'Super' Sameness

In the beer aisle this Super Bowl season, you couldn't tell the players without a coupon booklet.Long before any of those $2.6 million TV commercials hit the airwaves on Feb. 4, rival beer companies were pre-gaming for Super Bowl XLI with display programs and in-store promotions.This year, however, being unique apparently lost out to proven success, as Anheuser-Busch, Miller Brewing Co. and Coors Brewing Co. all worked from the same playbook. Each beermaker lined up multiple promotional partners for merchandising-friendly campaigns delivering game-related booklets of coupons, recipes and entertaining tips.U.S. spending on Super Bowl-related merchandise -- food and beverages to stock the parties, TVs on which to watch the game, apparel to help fans root for their teams -- was expected to reach $8.7 billion in 2007, according to BIGresearch, Worthington, OH. The average consumer planned to spend $56.04 (although men were expected to outspend women by nearly $30).So as football fans geared up for the National Football League's Feb. 4 grand finale -- the most-watched TV event annually, with an estimated 90 million viewers -- the leading three beer brands jockeyed for in-store superiority by launching extensive cross-promotional campaigns.A-B, St. Louis, renewed its 18-year-old "Bud Bowl" campaign for Budweiser and Bud Light, offering a booklet carrying coupons for partner brands KC Masterpiece, Johnsonville, Hormel, Kingsford, Hidden Valley and Emerald. Likewise, Milwaukee-based Miller celebrated the "Super Party 2007" with a booklet of coupons, game tips and recipes featuring partner brands Hillshire Farm, Jack Daniel's, Kellogg and Dean's. Coors, Golden, CO, which in theory has an edge over rivals due to its status as "official" Super Bowl sponsor (through a licensing deal with the National Football League), instead chose to imitate them by delivering a "Party Go-To Guide" offering $15 mail-in rebates on the purchase of 12-packs and $30 worth of soda, snack, deli or pizza items. The company did, however, add another dimension by including coupons for DVDs from NFL Films, Sirius satellite radios and Sprint cell phones.The strategy gave retailers plenty of opportunities to cross-merchandise multiple products in lobby spectaculars, pallet displays and case stacks. It also gave them plenty of football-themed P-O-P materials to help create a festive atmosphere. And both supermarkets and mass merchants allocated plenty of secondary merchandising space to the efforts. But the approach did little to differentiate Bud Light from Miller Lite from Coors Light in the aisles. And that may have led brand-loyal shoppers to stick with their favorite beer, and the undecided to buy simply on price.