Chad T. Vincent

Background

In 1992, Miller Brewing bought Molson USA, the US importer of Molson beers and a stable of other imported beers.  At the time, I was a brand manager at Miller in Milwaukee.  I was offered the opportunity to move to Washington DC to become the marketing director at Molson USA.  I was the only marketing person from Miller making the move. At the time, MBUSA was a $175M business

Opportunity and insights

With Jeff Carefoote, the VP of marketing at Molson, we engaged in trying to fill what we saw as an obvious hole in the market - a light version of an imported beer.  Light Beer was the dominant growth segment, and no import brand had cracked the code yet.  Imports were at the high end of the market, expensive, full flavored, and significantly lower volume and limited usage occasions.

During consumer work we were showing a number of Imported Light concepts.  When consumers saw the concept featuring Molson Light ICE, the room immediately changed. There was tangible excitement and energy.  It soon became evident that the word ICE was very powerful.  And in no way associated with light beer.  ICE brought forth imagery of purity, cold, refreshing, clean and importantly, strength.  Compounding the concept was the clear fit that this imagery was very much in line with the existing imagery of Canada and Canadian Beer.

Speed to market

Realizing the game-changing opportunity in front of us, we pivoted to capitalize on ICE and had the product in test markets in 8 weeks.  Molson Ice was a unique product at the time.  It was a higher alcohol beer, 5.6%, and we were the first major brand to place the alcohol content on the label - which was highly controversial.  We thought it was the responsible thing to do, and we did not market the beer based on higher alcohol.  But being first brought a lot of media scrutiny and attention.  We had interviews and stories run in the Wall Street Journal, and in every major newspaper in launch markets.  The product jumped off the shelves and was an immediate hit in bars.  We expanded markets as soon as we could, limited only by production capacity.

Post mortem

The ICE brand created an entirely new $billion+ category in the States, with virtually every brewer eventually launching and Ice product or two.  Molson USA revenue doubled as a result (+$175M), Molson Ice overtook Heineken as the #1 import brand in the USA.  Important for Molson and the Import category, this brand brought non-import drinkers and the holy grail of the beer business - 21 to 34 year old men - into the franchise for the first time. Ice also exposed Molson and imports to new Southern and Western markets - far away from the core Northern / Canadian-border states.  The brand team won a BRAMMY award  that year for the Best New Product of the Year across all food and beverage categories.

learning

There were several important learnings from this brand adventure. 

Flexibility.  We were chasing a great idea (Imported Light Beer), and a clear niche that had obvious potential.  In many organizations, with departments, silos and linear responsibilities, great ideas that are 'not in my area' go ignored.  Many folks at Molson thought we were crazy and missing the boat for pushing back out Light focus to immediately jump on a risky new product.  For us, at our relatively tiny size, to think we could create a new category...  having the flexibility and ability to see a big idea and make it happen is a wonderful attribute.  And a great precursor to GROWTH.

A great companion to Flexibility is Speed to Execution.  Good/fast/first is better than later/last/perfect.  It doesn't matter how good your product or service is, being the last one in is rarely a recipe for success or growth.  Unless you have significantly altered the proposition, being a late follower is a grind, costly and unproductive. 

The final lesson from Molson was Getting It Done.  To get the project out the door in 8 weeks was impossible. For all of us on the team, we worked from early morning, usually until 8-10 at night.  Saturdays & Sundays too.  It was long hours and hard work.  But it had to get done, and get done now.  No one complained, in fact it was a ton of fun.  Over the past 15 years I have hired hundreds of freshly graduated college students.  In marketing and successful business, in my experience there is often a tension around work/life balance.  I routinely worked 80 hours/week in my 20's, 30's and 40's.  I loved working, and understood that the hours were also providing me opportunities to learn and hone my craft.  I see a lot of talented folks who proclaim that they want to be the Marketing VP, or Director... but are willing to put in 38-40 hours per week.  There are choices to be made, and there's really no right or wrong answer. Only you know what is right for you.