Shepherd Neame targets younger drinkers with new beer

Shepherd Neame used the Great British Beer Festival (GBBF) to launch a low ABV national beer brand brewed and marketed to appeal to younger drinkers and women.

The name and logo of Canterbury Jack, a 3.5 per cent chestnut coloured beer with hoppy, citrus notes, featured on the sides of 40,000 official GBBF beer glasses.

Drinkers at the event, held at London's Earl's Court between August 5 and 9, got the first look at the brand's pump clip and tongue in cheek advertising.

In a major departure from the pump clips for the rest of Shepherd Neame's stable of beers, which are based around traditional imagery, Canterbury Jack's pump clip features minimalist, bold lettering.

The advertising features traditional pub scenes with characters, imagery and quotations from hip hop music culture superimposed.

There will also be branded, stemmed half pint glasses released to support the launch.

The beer and its marketing support will be rolled out throughout September.

Its launch follows consumer research on a national basis which saw subjects blind tasting a selection of would be-competitor beer brands and feeding back their impressions. Shepherd Neame's brewers were then given an open brief to create a competitor product. Following this, Canterbury Jack was, according to Shepherd Neame sales and marketing director Graeme Craig, placed in "half a dozen of our pubs under disguise" - labelled generically Shepherd Neame Pale Ale - as a trial.

Canterbury Jack is being distributed through Shepherd Neame's own distribution network, Waverley TBS and Punch Taverns' Finest Cask programme.

"Cask beer is still the market place of older consumers. There is still huge opportunity with younger drinkers," Craig said.

"We wanted to have a nationwide appeal and encourage new consumers into a category with something that wasn't a rehashed Spitfire."

He added that alcohol content "has stopped being a designation of premium," pointing to the trend for lower ABV lagers.