Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • February 2021 (Revised September 2022)
  • Case
  • HBS Case Collection

White Claw: Defending Market Share as Competition Encroaches

By: Jill Avery
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:26
ShareBar

Abstract

By the end of 2019, two brands accounted for 84% of hard seltzer sales, a segment that had recently taken the U.S. beer market by storm, growing from $3 million in 2015 to over $2.7 billion by the start of the summer of 2020. White Claw was the dominant market leader with a 58% market share. Analysts were worried about fragmentation and commoditization in the category, which had grown from 10 brands in 2018 to more than 65 by 2020. This made competition in the segment increasingly fierce. How could White Claw best drive the category’s transition from niche to mainstream and how could it hold onto and/or expand its market share as the category exponentially grew? White Claw was quickly becoming the “Kleenex” of hard seltzer, so the team need to further differentiate itself from encroaching competitors. Should the team narrow the currently broad target market as competitors launched increasingly microtargeted offerings? Should they lower price as generic hard seltzers hit the market? And, how could the team best manage the White Claw brand to mitigate their chances of riding a boom-to-bust lifecycle of a fad product?

Keywords

Brand Management; Alcoholic Beverages; Beer/brewing Industry; Brand Positioning; Growth; Competitive Positioning; Consumer Products; Beverage Industry; Value Proposition; Marketing; Brands and Branding; Competition; Product Positioning; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Behavior; Consumer Products Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; United States

Citation

Avery, Jill. "White Claw: Defending Market Share as Competition Encroaches." Harvard Business School Case 521-073, February 2021. (Revised September 2022.)
  • Educators
  • Purchase

About The Author

Jill J. Avery

Marketing
→More Publications

Related Work

    • January 2022 (Revised September 2022)
    • Faculty Research

    White Claw: Defending Market Share as Competition Encroaches

    By: Jill Avery
    • February 2021 (Revised September 2022)
    • Faculty Research

    White Claw: Defending Market Share as Competition Encroaches

    By: Jill Avery
Related Work
  • White Claw: Defending Market Share as Competition Encroaches By: Jill Avery
  • White Claw: Defending Market Share as Competition Encroaches By: Jill Avery
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College