Mass customization is an effective way to solidify brand loyalty, and Miller Brewing Co. offers a novel idea in the beer aisle.

Soul Critic, a flavored malt beverage, is quenching thirsts throughout Mexico with a twist in beverage packaging. A distinctive triple label maximizes visual appeal in convenience stores throughout the country.

During the past baseball season in the Caribbean, the Presidente brand in the Dominican Republic conducted a Viva la Pelota!, or Hurrah Baseball!, campaign for its beer in 12-oz glass bottles with promotional sleeve labels. Presidente Regular featured sleeves printed with images of a ball and bat, and Light featured sleeves showing a jersey and bat.

Overall flat consumption and ever-increasing competitive pressures in the U.S. beer industry have driven the market leaders to rely more on packaging as a tool to boost sales.

Consumers strongly prefer glass for beer and liquor. The ‘cold threshold’ makes plastic ideal for water but not for beer. Soda lovers are divided on packaging choice.

Waiting for the right time to launch a product in packaging that’s popular elsewhere can give a new-product introduction an added marketing boost. Foster’s Group Ltd. followed this thinking in expanding the reach of its Crown Lager brand in Australia.

    Foster’s joined beverage marketers in North America who’ve shifted their brands—from beer to energy drinks—to aluminum bottles. But Foster’s waited to launch its Crown Lager in an aluminum bottle until the time when marketing impact could be maximized—with a “premium” package that befits the joy of holiday celebrations.

Waiting for the right time to launch a product in packaging that’s popular elsewhere can give a new-product introduction an added marketing boost. Foster’s Group Ltd. followed this thinking in expanding the reach of its Crown Lager brand in Australia.

    Foster’s joined beverage marketers in North America who’ve shifted their brands—from beer to energy drinks—to aluminum bottles. But Foster’s waited to launch its Crown Lager in an aluminum bottle until the time when marketing impact could be maximized—with a “premium” package that befits the joy of holiday celebrations.

What could prompt beer lovers to stand in line to pay $13 for a six-pack of beer, twice the typical retail price for microbrewed beers? For Houston-based microbrewery Saint Arnold Brewing Co., the answer is limited batches of different microbrews, in packaging that communicates the beer’s limited availability as well as its super-premium quality.

The first microbrew, marketed under the Saint Arnold Divine Reserve brand, is an American barley wine. The brewery produced 327 cases of the brew under the sub-brand Saint Arnold Divine Reserve No. 1. The entire stock sold out in 15 minutes at select retail outlets in major Texas cities.

When good beer comes in great packaging, as is the case with Labatt Blue in the Cool2Go™ shrink label technology from DuPont, it’s just a wonderful thing.

While I typically opt to ramble in this column about aesthetics, functionality, or structure, this month I traveled the technology pure-play route and went for the “whoa” factor rather than the “wow” factor.

I say “whoa” because for the beer-swigging consumer at large, it’ll take a few seconds to drink in and tie together the graphic triad of “The Cold One,” the Cool2Go icon, and the quarter-sized thermal barrier graphic to grasp the whole story at point-of-purchase. When the realization registers that through some miracle of material science, beer in this can will stay cold longer, it then becomes a “whoa, that's cool” moment and—bingo—into the shopping cart!

Anheuser-Busch Cos. is among a wave of alcohol marketers who are courting a new generation of consumers with atypical packaging for their products. A-B is serving up 16-oz aluminum bottles of Budweiser beer to national markets.

The premium packaging initially targets upscale bars and clubs in major U.S. metropolitan areas.

The aluminum bottles, from Exal USA, offer shelf “pop” as well as quick-cooling properties. Exal’s “coil-to-can” process enables high-quality graphics.

Crown Cork & Seal supplies the metal crown closures.

Links: Exal USA
Crown Cork & Seal Co. Inc.

Widmer Brothers Brewing Co., Portland, OR, reflects the richness of its 2004/2005 milk stout, SnowPlow, through primary and secondary packaging.

The custom bottle features a longer neck and a taller profile. The bottle label and six-pack paperboard carrier provide the seasonal spin that visually separates the brand from the brewer’s main core line.

Widmer’s beer brands all carry a “belt-and-buckle” design on bottle labels and carrier packs, and a rounded-edge-box logo featuring a prominent letter “W”. SnowPlow’s color scheme represents how Widmer retains central design components while differentiating subbrands through color.

The aluminum bottle has improved sales in energy drinks. Pittsburgh Brewing Co. (PBC), Pittsburgh, extends the aluminum bottle into beer, with longneck 12-oz bottles of its Iron City brand. The bottles are dry-offset printed in three colors plus gloss varnish.

PBC’s objective is a package that can compete against the glass bottles of import lagers. CCL Container produces the bottle using aluminum from Alcoa.

PBC believes aluminum bottles will boost beer sales. It has reduced margins on a case to sell for just $1 more than 24-packs of glass bottles. Yet, the aluminum bottle is 2.5 times more expensive than glass.

Links: CCL Container
Alcoa Rigid Packaging

The right package structure can help build incremental sales opportunities for a product when brand managers know how consumers use their product and they leverage that knowledge in creating new “touchpoints” with consumers.

The best packages consider needs throughout the value chain, and Pittsburgh Brewing Co.’s “Rack Pack” is a recent example of another package that succeeds. An innovative plastic-ring carrier allows a dozen 12-oz beverage cans to be joined together by one ring in a 2x6 configuration.

The ring, from ITW Hi-Cone, is made of a proprietary blend that includes low-density polyethylene. Previously, carrier rings held six cans in a 2x3 arrangement.