Chris's Decision

Chris looked at some revenue and net profit projections he had developed to $2010$ assuming that Mountain Man Lager lost $2\%$ of its revenue base annually. He felt a knot in his stomach as he pondered the "status quo" strategy. He then examined the financial projections he had done a few weeks prior for the Mountain Man Light launch, which showed regional revenue growth of the light beer product at $4\%$ annually and Mountain Man steadily growing its share of the regional light beer market by a quarter of a percent each year off of a $2006$ base market share of $0\mathrm{.}25\%{?}^6$

However, before presenting a formal plan to launch Mountain Man Light to his father, Chris needed to think further, strategically and tactically, about marketing and distribution to a new customer segment. How would he address his father's concern that targeting this segment would alienate existing Mountain Man customers and erode core brand equity? What about his father's belief that the Mountain Man brand would never capture the same loyalty among younger beer drinkers that it had from blue$-$collar workers? Since MMBC$.$did not have the resources to match the marketing efforts of the large, national, light beer brewers, Chris wondered how he would argue that Mountain Man could compete against deep$-$pocketed competitors for the segment. Was he overly optimistic in his projections of the percentage of the light beer market that Mountain Man Light could capture?

Chris thought back on what his father had recently said to him, "Chris, I try to keep in mind all the other regional breweries that have vanished over the past $30$ or $40$ years$-$Neuweiler, Horlacher, dozens and dozens of them $-$ all gone. I've watched the giants in this business taken down by fatal decisions made at the top that irreversibly damaged the brand. In the $\text{'}50$s$,$ Schlitz sold more barrels than any other brewer. You can't buy a Schlitz beer today. Mountain Man is still standing because we manufacture an exceptional beer with a great brand name, we've never lost sight of our core customer, and we've never been seduced by the other guy's market." Chris valued his father's words and he did not want to be the one to lead Mountain Man down the path to oblivion; however, Mountain Man's revenues were down, and Chris needed to help his father secure the company's future. He wondered if he was missing something or maybe if there were other options he needed to consider. The knot in his stomach tightened again. This was West Virginia's beer. It was the Prangel family beer. It was Chris's legacy staring him in the face.Pros and cons for this