In honor of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 2020 Stanley Cup victory, Budweiser has announced it will produce a limited-release run of “Bud Lightning” bottles to be sold in the Tampa Bay area later this year. Budweiser has a history of producing cans and bottles that support local sports teams. In 2017, they produced customized cans for Major League Baseball teams. In 2019, the produced Bud Light cans with NFL and college football teams’ logos.
These and other packaging innovations are common in the beverage industry. Beer companies regularly change the decoration and design of their cans and bottles. Coors Light’s labels change colors when the beer is cold. Miller experimented with a “vortex” bottle that had grooves in the bottle’s neck to swirl the beer as it came out of the bottle.
Non-alcoholic beverage companies also use label changes to draw attention to their product. Coca-Cola launched their “Share a Coke” campaign in the United States in 2014, in which they printed the most common American names on their 20-ounce bottles and encouraged consumers to pick a bottle with a name that was meaningful to them and share the experience on social media. This campaign became so popular it was repeated multiple years, and the list of names expanded from 250 to 1000.
Discussion Questions
- Changing labels is a form of product differentiation in the beverage market. What are the economic benefits for firms that successfully differentiate their products?
- What type of market structure is the beverage industry? What characteristics define this type of market?
- What are other methods of product differentiation beverage companies can use? Give some examples of each.
Source: WTSP: This Bud’s for you, Tampa Bay: Special edition bottles coming after Stanley Cup victory, Brewbound: Budweiser Introduces Customized MLB Team Cans, AZCentral: Bud Light NFL team cans returning, college football team cans debuting in 2019 seasons, Investopedia: Why the ‘Share a Coke’ Campaign Is So Successful