Though there’s still plenty of room to engage in small indulgences, consumers are continuing to live much more simplistic life-styles in current economic times. Savvy marketers have caught onto this shift in consumer mind-set toward simpler lives, and simplicity and subtlety even are extending to package design.
One well-known brand that has joined the bandwagon is Miller High Life. A Marketing Daily report says the beer’s formula hasn’t changed, but its positioning has. Miller High Life has become well known in TV commercials as the “common sense” brand, and that theme is extending to the packaging.
A redesign has Miller High Life sporting cartons with a cleaner look to focus on the brand’s classic cues: the red-and-white “soft cross” logo and a single beer bottle silhouetted against a gold background to reinforce Miller High Life’s longstanding “Champagne of Beers” tagline.
The redesign does a better job of positioning the Miller High Life as a value brand and a life-style choice, with subtle changes such as enlarging the type on the words High Life. The brand is courting the value shopper, and these changes support the brand’s advertising spots and collateral materials in a holistic marketing strategy.
