A whistle stop tour through the marketing and advertising of beer, which has changed considerably in the years since I first lifted a pint glass to my lips. From the big brands of the 1970's to today's craft brewers, here are some thoughts and recollections....
When I first started to visit pubs back in the 1970's, choice for a beer drinker was a bit different than it is now. It was certainly more limited; you had bitter, or best, or you had mild, and sometimes a stronger, generally dark beer. If you wanted something different, you could, at your peril, opt for one of the kegs, maybe a Youngers Tartan, or a Whitbread Trophy, which would be sold under blanket pressure via a brightly-lit font. Or you could have a Guinness, or lager, or a bottle of brown ale off the shelf. If you didn't fancy any of that, then it would have to be a glass of wine such as Blue Nun or Mateus Rose, or a spirit. Babycham, anyone?
Amongst real ale brewers, lack of much competition meant that the local breweries didn't have to spend too much time thinking about the design of their pump clips. The breweries had their own pubs which sold their beers only at a time when there were few free houses. And so the pump clips tended to heavily feature the brewery name and what the beer was, but in terms of design, it was all pretty tame and basic. The brewery's heritage would be a common theme. You'd get the wheatsheaf with Websters, whilst for Tetleys it was the monocled huntsman staring out at you from the bar front, exuding an air of unruffled tradition. In essence, they didn't have to fight too hard for your attention as in those days when competition was more limited; it was generally a case of take it or leave it....
This is not to say that no promotion of beer existed in those days, in fact it was quite the opposite. TV advertising was allowed back then and was used extensively to promote the big national, generally keg brands like Whitbread and Watneys, much of whose focus was on marketing lager and those awful watery keg beer monstrosities like Tartan, Trophy, and the dreaded Watneys Red Barrel that dominated the bar with their garish fonts. The messages were simple: "Whitbread Trophy, the pint that thinks it's a quart", "A Double Diamond works wonders", whilst "Heineken refreshes the parts other lagers can't reach". Absolute nonsense of course, but they enticed a gullible audience into believing that these were the beers they had to drink. On taste alone, brands such as those and the likes of Harp and Hofmeister would not have got off the ground without heavy TV promotion which often relied on laddish humour to appeal to their target audience. Meanwhile Watneys-owned Websters brewery used pipe-smoking former Yorkshire and England fast bowler Freddie Trueman to promote Pennine Bitter under the strapline "Drives out the Northern thirst", whilst actor Bernard Miles was the face of bottled beer Mackeson who told us "it looks good, tastes good, and by golly it does you good", which of course was medically unproven and would not be permitted today. Later of course we had former Manchester favourite Boddingtons, by then subsumed as part of the Whitbread empire being promoted as "The Cream of Manchester". Nowadays TV advertising of beer has disappeared from the screens, last seen drowning under a sea of Peter Kay promoted John Smiths Bitter. But here's a reminder of the kind of stuff we had to endure....
Stepping back a little, branding takes its name from the centuries-old tradition of burning a mark on livestock to indicate ownership, but it has since evolved as a means of protecting the rights of a manufacturer of a specific, distinct product in order to prevent it from being copied and sold on as the bona fide item. And interestingly, the connection of branding with the brewing industry goes way back to 1876 when Bass Ale registered the first-ever trademark under the UK's Trade Mark Registration Act of 1875 for their famous red triangle logo, and whilst Draught Bass may not be as ubiquitous over the country as it used to be, the distinct logo is still in use to this day.
One of the major success stories in the history of the marketing of beer is of course Guinness, the Irish stout which is one of the most popular drinks in the world. Whilst it has no pubs of its own and a limited portfolio, its famous flagship beer has a wide reach with almost total dominance in its own market in Ireland and extremely wide distribution in the UK and other parts of the world where it also has several breweries. It realised the power of advertising and marketing a long time ago, and many of the historic billboard posters it used to advertise are iconic. My first memory of beer advertising when I was a young lad was a poster campaign which with the strapline "1066 Battle of Hastings, 1966 Bottle of Guinness". Many of these posters stated that Guinness "gives you strength" or "is good for you", claims which would not be allowed to be made today without any scientific or medical evidence, but with their striking designs they became classic examples of beer marketing. And with regular TV campaigns over the years, very strong branding, product development, and innovative marketing which has kept up with the more restrictive requirements of today's market, Guinness remains one of the key players in beer advertising to this day.
Moving back on to cask beer, gradually over the years more people started to drink it, more breweries emerged, and the Beer Orders Act which led to the demise of the Big Six national brewers like Whitbread, Courage, and Bass Charrington heralded the arrival of pubcos like Enterprise and the growth of free houses. The big money was though still spent on marketing lager. But as more pubs started to sell more different beers, the need to make yours stand out from the crowd resulted in some more interesting pump clip designs. There was still a strong heritage theme and often where they were brewed was featured. There was no real detail about the style of the beer other than simple terms like Pale Blonde, Golden Ale, or Strong Ale, but the character of the beer would often be conveyed in names such as Wobbly Bob, Summer Lightning, or Black Adder.
As the general knowledge about what made up a pint became wider, names of hops started to appear in the names of beers. So you would get Goose Eye Chinook and Oakham Citra, both best sellers today for their breweries, and so whilst at one time to call a beer Mosaic or Cascade would have meant nothing, general awareness helped by apps such as Untappd has increased amongst the beer-loving community. Some designs have got cleaner and sharper, such as those from Marble, Thornbridge, and Pomona Island, and with a distinct house style it can offer some reassurance to drinkers even if they have not come across the beer itself before. Unfortunately, sadly some brewers have gone the other way, or just don't get it, which doesn't really help the poor thirsty drinker who can't make out what they're being offered. Presentation does vary dramatically; just check out the opening image which was snapped at the Harrogate Tap recently, and is a pretty typical view of what you might be faced with.
However, let's face it, inevitably there will always be that time where unfortunately you are in a busy place, you may be struggling to see what beers are on the bar, your view impeded by the dreaded bar-blockers, and there is no up-to-date or clear chalkboard listing or LED screen, and so unless you already know what you want, all the marketing and advertising in the world isn't going to help you!
One of the biggest drivers of beer advertising in the past couple of decades has been the growth of craft beer and the increasing adoption of canned beer by the craft brewers. This has been against a more restrictive environment for the promotion of alcohol and more rigorous legal requirements to support claims made when advertising a product. One of the biggest influences on the scene has been Brewdog, the self-styled punk brewers founded by James Watt and Martin Dickie in Ellon near Aberdeen in 2007. From the start when they launched the legendary Punk IPA, they adopted a rebellious, iconoclastic approach to promoting their beers which got them into trouble for aggressive marketing with the Portman Group, the UK drinks industry watchdog, as early as 2008. Over the years they attracted all kinds of controversies over their often tongue in cheek advertising which has ranged from supplying a beer named after a drug cocktail (Speedball) to bottled beer packed inside small stuffed animals (The End Of History) to allegedly promoting anti-social behaviour by emphasising the strength of the beer (Dead Pony IPA). As the controversies continued to swirl around the them, including how the company has treated its staff, Brewdog continued to grow and is today the biggest craft brewer in Europe with its own bars in many cities and towns around the UK, and in other parts of the world. Brewdog invested heavily in canning their beer, and this is where the designers can really go to town in their promoting their beers and branding.
Canned beers have of course been around for a long time but the expense of canning beers was prohibitive to all but the biggest brewers until recently. But the development of cheaper kit has made canning a possibility for even the smaller players now, and it has been enthusiastically embraced by today's craft brewers. It works well with the modern trend to brew a greater variety of beers rather than sticking to a simple core range as used to be the case. The fact that so many pubs and bars now have their own fridges increases the distribution opportunities for so many small brewers. Cans are often a more considered purchase, which can cater for those who wish to drink at home, although that is certainly not where all canned beers are drunk. Some can designs are real works of art, with busy, complex designs, whilst others such as Pomona Island, Pollys, and Thornbridge have simple, clear but distinctive styles. The value of good design has of course been recognised for a while; back when iconic Swedish brewers Omnipollo started gypsy brewing in 2010, the team consisted of a brewer, Henok Fentie, and an artist, Karl Grandin, who over the years have produced many beers in eye-catching distinctive packaging. And today, recognising the importance of good presentation to promote their beers, many craft brewers have their own in-house graphic designer or artist even if the overall team is fairly small.
And whilst you could of course argue that ultimately it comes down to what the beer tastes like, how it is promoted and having a design and image that suits the beer and works within the environment in which it is sold is probably even more important today than it was back in those days in the 1970's, where, relatively speaking, it was a case of anything goes....
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