Molson Coors merges marketing and sales to form “united front” for consumers

Molson Coors has merged its sales and marketing team to produce an in-house division called Brew + Press in a bid to “form a united front” to consumers and increase cut-through by placing a bigger focus on experiential.

The brewer, which owns brands such as Carling, Cobra and Rekorderlig UK, says it formed the new division in a bid to stop the current decline in the ‘on-premise’ sector, which includes bars and restaurants. It hopes that a focus on casual dining and experiential marketing will reverse this trend.

Martin Coyle, Molson Coors’ marketing director for the UK and Ireland, told Marketing Week: “We wanted to take a startup mentality to enable these [marketing and sales] teams to work together cohesively. It’s about making sure that these units are as one in front of the consumer. It aims to drive consumer awareness and appeal while also servicing the customer.

“There is a growing appetite among consumers to learn more about beer, cider and spirits, as well as for experiences and learning about the brands themselves. Brew + Press intends to go after that market opportunity and talk to the consumer in the way they want to be spoken to.”

The team’s tactics are two-fold. Besides educating bar staff on its brands, Molson Coors is also creating large-scale experiences by pooling different brands together. For example, one experience saw consumers able to taste different beers in the dark. It is now planning “a whole calendar of events” over the next 12 months.

Coyle believes the division will have a lasting impact on consumers as the experiences will lead to “cut-through in a saturated market”, while offering the business an “effective route to market”, enabling it to trial innovations.

“The team can have an active dialogue with the consumer and amend new product development as we go.”

Martin Coyle, marketing director for the UK and Ireland, Molson Coors

“The beer, spirits and cider category is proliferated so we need something different [like experiences] to keep consumers engaged,” he explained.

Molson Coors says it is taking a “very patient approach” with the division, admitting that it won’t see any results until three years from now. However, Coyle would love for the team “to appear in other markets”.

He concluded: “In terms of results, it’d be great to think we could launch new products through the team and they would stick in the market. While the team is London-focused for now, we would love for [the model] to appear in others markets and become the norm in terms of brand building and servicing customers.”