• Wall Street Journal, Beer Business Daily, Friday, March 20, 2009 11:16 AM

A new $100 million Miller Lite campaign aimed at grabbing market share from top-selling Bud Light returns to an old theme: "Tastes Great." Although some of the new TV, radio and Internet ads have appeared in recent weeks, MillerCoors offered a first look at the rest of the campaign to more than 3,000 distributors and employees at its national sales conference in Las Vegas yesterday, David Kesmodel reports.

Miller Lite has posted steady sales declines in recent years; in the fourth quarter, sales from distributors to retailers were down 7.5% from a year earlier by volume. One problem is that it has bounced from one ad strategy to another. "The brand has lacked a clear identity for so long," says Harry Schuhmacher, publisher of Beer Business Daily. "They just haven't been able to find its voice."

MillerCoors says it now will build and convey a consistent and straightforward message about the brand that's built around taste. In a new twist on the "Tastes Great" theme, MillerCoors is rolling out ads that herald its "triple hops" brewing process. Its new "taste protector" cans will also tout the process.

Read the whole story at Wall Street Journal, Beer Business Daily »