Trying too hard to hit the number
Molson Canadian is a popular beer in Canada.
Canada became a country in 1867.
Michelob is making lots of money with a low calorie beer (Michelob Ultra) in the US.
Moosehead has launched a low calorie beer called Cracked Canoe (which apparently doesn’t taste great either)
I would have loved to have been in the brainstorm where the brand managers at Molson decided their competitive response would be Molson Canadian 67, the beer that has only 67 calories per 330ml bottle. It’s clever, I admit, but unfortunately too clever for its own good.
1. It tastes like a hybrid of spring water and lager – the flavour is not great. This is likely to be symptomatic of forcing a formula that has exactly 67 calories.
2. It can only ever be sold in 330ml bottles and cans; any other size would throw the meaning of 67 out the window
3. 67 is a very important number to Canadians – it’s a shame the brand extension was wasted on the literal calorie tie-in
Numbers are difficult to bring into a brand name. The number should mean something cardinal or ordinal (higher than something, lower than something or specific amount of something) or it should be associative with part of the brand story (for example Kronenbourg 1664 associates with the year Kronenbourg was established). The number should not try to do both… that’s when it’s too clever for its own good.
And if you only want 1/2 the alcohol and calories of a regular beer, why not do what my dad used to do? Pour half the bottle into a small glass for him, and the other half for my mom (or me if I was lucky).