If at first you don’t succeed…Add fruit to it? This past week MillerCoors LLC announced a new summer beer to be available from May through Labor Day. The beer will be a variation of their Miller Genuine Draft 64, infused with lemon.

According to the Chief Marketing Officer for Chicago Based MillerCoors, Andy England, the beer is an attempt to tap in to the “Growing consumer interest in flavored beers.”

We’ll assume that by “flavored beers” they mean the growing craft beer industry in America (and try not to be insulted), which may or may not have anything to do with the company’s shipments to distributors declining by 3.4% last year.

According to reports from SABMiller (MillerCoors parent company), many of the company’s light beers declined in sales, including; Miller Lite, Keystone, Miller High Life and Milwaukee’s best. Though other non-light company owned brands; Blue Moon, Peroni and Leinenkugel saw increased sales. Hmm…

The beer in question that will get “flavored” with lemon, MGD 64, saw increased sales in its first year, but has since declined in its short three year run. This could possibly be due to the release of a similar beer by Annheuser-Busch (Bud Select 55) shortly after. Or possibly because after buying it once, people realized that they could get better taste and the same amount of alcohol from the tap in their kitchen sink...

Either way, the company‘s response to declining light beer sales is by introducing MGD 64 Lemon later this year. MillerCoors also released a similar beer “Miller Chill” a couple years ago, which again saw sales wean after the release of Bud Light Lime the next year by rival Annheuser-Busch.

Doesn’t make much sense? Well neither did their “Man Law” marketing campaign a few years back against putting fruit in beer, a law which they have now explicitly violated. I can’t wait to see what kind of punishment they will face at the Man Law Tribunals as soon as Chuck Norris, Dolph Longren, and the Old Spice Guy can clear their schedules to hear the case.

01.31.11