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Why would Stella Artois disrespect its own history?

5/31/2016

 
It may well be true for many consumer-goods brands, but it is unquestionably so for beer: Brand history is a treasure to be perpetuated, safeguarded, and reverenced. We recently made that point concerning the distinctiveness of a brand's hometown, and it's arguably more consequential for a brand's history. And for the same reason: This distinctiveness is a brand asset that can only be claimed and put to good use by its rightful owner.

Why then would Stella Artois essentially run advertising that might as well have included this as its final frame?
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Think we're exaggerating? Take a look and see whether this ad strikes you as reinforcing the legitimacy and heritage of the Stella Artois brand...
PictureHahaha... it's not REALLY history.
These questions occurred to us as we watched what seemed far more a mildly amusing--if somewhat tiring--film, and far less a brand-history homage:

- "Inspired by a true story?" Wasn't the actual "true story" impressive enough?

- Why personify the brewery founder ("I am Sebastian Artois") from seven centuries ago as a goofy young man who stole puppies to make money to buy a brewery? And do you really believe he found a Van Gogh under his bed?

- Why select a be-boppy rap-ish music track that runs the entire ad? Does that suggest genuine respect for heritage?


- Whose idea of humor was it to show young Artois selling a television set, which wouldn't have been invented for another 600 years? Again, where's the respect?

- Finally, why have this faux version of the young brewer come alive today to ask the viewer directly: "So what do you want to be remembered for?" In the case of his namesake brand, perhaps the answer he's searching for is: fakery, sleight-of-hand, and an embellished resume.

Brand history needs to be safeguarded from hucksters

All too often, advertising people have way too little regard for a brand's history. Maybe it's because so few of them were history majors. Their aim for the work they create frequently put its "street talk," and the adulation of their peers, well above whatever goal's in second place. In their view, history's too dusty to be "hip." So, forced to do a brand-history ad--as they no doubt were in this case--they'll find a way to "have some fun with it." For them, "reverence" is a foreign concept. A joke's more to their liking.

Here's where clients need to fulfill their role as "managers." With them rests the responsibility for 
enforcing respect for the assets of their brand, most notably, its history. You don't make fun of the founder. You don't make fun of the history. You don't adjust the brand's history to make ads so your fellow ad-men-and-women will award you pretentious trophies. And if the ad folks you're stuck with can't grasp all that, fire them.

The actual final frame in the ad mysteriously says "Be Legacy."

Advice to the Stella people: Add "respectful of" between those two words, and you'll have something.


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Heineken dings craft beer; A new trend?

5/17/2016

 
Not long ago, we suggested that a contributing factor to what we predicted would be the end of craft beer's epic growth run was BigBeer's return to product-distinctiveness selling. Said we: "BigBeer's product-distinctiveness messaging can only erode this once-exclusive advantage enjoyed by craft breweries." 

Budweiser led that shift, and now Heineken follows up in its Benicio del Toro spokesperson campaign. And like Budweiser, the Dutch beer not only promotes its beer recipe, but goes a step further to tweak the preciousness of the craft-beer fascination with odd taste additives in beer. The suggestion? Real beer doesn't have fruit flavors added.

​Call it "No pumpkin-peach ale, Dutch style."
Looking as if he'd come from central casting, Heineken's Global Brewmaster, Willem van Waesberghe (a.k.a. "Willy"), delivers a pitch-perfect response to del Toro's suggestion he "throw a dash of lemon sense, ginger root, or Wassabee" into the Heineken recipe. Says the very Dutch brewer: "No f*cking way." 
PictureBigBeer's strategic counter-punch: Recipe distinctiveness, and "Our beer's not fruity."
Strategic counter-punching

It seems we're seeing BigBeer employ a bit of marketing jiu jitsu, flipping craft beer's penchant for odd, non-tradtional flavorings into a weakness. In Heineken's view, over-flavoring can't compare to a beer with "just three ingredients." In this, t
he Dutch brewer is adding its brand voice to Budweiser's "no pumpkin-peach ale" riff. 

For years, craft brewers took competitive shots--frequently nasty, often untrue--at BigBeer with impunity. After all, they were the Davids slinging stone after stone at the dozing Goliaths of the beer business.

Turns out, those giants woke up. And it seems they've got a few boulders to hurl back.


Craft beer sales update from Beer Marketers Insights: "... sales turned much softer for craft in recent months. Volume up just 6% for 12 weeks through April 17 in IRI multi outlet and convenience, (up) 4%* for 4 weeks." Six of top seven Brewers Association-defined craft brands down, some way, way off."

*More recent comparable 4-week number is +2%.


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    The Author

    Dan Fox is a real beer guy.

    For more than half his 30-year career at ad agency, Foote, Cone & Belding, he ran the Coors Brewing account. Leading a group of dozens of advertising professionals, Dan also personally wrote the Pete Coors "Somewhere near Golden, Colorado" commercials, designed the Coors NASCAR graphics, authored sales-convention speeches, and most important of all, formulated marketing strategy for virtually every Coors brand, including Coors Light, Keystone, Killian's Irish Red and more. His proudest achievement? "Our team had every Coors brand growing at once."

    Over his advertising career, Dan was personally involved in the analysis, planning and creation of thousands of ads for a variety of products and services. By way of this blog, he freely shares his expertise about what works, and what doesn't, when it comes to selling beer.

    If you're in the beer-marketing business--or just interested in the subject--you may want to read what "HeyBeerDan" has to say.

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