MillerCoors Makes Beer for Millennials, Fails

If their sensationalist portrayals in the media are to be believed, millennials are a gang of recent college graduates who primarily post selfies of them Juuling inside their houses made of avocado toast, taking occasional breaks to kill off various industries and products. We’re so successful at it, in fact, that sometimes we can even kill off products that are specifically designed to try and curry our favor.

At least that’s what happened with Two Hats. What’s that, you ask? Not some ingenious product that offers the chance to wear multiple baseball caps at the same time, but a MillerCoors beer aimed specifically at millennial drinkers. Launched less than a year ago, a recent announcement from the brewing conglomerate decreed that the flavored light beer would cease to be by early 2019. It sounds like they’ll be shifting their money to the promotion of old standby Coors Light instead.

So how the hell does a company manage to fail at selling alcohol to a demographic that hasn’t even hit their mid-20’s yet? Part of the blame rests with MillerCoors for bungling the launch. I’m a pretty regular beer drinker not too far outside of Two Hats’ 21-24 target demographic (or at least that’s what I tell myself), and I’ve never heard of or seen this beer, let alone drink it. Did they not put enough marketing dollars and distribution efforts behind Two Hats, or did its lime and pineapple flavors just not taste good enough to encourage repeat purchases?

Then, of course, there’s the broader shift away from beer and into a broader selection of alcohol options for young drinkers. Whereas beer was once nearly synonymous with younger drinker, everything from spiked seltzer to rose to aperol spritzes have emerged as trendy alternatives. With MolsonCoors posting declining second quarter volume and profit numbers, it could simply be a case of millennial beer money flowing elsewhere.

So pour one out for Two Hats. Or don’t. It wasn’t the first botched attempt to get this coveted demographic to drink more macrobrews, and it won’t be the last. In the meantime, there are more than enough ways to get “lit”, assuming that’s still a thing the kids are saying.