the National Guard, and worked for McDonalds. McDonald’s informal policy did not allow high school students to work more than one midnight shift per week or split shifts. There was a special clean-up week McDonald’s held, Theurer worked five nights. One night he worked until midnight, another until 11:30pm, two nights until 9pm, and another until 11pm. On Monday, April 4th, 1988, Theurer worked from 3:30 until 7:30pm, followed by the clean up shift beginning at midnight

The next project was bottling Gordon Biersch signature beer and retailing it. This had three biggest challenges: this project was entirely Gordon’s baby and demanded time and attention; secondly the freshness of the bottled beer versus the freshly brewed was an issue for which they decided the beer would have a shelf life no longer than three months. Thirdly and the most exciting challenge was the head-to-head competition with other microbreweries and premium beers. Despite the tough competitive environment, Gordon Biersch aimed to achieve 11% of the market in three years (by 1996). This retail venture required huge investment, thus they decided to start small to prove to the investors that they could pull it off.

One of the weaknesses to distributing Coors beer in the two counties is the competition of other domestic and microbrew beers. Although the consumer and retailer willingness to buy Coors beer is high, will they actually purchase Coors beer when it becomes available to them? The questionnaires have strong feedback for Coors beer in the Delaware counties but people may become biased by their customer loyalty to other beer brand. There is a big enough marker share for Coors to be implemented, but will Brownlow be able to succeed in this competitive industry.

Even though their shipping costs were twice the industry’s, average shipping costs would have been much more had they attempted to enter other states. Besides, Coors made up for the inefficiency with the scale of their plant, the largest in the nation. The location lent itself well to Coors’ ability to differentiate its product. For example Coors was brewed using “pure Rocky Mountain spring water.” Coors had a great opportunity to serve an underserved geographical market. Seven of 24 million barrels sold in the region had to be imported from production facilities outside of the region, and Coors’ Colorado facility was more central to the area than the three other closest facilities in Missouri, Texas, and Wisconsin. Coors had the second lowest production cost per barrel in the industry, in spite of their claim of the most expensive raw material costs. Their cost advantage stemmed from the industry’s highest capacity utilization, economies of scale through the country’s largest brewery, single product focus, and the industry’s fastest packaging lines. Matching their low production cost was the lowest advertising cost relative to the industry. The mystique that had been built up about Coors and their differentiating, all-natural appeal allowed them to get away with lower advertising costs than average for the industry. Coors differentiated their product, both in the

The Boston Beer Company, Inc., founded in 1984, is a leading brewer in United States, offering wide variety of high quality full-flavored, handcraftedbeers. It is distinctive due to the time-honored recipe of brewing and authentic, consistent quality of alcoholic beverages. Samuel Adams Boston Lager is the pride of BBC, regular handcrafted beer “stands for quality, inner self-worth, authenticity, and unique New England or Yankee toughness” ( Martin Roper, Chief Operating Officer). Unfortunately, the company experienced the failure of conquering light beer segment

What this means is that their “facilities are organized around a product […]; they have long, continuous process” (Heizer, Render and Munson, p.284). The process is in continuous motion. Anheuser-Busch has a demand and a need to be continuous because they require high volume; “Budweiser and Bud Light, the company’s beers lead numerous beer segments and combined hold 46.4 percent share of the U.S. beer market” (About, n.d.). That is almost half of the entire beer industry is dependent on them. Anheuser-Busch have low variety- although this company has what can be seemingly a variety of products, there are very minimal changes other than slight changes to the recipe that differentiate each family of beers (National Geographic, 4:25, 2011). Meaning that the process is the same the ingredients are what differ. According to the text, “That is to be expected as the attributes change” (Showghi, slide 4,2016). It is still the same product in the end. Because they are producing only beer, they have high fixed costs and low variable cost, they are not making any drastic changes to their product keeping the input the same. Less skilled labor is not part of the equation in this instance; breweries are looking for people with high skills in

New Belgium brewery has increasingly grew throughout the years since their development in 1991. Despite the dominance of the “Big Three” (Budweiser, Miller, and Coors), NBB needs to be aggressive and strive to invest in the attractive beer industry in able to grow more. If positioned correctly, NBB and its main brand, Fat Tire, can continually grow. An evaluation of the industry, the business itself, its brands, and the customers and competitors is needed in order to be continuously successful.

One of the Nation’s third-largest craft breweries, based out of Colorado, New Belgium Brewing Company, Inc. (the Company). The Company was founded in 1991, a privately held corporation. Its first operation started off in the basement of Jeff Lebesch (founder). The Company prides itself on its branding strategies “triple bottom line” and social responsibility which focuses on economic, social, and environmental factors. New Belgium’s marketing strategy links the Company’s viewpoint to the quality of its products. The Company continues to support the community, giving back & advocating positive change. However for continued success, New Belgium has to continually analysis its situation in the marketplace,

Brand plays a key role in the beer-purchasing process, along with taste, price, special occasion,

The Adolph Coors Case Study proved the dedication and self-reliance Coors brings to the beer industry. Having overcome great adversity by surviving the prohibition years, Coors durability and sustainability are also complimentary points on the structure of the company. Coors is a family owned company that had humble beginnings in Colorado and within 100 years grew into a multimillion-dollar company. Coors’ controlled manufacturing process is a sign of their individuality in the beer industry, this was not an unknown fact, however, as they were receiving orders to ship Coors beer all across the nation as of 1972. The case study allowed an internal and external point of view, which was highly beneficial to properly analyze their upcoming problem within the company.

Boston Beer’s strategy is primarily focused on growth through differentiation. The sources of its competitive advantage can be classified as a company that provides high quality beer with unique flavors, a market driven approach, and a very efficient contract brewing strategy.

     The brewing industry was once held to competition among many breweries in small geographic areas. That was almost a century ago. The U.S. brewing industry today is characterized by the dominance of three brewers, which I will talk about in this paper. There are many factors today that make the beer industry an oligopoly. Such factors include various advancements in technology (packaging, shipping and production), takeovers and mergers, economies of scale, barriers to entry, high concentration, and many other factors that I will cover in this paper. Over the course of the paper I will try to define an oligopoly, give a brief history of the brewing industry, and finally to show how the brewing industry today is an

Within the craft beer market, consumers have many products to chose. A product is anything offered within a market that which fulfills a want or need (Armstrong & Kotler, 2015). In 2012, over 1,750 breweries operated in the United States (U.S.), with over 1,920 the following year (Brewers,

Strengths:The largest producer; Improved productivity; strategic with foreign producers; Two independent distribution Weaknesses:Low volume of sales of nonbeer products; Antitrust restrictionOpportunities:Positive volume growth of beer sales; New and attractive market Threats:Rising foreign firms’ competition; Tariffs elimination; Rising imported ingredients cost

Boston Beer Company (BBC) has enjoyed much success with their craft beers with Samuel Adams as their main focus. Being the leader of this segment, overtopping five of their competitors combined (Exhibit 1), the company now must decide how to take advantage of the light beer market. Boston Lightship, their current light beer, had been a small contributor in BBC’s product line. Currently, it is facing dwindling sales with product volumes down from 12 000 cases per month to 3000 cases per month.