Reviving A Sixties Icon: Schlitz, The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous Is Back.

I’m from Milwaukee, so I oughta know . . .   Oops.  That jingle actually belongs to Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, not Schlitz.   But these days, who knows?  The Pabst Brewing Company now owns Schlitz.  The company is bringing back the Schlitz  “Classic 1960’s Formula”, which was last widely used more than 30 years ago.

Target for the icon is guys who remember the sixties fondly, recalling it as an era when ‘values mattered.’ Aside from tapping into the original recipe, this revived brew also brings back the famous “Brown Glass” dating back to 1912 and revolutionary in its time, plus old-school attitude. New advertising suggests that drinkers go back to a time when “the cars were cooler, the athletes didn’t cheat, and the beer was better.” Check it all out on the new website.

This ‘more full bodied taste’ brew, once beloved by everybody’s Packer-Backer grandfather, will be officially launched Tuesday in Milwaukee at Libiamo’s.  The restaurant is in the heart of Schlitz Park, the office park created out of the old Schlitz brewery.

Questions remain about the comeback: Can an old brand be dusted off, spiffed up for a new era and given a second chance? Can it successfully emerge from a long sleepy 30 year hibernation? Typically, when these retro-brandings have been accomplished, marketers go after a new target — rather than merely try to re-up the old one. Think VW’s rebirth of sentimental cult favorite, the Beetle, which relaunched in the late 90’s. Think Apple, which has reinvented itself repeatedly. Think another Milwaukee icon and comeback company, Harley Davidson, which also touts a unique heritage and a rabidly loyal fan base, including a solid 75% of customers with a penchant for repeat purchases. But the company never bet solely on its existing users, no matter how its HOGs grew, nor by standing still in terms of product development. Instead, Harley rebuilt its brands by letting them evolve; by creating products based on heritage but adding new contemporary twists aimed at being more compelling and relevant to a modern audience.

Harley also smartly used one of the primary attributes of any fan base, particularly a cult favorite like the Harley Owners Group: their love of talking about the Harley experience. Long before we marketers blithely began tossing around jargon –customer experience, experiential marketing, meaningful marketing –Harley was encouraging word-of-mouth. It worked.

Does anybody know if Pabst/Schlitz is working on a WOM campaign or using social marketing tools to reach potential new users? Hope so –because targeting just guys who remember the sixties might be a touch dicey. As they say, ‘if you can remember the sixties, you probably weren’t there.’