The relationship between brewers and pubs is a complex one. They used to be synonymous with each other: the brewers owned the pubs that sold their beer, and when people wanted to drink those beers, they would go to the pub to do so.
During the past few decades, those bonds have loosened considerably.
Only a few thousand pubs are now owned directly by brewers. These pubs rely on a much broader range of products for their revenue, with food on the point of overtaking beer in terms of its contribution to turn-over of the sector as a whole.
At the same time, beer is now sold in many places other than the pub. The British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) stats for 2014 show a very welcome return to growth in total beer volumes, but this growth is coming from the off-trade, which has overtaken the on-trade in total sales. The on-trade is still in decline — even though that decline is at its lowest rate for almost two decades.
But it would be dangerous to see this as the start of an amicable divorce. Beer and pubs need each other as much as ever.
Fifteen years ago, the big, mainstream lager brands commanded huge loyalty from their drinkers. As they’ve shifted their bulk towards supermarkets rather than pubs, their reputations have suffered. They’ve traded on price and have become a commodity.
Perception
Cask ale, world beer, speciality beer, craft beer, wine, spirits and cider have all nibbled away at them in volume terms, and much more so in terms of image, margin, and the things people talk about around the category. In perception terms if not by volume, these symbolic powerhouses of the beer sector are pale shadows of what they used to be, no longer special.
There are many factors contributing to this — too many to go into here — but one factor that has perhaps been overlooked is the damage done by the breaking of the symbolic link between beer and pub.
Marketers tend to follow, not lead, their consumers. For the past 20 years, they’ve seen the shift in volume from the on- to off-trade and thought, ‘People are drinking more beer at home. If we want them to drink our beer at home rather than someone else’s, we’d better show them scenes of drinkers at home with our product.’
Home
In doing so, they reinforce the behaviour they depict. Add all the brands together and, collectively, their activity is telling people to drink at home rather than in the pub. This is where the promotional budget goes, it’s where the deals go. And so big beer brands, in some ways, end up damaging the pub. But the damage goes the other way too.
Drinking at home is not as good as drinking in the pub. That’s why the big brewers pour yet more resources into trying to develop ‘draught home dispense systems’ that seek to ‘recreate the perfect pub serve in the home.’
Every single time they try this, it fails. The reason the pub beer experience is always better than home drinking isn’t really to do with the size of the container the beer comes out of. It’s all about the rituals that have built up during the centuries to ensure alcohol helps us have a good time.
We’re constantly being reminded that alcohol is a drug that can have damaging effects. The pub’s codes and rituals help make sure everything goes the right way and enhance social rather than antisocial behaviour. Everything from the buying of rounds to chatting at the bar to toasting each other reinforces the social bonds that are created over a pint.
Experience
Cracking open a tin from the fridge just isn’t the same.
When beer brands reinforce the perception that we drink more beer at home now than in pubs, they forget that we still aspire to drinking in pubs, that for many of us, the pub remains the ideal drinking spot, even if we don’t get there as often as we used to.
If they ignore the magic of the pub, eroding beer’s connection with the pub, they lose some of the magic the pub confers on them, the sense of specialness that has always surrounded the beer drinking moment.
Big lager needs all the help it can get to restore the respect and aspiration it once had. If these brands do more to support the pub publicly (rather than its unseen good work) they’ll find the magic of the pub will help them back.
If they continue to drift away from the pub, they are in danger of losing everything that once made them special.