The three musketeers were one of the largest brand-successes of Germany between the end of the sixties until the 80's. The emotional substance of beer was united in one brand: Three musketeers, rough-and-ready, but chivalric chaps, companions for a lifetime. Blonde heroes, soldiers of fortune with blue blood. They embodied the attitudes of the ideal beer drinker: male, convivial, merry, adventurous and smart. In spectacularly produced happy adventures the musketeers showed that it is amusing to drink a spicy Wicküler beer after a manly joke. The finer the pils market presented itself the better the musketeers rode to match it: "After a long days ride" was the spirit, in which the musketeers would convincingly portray the zeitgeist of the day: adventures and maleness find the reward of their daily deeds.
Philosophy
The agency did not ask: What should the ideal beer taste like? But instead: What does the ideal beer drinker look like? Which is the greatest possible identification that reaches the beer drinkers spontaneously and unreservedly? The three musketeers embodied the typical beer drinker. Those who drank beer wanted to be like them and drink and have fun and adventures just like the three musketeers. Best from beer jugs such as tankards, in a tavern environment, so that the three musketeers participated in the cheerful beer event. The three musketeers were everywhere present in taverns, on beer covers, on glasses, on television and thus in each house. Even more the Wicküler airships circulated high above the sales area and brought heartful greetings from the three musketeers high above at all time of day. The brand become No 1 in a regional market for a decade.
Problem
In the end of the 60's the "pils-wave" started. As a result people drank less export beer. Instead, they drank the finer pils. Wicküler had to introduce an important operation. It had to transfer the believability of the brand onto a higher, "finer" plane to that of pils as the higher pleasure-class. The agency let its three warhorses ride an attack against the open flank of the pils offering: Against the tastelessness of pils. In Wicküler Pils is flavour! The message worked convincingly like the musketeers.
