Beer Wine Industry Parallels

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Big Breweries Will Change Their Tunes—and Product Lines

Customers will no longer be mollified by superficial changes in mass-market beers and will begin demanding better choices. Some breweries may refuse to embrace the new beers and become marginalized, but others will see the future and adapt, as Gallo did on the wine time line. Gallo saw how things were going, jumped into the varietal game, did well, and remains a major force in American wine.

It’s too soon to tell whether the “big three” brewers will take the Gallo path, but there are some early signs. Anheuser-Busch is floating out some trial balloons, including regionally available beers: Ascent 54, a classic Bavarian-style dark wheat beer that’s delicately sweet and chocolatey, is brewed at the company’s Fort Collins, Colorado, facility. Molson Coors has their Blue Moon line of craft-type beers, which had some success when introduced in the mid-’90s. Coors continued to brew the Blue Moon Belgian White, and despite next to no promotional support, it was recently discovered by consumers, who have lifted it to a commanding position in specialty beers. SABMiller is pushing their Czech-based classic Pilsner Urquell while trying gimmicks like Miller Chill, a light beer with a dose of lime flavor and salt.

There Will Be Fewer Frogs and Bikinis

The best thing about this trend is that it will change beer’s image. In a widely quoted 2005 interview in the Wall Street Journal, Miller Brewing C.E.O. Tom Long, then the company’s chief marketing officer, said, “People will tell you that beer is not sophisticated enough or stylish enough to compete with wine and spirits. Why do they think that? Well, I believe it’s because we told them to.” Recalling years of tight bikinis, talking frogs, performing dogs, and frat-boy antics, you have to agree with the man. We can expect to see more advertising that focuses on the beer itself, not just lowbrow entertainment linked to the brand name.

That was the key to the wine revolution, and it’s crucial to the nascent beer revolution: people enjoying the drink based on its flavor and character, rather than its effectiveness as an alcohol-delivery device, a party accessory. You pay more for these new wines and beers, and you get more: more flavor, more variety, more prestige, more value. It’s the classic “better beverage” sound bite used by marketers of upscale beer, spirits, and wine: “Drink less, drink better.”

Of course, beer isn’t wine: It’s more perishable, and it’s not as dependent on year-to-year growing conditions as wine is. The cuisine associations are different; folks think wine with French and Italian, beer with British and German. But if I were a marketer for the Brewers Association, the craft brewers’ trade group, I’d sit down with a copy of Lukacs’ book and start making notes for my own.

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