Miller High Life bills itself as the “Champagne of Bottled Beers.” So it figures that one of its packages would be a champagne-sized bottle, which the MillerCoors brand offered last holiday season.
“The attention our distinctive Champagne bottle commands not only is a great marketing tool to boost brand equity, but it gets the Champagne of Beers into more holiday moments,” says Nigel Jones, marketing manager for the Miller family of brands.
Last year the bottles boosted the brand’s overall sales results in bars, restaurants, grocers and liquor stores across the country. Retailers that sold the Miller High Life Champagne bottles in 2018 reported a 4.9 percentage point lift in dollar sales versus stores that did not, with volume trends up in both on- and off-premise channels, Jones says.
Redesigned for 2019, the collectible bottles are in their fourth year. They debuted in Chicago in 2016 and rolled out for a two-market test in Chicago and Milwaukee in 2017 before going broadly last year. With necks wrapped in gold-foil sealed the Girl in the Moon logo, the heavy-gauge bottles have a long, narrow neck and broad shoulders embossed with “The Champagne of Beers” in raised glass letters. The primary badge on this year’s version is more reminiscent of Miller High Life 12-ounce bottles with a slight diagonal orientation framed in gold and green.
The bottles have helped the brand elbow its way into more floor displays, with the 25.4-ounce bottles flanking displays of 12-packs of 12-ounce bottles, the brand’s top-selling pack.