Welcome, Guest [Sign In]

July 2007 - Strategy Magazine
Biz

Change is brewing
The time to change is actually when you're successful, says Molson's Kevin Boyce

by Mary Dickie
page 13

What if you're at the helm of an organization that not only has very deep roots, as the

second-oldest company in Canada and the oldest brewery in North America, but is also the Canadian market leader with $2 billion in annual sales?

What if it's also part-owner of The Beer Store, which has a virtual monopoly on beer sales in Ontario, and the Montreal Canadiens, arguably the most hallowed team in the most hallowed sport in the land?

What if your biggest brand has been inextricably linked with patriotism and hockey and all things Canadian ever since the legendary "I Am Canadian" campaign launched in 2000?

What if you already dominate the expanding light beer market?

When you're that hot, what do you do next?

If you're Kevin Boyce, president/CEO of Molson Canada, you get cold. Very cold.

The company recently launched a new beer dispensing unit (BDU) for its Molson Canadian and Coors Light brands called Sub Zero, which serves up draft that's actually colder than freezing. As well, it's unveiling new cans for Coors Light, on which thermochromatic ink turns blue when the beer reaches optimal drinking temperature. It's all part of a back-to-basics strategy to suggest cold refreshment.

"Sometimes it's the simplest things," Boyce says. "In North America it's always been about cold beer. So this direction is not something that's super-intuitive, but we're taking it and using it in a way that's compelling to consumers."

Not surprisingly, Sub Zero, with its enticing frost-covered pipes, is already a hit in its initial installations at 500 bars and restaurants, including Boston Pizza and Shoeless Joe's outlets. "We're seeing anything from a 15% to 20% improvement in through-puts relative to those outlets that don't have it," says Molson Canada's chief commercial officer, Mark Hunter. "At the same time, it's building real conversational currency. People are sitting at the bar talking about draft beer again."

Still, there's more on the agenda for Boyce and Hunter than chilling their product. They've responded to the challenges of keeping Molson Canada - a division of Molson-Coors, the fifth-largest brewer in the world - number one in a complicated market that includes differing provincial regulations and tastes, international competition and health and social pressures by making some key marketing decisions.

"We have a pretty complex portfolio of 88 brands," explains Hunter, who joined the company in 2005, after the merger with Coors. "One of the first jobs was to be clear on the part that was really meaningful for us - not only for today, but for tomorrow. We've called out 12 trademarks to focus on, and they cover all of the segments in the marketplace, from super premium through to the value segment. Those brands receive 100% of our investment, and by the end of this year they'll account for about 85% of our volume. And they're growing at about three times the rate of the market. So we're really focused on a small group of sustainable long-term brands, and the trick is to make sure that they're growing quickly enough to offset the decline on the others.

Quick Search