• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, May 5, 2010

The beer's the same, but the look of Miller High Life's bottles/cans and cartons is now a bit different.

MillerCoors is debuting "cleaner, more streamlined" designs for the brand's primary and secondary packaging, starting with products hitting store shelves this month.

While High Life's red-and-white, "soft cross" logo is unchanged, the cartons' front panels now feature a considerably sized-down version, along with an image of a just one bottle, rather than two. Both images are silhouetted against a simple gold background that subtly reinforces High Life's iconic "Champagne of Beers" tagline. The brand's traditional "Girl in the Moon" logo, brought back in recent times, is also spotlighted, but on the carton's side panels.

As for the bottles/cans, while MillerCoors' announcement doesn't call this out, close inspection of the old and new labels appears to show that the word "Miller" has been downsized a tad, while the words "High Life" have been upsized a bit.

Miller High Life, for many years a premium-priced (equivalent to Budweiser and Miller Lite) brand, was repositioned as a lower-priced brand after a sustained period of sales declines, and has in recent times -- particularly since the recession began -- enjoying growing sales.

MillerCoors, a joint venture of SABMiller plc and Molson Coors Brewing Company, has built on that momentum with its Saatchi & Saatchi-created advertising campaigns positioning the beer as the unpretentious, "common sense" brand. That image has been successfully conveyed via the no-nonsense observations of the ads' popular "deliveryman" character (actor Windell Middlebrooks).

"We aren't adding any new bells and whistles; we're simply bringing a consistent brand character to the entire Miller High Life family with a cleaner, crisper look we believe our consumers will appreciate," said brand manager Joe Abegg, commenting on the refreshed designs.