Friday, January 20, 2006
Beer as a "classy" beverage?
Yesterday I stuck with my plan of not having any beer...tonight I'm going back to David Copperfield's but in the meantime allow me to touch on a subject that has recently come up in the news.
First, go and read this CNN article: http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/19/news/companies/beer_imageoverhaul/index.htm?cnn=yes
Now, if you're a "fan" and "defender" of the macro-breweries, you might not want to read any further, because I guarantee I will not have many nice things to say about them. If you have a true passion for beer, or even if you at least view beer as more than just a simple beverage to get drunk off of, then read on!
Anheuser-Busch, the biggest beast of them all, is fronting a campaign to improve the "image" of beer. It is their analysis that they have lost market share because beer is perceived as a "lesser" beverage than wine, vodka, or whiskey.
Let me say two quick things here:
1- I agree that a totally random poll would find people rank beer below most other beverages on the "class" scale.
2- I am all for the education of consumers. People DO need to know that beer has as much variety, complexity, and food-friendliness as wine.
AB's strategy here is to decrease or even eliminate the use of "sex" to sell beer. Their new campaign will call for the following:
- a new website along with short TV ads to direct viewers to that site.
- ads touting the "social" aspects of beer such as why it is a better drink to have at a sporting event.
- what they call "romancing the product" or educating consumers to the brewing process.
- attempting to teach retailers how to pair beer with food
- gathering research on the potential health benefits of beer
They are calling this a "grassroots effort." To me it is a waste of their time and marketing dollars.
1- Nothing from AB, Miller, or Coors could ever be grassroots. Grassroots campaigns in the world of beer will come from individual beer drinkers, craft brewers, and those in the retail/restaurant world who believe in drinking good beer.
2- Who doesn't already know that beer is the best drink to have at a sporting event? Since when does anyone go to the concession stand and order up a shot of vodka? This is pointless. I can picture their ad now. It will be a bunch of clean cut guys having a good time at the ballgame drinking their Bud Lights and high-fiving each other.
3- The brewing process. Only a handful of beer drinkers will ever give a rat's ass about how beer is made. Even with the wine boom of the last few years, your average wine drinker could not tell you what malolactic fermentation is if their life depended on it.
4- Beer/Food pairings. I have mixed feelings on this one. There has been an increase in beer dinners and beer/cheese tastings recently. This is a good thing to see but the fact remains the majority of people are going to want a burger and fries with their beer. Ultimately the big companies do not have the depth of variety to warrant a food pairing.
5- Health benefits? Most likely another way for the marketing department to push the light beers. Are they going to tell us that beer can be a part of your diet if you drink in moderation? Duh! Remember those ghastly ads featuring good looking, vibrant, active men and women doing whatever it is that marketing execs think good looking, vibrant, active men and women do on weekends and then drinking a Michelob Ultra? Expect more of the same.
Over the past year, stocks for the major breweries have been on the decline. My guess is that they are getting desperate and the idea people are out of ideas.
My prediction: This campaign will be a huge failure and we are back to the sex ads by the spring.
The problem really is that AB and the other giants don't realize what the root cause is. What it comes down to is quality. Macro-brews suck. And each day another group of beer drinkers realizes this. Once someone tries their first Duvel, Dogfish Head, Victory, Great Divide, or Alesmith product it is hard to go back and drink a Coors Light. There will always be some people who enjoy only Budweiser but the major companies are losing touch with the average beer drinker while these craft brewers and quality imports are making gains.
According to this recent article on RealBeer.com (http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002698.php) craft beers have actually gained 7%! And while the mega-brews have declined, craft beers are actually keeping pace with the growth of the wine and hard liquor market. Given their reduced distribution this is even more impressive.
So shouldn't that CNN article have been talking about how the AB/Coors/Miller segment is losing market share to the microbreweries as well as to wine?
Expect these trends to continue as beer drinkers continue to get more sophisticated, and at younger ages. At the last major beer event I went to at least half the crowd was in their mid 20s. Don't believe that just because there are a lot of dollars behind the big 3 that they are somehow going to recover. Remember there are new converts to craft beer being made every day.
Nobody goes back. Nobody stops drinking craft beer and goes back full-time to the macros. Nobody.
First, go and read this CNN article: http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/19/news/companies/beer_imageoverhaul/index.htm?cnn=yes
Now, if you're a "fan" and "defender" of the macro-breweries, you might not want to read any further, because I guarantee I will not have many nice things to say about them. If you have a true passion for beer, or even if you at least view beer as more than just a simple beverage to get drunk off of, then read on!
Anheuser-Busch, the biggest beast of them all, is fronting a campaign to improve the "image" of beer. It is their analysis that they have lost market share because beer is perceived as a "lesser" beverage than wine, vodka, or whiskey.
Let me say two quick things here:
1- I agree that a totally random poll would find people rank beer below most other beverages on the "class" scale.
2- I am all for the education of consumers. People DO need to know that beer has as much variety, complexity, and food-friendliness as wine.
AB's strategy here is to decrease or even eliminate the use of "sex" to sell beer. Their new campaign will call for the following:
- a new website along with short TV ads to direct viewers to that site.
- ads touting the "social" aspects of beer such as why it is a better drink to have at a sporting event.
- what they call "romancing the product" or educating consumers to the brewing process.
- attempting to teach retailers how to pair beer with food
- gathering research on the potential health benefits of beer
They are calling this a "grassroots effort." To me it is a waste of their time and marketing dollars.
1- Nothing from AB, Miller, or Coors could ever be grassroots. Grassroots campaigns in the world of beer will come from individual beer drinkers, craft brewers, and those in the retail/restaurant world who believe in drinking good beer.
2- Who doesn't already know that beer is the best drink to have at a sporting event? Since when does anyone go to the concession stand and order up a shot of vodka? This is pointless. I can picture their ad now. It will be a bunch of clean cut guys having a good time at the ballgame drinking their Bud Lights and high-fiving each other.
3- The brewing process. Only a handful of beer drinkers will ever give a rat's ass about how beer is made. Even with the wine boom of the last few years, your average wine drinker could not tell you what malolactic fermentation is if their life depended on it.
4- Beer/Food pairings. I have mixed feelings on this one. There has been an increase in beer dinners and beer/cheese tastings recently. This is a good thing to see but the fact remains the majority of people are going to want a burger and fries with their beer. Ultimately the big companies do not have the depth of variety to warrant a food pairing.
5- Health benefits? Most likely another way for the marketing department to push the light beers. Are they going to tell us that beer can be a part of your diet if you drink in moderation? Duh! Remember those ghastly ads featuring good looking, vibrant, active men and women doing whatever it is that marketing execs think good looking, vibrant, active men and women do on weekends and then drinking a Michelob Ultra? Expect more of the same.
Over the past year, stocks for the major breweries have been on the decline. My guess is that they are getting desperate and the idea people are out of ideas.
My prediction: This campaign will be a huge failure and we are back to the sex ads by the spring.
The problem really is that AB and the other giants don't realize what the root cause is. What it comes down to is quality. Macro-brews suck. And each day another group of beer drinkers realizes this. Once someone tries their first Duvel, Dogfish Head, Victory, Great Divide, or Alesmith product it is hard to go back and drink a Coors Light. There will always be some people who enjoy only Budweiser but the major companies are losing touch with the average beer drinker while these craft brewers and quality imports are making gains.
According to this recent article on RealBeer.com (http://www.realbeer.com/news/articles/news-002698.php) craft beers have actually gained 7%! And while the mega-brews have declined, craft beers are actually keeping pace with the growth of the wine and hard liquor market. Given their reduced distribution this is even more impressive.
So shouldn't that CNN article have been talking about how the AB/Coors/Miller segment is losing market share to the microbreweries as well as to wine?
Expect these trends to continue as beer drinkers continue to get more sophisticated, and at younger ages. At the last major beer event I went to at least half the crowd was in their mid 20s. Don't believe that just because there are a lot of dollars behind the big 3 that they are somehow going to recover. Remember there are new converts to craft beer being made every day.
Nobody goes back. Nobody stops drinking craft beer and goes back full-time to the macros. Nobody.
# posted by Nick @ 2:12 PM 
