Around the Net

Molson Coors Quietly Markets Blue Moon Beer

Blue Moon, a Belgian-style wheat beer, is one of the fastest-growing craft brews in the U.S. Craft brews are usually made by small companies, but Blue Moon's pedigree is Molson Coors Brewing Co., the third-largest brewer in the country.

Molson Coors won't talk in detail about its strategy for the beer. But as the beer has become more widely known, so have some of its tactics: playing down the beer's connection to its corporate parent; avoiding TV ads; using distributors that know how to sell smaller brands; and targeting key markets and accounts.

In what turned out to be a masterstroke of marketing, Keith Villa, Blue Moon's creator, decided that the company should suggest that bars serve the beer with an orange slice garnishing the rim of the glass. "When people saw a beer with an orange slice in it," says Jim Doney, president of Chicago Beverage Systems LLC, they wanted to try it.

advertisement

advertisement

Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal (subscription only) »

Next story loading loading..