Image of beer: Could do better...
New efforts to change old perceptions about the image of beer are under way. By Phil Mellows.
So we finally have our generic campaign to lift the image of beer and turn the tide of falling sales. Yet the British Beer & Pub Association's Beautiful Beer initiative is not the first of its kind. During the Great Depression beer sales plunged even more steeply than they have in recent times, losing more than 25 per cent of volume in the space of just five years.
The brewing industry's response was concerted and extensive. Eighty-five per cent of brewers contributed to the campaign and Beer is Best was born.
Press ads, beermats, pub point-of-sale and roadside posters - 8,500 of them went up in the autumn of 1934 alone - made sure the slogan made an impression. They even made a film - The Crown of the Year, telling the story of the brewing process - to be shown at cinemas.
The campaign was fleshed out over time with information on why beer was best - for health, for refreshment, for the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Some of the copylines sound rather quaint and unsophisticated these days, not to mention dodgy. "For a fitter Britain, beer is best." "To set a man up for the winter, beer is best." "Our fathers thrived on British beer, so will you."
But it worked. By the end of the 1930s beer sales were back up to 1929 levels.
The sheer scale of the campaign was also impressive. The brewers were spending an average £139,000 a year for the first five years. At today's prices that works out at nearly £9m a year, which makes the £300,000 going behind Beautiful Beer sound like, well, small beer.
But the context is different. It would be nice if the phrase Beautiful Beer became as well known as Beer is Best did but we can't judge success on that basis - and beer's present crisis requires a more complex solution.
Beautiful Beer is one of a range of initiatives currently under way to change the way people perceive and drink beer, and it all adds up to much more than an ad campaign.
It's not like the 1930s in that the roots of beer's decline lie in permanent socio-economic shifts, for instance away from heavy industry. These shifts are frequently exaggerated but they exist and they have taken their toll on beer volumes over time.
Hot and grimy men sinking eight or 10 pints of low gravity ale after a shift, merely to replace lost fluid, can no longer be relied upon to keep the mash tuns boiling. Beer must find new markets.
That search has begun in earnest, and already found some success, a glimmer of how things might be. In future, beer's low status can be reversed, it can become a drink to be savoured and appreciated, touching the sides a bit on its way down.
Product quality is inextricably linked to image when it comes to beer. It's one thing to get people to reappraise the drink, but if they're reappraising rubbish the effort is counter-productive.
So the work of Cask Marque, the BII Award in Beer and Cellar Quality, the BBPA's behind-the-scenes technical developments, the Beer Academy's attempts to educate consumer and trade and the independent initiatives of many brewers and pubcos are all important to the success of Beautiful Beer.
The challenge may be greater than it was 70 years ago, but we have the tools in place to complete the job again.
Sheps expands Master of Beer
Kent brewer Shepherd Neame is expanding its Master of Beer programme. With the first stage of the programme already included as part of staff induction, licensees are now being invited to take their learning to a higher level.
The additional one-day course that will make them a "fellow" goes into detail on how beer is made with an in-depth guided tour of every stage of the brewing process, and gives them information about beer styles. To qualify for the fellowship, licensees are required to demonstrate their commitment to beer by running their own tutored tastings for customers.
Pictured: Shepherd Neame licensees can apply to further their knowledge under the newly expanded Master of Beer programme.
