Mountain Man Brewing Company Case Memo
To: Oscar Prangel
From: Chris Prangel
Subject: Mountain Man Brewing Company- Bringing the Brand to Light
Date: 9/1/2020
The primary challenge that you face is determining how to introduce a light beer into your existing
product line, along with altering the brand image to focus on the new generation of beer drinkers,
without diluting the company’s brand equity, as the company starts to alienate themselves from their
current customer base of blue collar, middle class men over the age of 45. If you continue to only focus
on your current customer base, you may start to experience a shortage of that customer pool. If you can
work on the advertising and brand image for this new demographic, as well as maintaining the original
brand equity, you may be able to overcome this hurdle and succeed in the new market.
You need to implement this new product line to expand your customer pool and gain more market
share within the growing light beer category, that is taking over the lager market. In addition, there are
greater health concerns around young people and the older generation of drinkers are starting to care
more about their health. With the introduction to a light beer, the company will not only be reaching
younger consumers, but also may reach females, first time drinkers, and more professionals. This in tail
can help expand where the product can be sold. Gaining more presence with distributors and retailers,
which would also transition to restaurants and bars to reach the younger crowd. The risk you face in
expanding your product line to include the light beer is that it could distance your main customers who
enjoy the bitter taste of the Lager and tear away at the brand value, which has been established from
focusing on one product all this time. Another drawback is the increased competition due to larger
national brands that target the same demographics. Although there is a new generation of young beer
drinkers, these drinkers are sometimes not loyal to any brand (“First– time Drinker Demographic”) and
will pick the more mainstream brand. If you can reach this new target market, it will speak volumes of