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NEWS: SMH - 12/01/2006 'A change is brewing' [Alcohol]

hoptis

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Just a wrap up of a few articles around today, looking at how alcohol is marketed and presented to the public in this country, what's changed in that respect and the last one highlighting where the government draws the line.

A change is brewing
January 12, 2006

beer1201_wideweb__470x370,0.jpg


The sweating, beer-swilling Aussie bloke is dying out as wines creep into the market and women work up a thirst for the amber fluid, writes Julian Lee.

FOR a hard-working, true- blue, beer-drinking Aussie male, there have always been some certainties in life - and one of them was the way beer was marketed to them. Ever since John Meillon solemnly intoned the ways in which you could work up a thirst for Victoria Bitter, our television screens have been filled with images of perspiring men licking their lips in anticipation of a cold one.

Apart from the occasional throwback - David Boon's tongue-in-cheek reprise as a cricket (and beer-drinking) legend for VB is a case in point - those days have largely gone.

Disembodied tongues or blokes wearing red and yellow smocks are the stars of today's ads. The setting is more likely to be Venice, the French Riviera (in reality the east coast on a cloudy day), or just about anywhere except the pub. And the closest men get to working up a "hard-earned thirst" is when they are laughing at their own jokes.

Like its audience, the business of beer has moved on. While it once had the Australian male to itself, beer is now facing stiff competition from wines and ready-mixed drinks.

In the decade to June 2004, the average Australian cut their annual beer consumption by 41 stubbies to 293, says the Bureau of Statistics. And in the past five years, the value of the beer market has risen by 18.1 per cent, according to AC Nielsen. In short, we are drinking less beer - but of a more expensive variety - a trend that is fuelling solid growth in premium and imported beers that appeal to a more discerning consumer.

Of course, we are still a beer-drinking nation, spending $8.5 billion in pubs and bottle shops, with more than 60 per centof that spent on mainstream full-strength beers such as VB, Tooheys New and Carlton Draught. But the number of drinks that are on offer today is vastly greater than 10 or 20 years ago. And accordingly, the beer marketers have to work harder.

"Perhaps we've been complacent in our marketing as we've allowed others to come and market different occasions and to different audiences," says Brett Grebert, the marketing director of innovation at Lion Nathan. "We recognise that we're not just competing against other brewers, but for the overall share of throat."

Beer traditionally revolved around the two pillars of marketing: mateship and sport. It was a reward for a hard day's work and the star was invariably a rugged working man standing proud at the public bar in a singlet.

Mike Daniels, planning director of Clememger BBDO, the agency behind the Hahn advertisements, says an overhaul of the beer drinker's image is long overdue. For one thing, today's Australian male is more likely to be pushing a pen than wielding a pickaxe.

"Advertising was played out along narrow dimensions, it reflected this idealised 'slice of life' of the drinker and it was always about refreshment. In the current crop of ads, I don't think there's one that's about the thirst-quenching nature of the beer and I don't think any are set in a pub," he says.

Women are also playing a more active role in the ads, which reflects the fact that they represent an estimated quarter of beer consumers, though of predominantly light or premium brands. A recent Tooheys New advertisement featuring a woman opening the top of a bottle with her navel was put back on air by popular demand. And in ads for Hahn Premium Light, a group of women get their revenge on annoying boyfriends in 15-second reprise spots.

"The idea of mateship has changed. It's not always about guys getting together for a good time but about guys and girls," Grebert says. "We term it 'gender neutrality'."

Nowadays, those Australian male characteristics so central to the advertising of old - mateship, hard yakka and larrikinism - are lampooned to sell us a beer. Advertising has become an in-joke among the target audience of men aged between 18 and 29. Foster's Australia's director of mainstream beer, Matt Keen, responsible for marketing Australia's biggest beer brand, VB, says marketers have learnt how to "loosen their collar".

But he adds: "I wouldn't say it [the advertising] was irony, but it's just having a bit of a laugh and trying not to take itself too seriously."

Accordingly, the new crop of VB ads parody the mates-only camping trip, the politics involved in shouting a drink and the inevitability of eating a garlic-infused kebab at the end of a night's drinking. "The humour is less about the person and more about the occasion," Keen says. "Our research shows they [the drinkers] are confident enough to have a laugh at the situations they might find themselves in."

Recent advertising had to keep the older, more traditional, audience happy while attracting new and younger drinkers. That's why elements such as music and the end line were retained, but the image of the cast of drinkers in the ads was updated to reflect the modern Australian male. The retro feel - a strong trend in consumer marketing - was the reason behind the choice of iconic characters such as Boonie, whose appeal spans the generations.

The complexities of such a strategy are in marked contrast to the way advertisement were developed in what some believe to be the heyday of Australian beer advertising, the 1970s and 1980s.

Alan Morris, one half of the successful Mo and Jo team (the other was Allan Johnson) wrote his lines for Tooheys New and XXXX, appropriately enough, at the pub. "A mate came into the pub one day and we asked him how he felt and he replied, 'I feel like a beer, that's what I feel like' and so I came up with the line 'I feel like a Tooheys'," he says.

Morris laments the passing of such ads, which he said represented "good fun with a broad Australian accent". A catchy jingle and the repetition of the brand name has helped cement the brand in the minds of Australians.

Morris recalls a story that exemplifies the power of advertising, when a state education department test asking children to express how they felt received the almost unanimous response: "I feel like a Tooheys."

But if there is one ad that symbolises the changes that have taken place in beer advertising, it is last year's Big Ad, the quirkiest of beer ads, bar the tongue for Tooheys Extra Dry.

The success of the ad, set to classical music and showing thousands of computer-generated men converging to form a giant glass of beer, has taken marketers by surprise.

Carlton Draught, which it promoted, is now one of the fastest-growing brands, and the way in which the advertisement was released - the internet allowed millions of people around the world to see the ad before it reached television - confirm just how much the rules have changed.

What chance would an ad featuring four blokes in a bar sinking a cold one have against that?

From Sydney Morning Herald

If anyone hasn't yet seen the "Big Ad", you can view it here... one of the funniest beer ads in forever :)

Tapping a circle of care - for any occasion
By Julian Lee
January 12, 2006

PITY today's beer marketer. He must weep when he looks back at the days when an Aussie working man would spend as much on beer in a week as he did on his mortgage.

Back then your choice of beer said as much about you as a man as the car you drove or the team you supported. Occasionally you might have a light beer — if no one was watching. There was little else on offer.

Today, the average Aussie has at least six drinks in his "repertoire" and scores of brands of spirits, wines and beers. Matt Keen of Foster's says there are several key "occasions" that account for 96 per cent of alcohol consumption. "We look at whether they are by themselves, with other people and what they are trying to achieve, be it socialising, relaxing, eating or celebrating," he says.

In any week the average young Aussie male might have a mid-strength beer for lunch, a Cascade premium or Beck's at home before going out for the evening, a glass of wine with his meal, a ready-mixed drink or a beer when he is with his mates at the pub, and finish with a light beer when he's winding down at home. Hopefully not all in one night.

Keen, and Lion Nathan's Brett Grebert, identify the evening meal, where beer has lost out to wine, as a marketing opportunity with craft beers such as James Squire, Little Creatures and Coopers set to benefit. "The whole socialising piece is a big opportunity for us … as people look to relax a little bit more," Keen says.

Grebert says the ageing population will fuel a growth in light and premium beers. But the biggest prize is still the $3.3 billion full-strength category which accounts for 63 per cent of the volume. Any marketing for this category has to tap into the wellspring of mateship. Drinking with mates, male or female, has to be a part of any ad.

"Consumers looking for that 'circle of care' of close friends will continue to be important, and full-strength is a good way of connecting with people," Grebert says.

From Sydney Morning Herald

Alcohol sales anger
Shannon McRae
12 Jan 2006

ALCOHOL is being sold on grocery shelves in some Victorian supermarkets.

Health groups are angry three Coles supermarkets are selling beer and wine in the store and have called on the State Government to tighten licensing laws.

The Government last month vowed to crack down on liquor licensing after a Pascoe Vale video store won a legal battle to sell alcohol after challenging laws in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Coles stores in Caroline Springs, Balwyn North and Geelong suburb Waurn Ponds were granted permission to display alcohol in the aisles by the Victorian director of Liquor Licensing as part of a trial.

Turning Point Drug and Alcohol Centre expert Prof Nick Crofts said it had been proven making alcohol more accessible increased the likelihood of abuse.

"We should be moving in the other direction and having less outlets selling alcohol," Prof Crofts said.

"We're concerned about moves to make it more freely available . . . we have to acknowledge alcohol is a major cause of illnesses."

Australian Drug Foundation chief executive Bill Stronach called on the Government to cut the number of stores selling alcohol.

He said offering alcohol for sale alongside groceries was unnecessary and inappropriate.

"Selling alcohol as if it is just another product suggests there's no risk attached to using it, and that's just not the case," Mr Stronach said.

"Convenience has taken priority over regulation, we need to be more sensible about this."

Consumer Affairs Minister Marsha Thomson did not expect the trial to be extended.

She said new laws to be introduced in Parliament this year would give her the power to stop supermarkets selling alcohol.

"There are 1700 outlets to buy liquor in Victoria, which is more than any other state, and we believe there are some locations, such as video stores, which are frequented by minors, where alcohol should not be available," she said.

"The director of Liquor Licensing will be able to nominate certain categories of premises where liquor licences cannot be granted without ministerial approval, and this could include supermarket shelves."

Coles supermarkets chose not to comment on whether they would apply to extend the trial when contacted yesterday by the Herald Sun.

From Herald Sun
 
I don't see the fuss about supermarkets selling alcohol, it would be a lot easier for me, do my grocery shopping and buy some booze at the same time in the same spot, as long they sell their alcohol products cheaper than bottleshops, and saves driving to other location on the way home from my grocery shopping.

Mmmm.... might open other can of VB. ;)
 
I wondered when I saw a bottle of sparkly in the woolies here (which is my local bottleshop) though slightly seperated, if they had started selling alcohol in store...strange when you are not used to it but overseas even your 7-11 has beers so not so strange!
:)
In terms of marketing that ad was beautiful but nothing will make me drink carlton draught, except of course unless it is free!
8)
 
I think that alcohol should have cigarette-like warnings on them "Alcohol is a drug", starting to generate awareness would be a start, especially considering how many problems it causes.
 
Cowboy, A lot of brands have already started labelling "Enjoy Responbility" with a little thumbs up icon/logo, but its only tiny, along with the prints where the product comes from.

I know, I spend a lot of time looking at labels :)
 
i think thats a sensible idea cowboy mac - i know i feel put-off smoking wen i read the warning signs on a pack of cigarettes, esp the more graphic ones
im sure a similar warnign on alcohol wouldnt hurt - i know they do that on bottles of absinthe over here, warning of the high alcohol content and how regular use causes health problems
so why not with beer? drinking lotsa beer heavily will give u cirrhosis just as easily, and ur sure more likely to down a LOT of beer regualrly than sumthing as strong-tasting as absinthe
over here in nz its always available in supermarkets (beer, wine, cider, RTDs) - geez they sell cigarettes in supermarkets alongside the groceries, and those r little killers as well
just out west auckland theres a drinking and liquor sales ban outside bars, clubs and liquor stores
cant say its stopped the westies from being the hardest drinkers in our city of course....
 
alcohol is BAD!

(read: I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo hungover today...and I've got to work!)
 
Cowboy Mac said:
I think that alcohol should have cigarette-like warnings on them "Alcohol is a drug", starting to generate awareness would be a start, especially considering how many problems it causes.
Second. I'd like to see "cirrhosis of the liver" stickers across half the label, too. Funny that the alcohol lobbyists are stronger than tobacco lobbyists in Australia, innit? And that dollar for dollar, it has a higher tax return?

I'm sure any government knows that further legislation of alcohol is political suicide. But seriously, even Russia's trying to clean up its act. To quote the greatest Aussie of my generation: : "It's time".
 
That draft ad was great. Support Victorian Beer; say no to Tooheys!;)

I would love to see alcohol available in supermarkets, maybe in a seperate section like they do with the Butcher and the Deli, where you have to buy it there from a person over 18 who checks IDs. Alcohol available at a video store is a bit much though, the line has to be drawn when it comes to associating alcohol with other activities. Alcohol and food is fine, but alcohol and a movie is a bit excessive. Its a slippery slope. What next, alcohol when buying clothes.

I'm kind of impartial when it comes to warning labels on bottles. Sure alcohol can be a health risk when abused (something many people do every saturday night) but at the same time I think that this information is fairly common knowledge amoung the public anyway and I doubt that putting warnings on bottles will reduce the amount people drink, its too much of an activity that is embedded in Australia's culture.
 
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