A look at what could help pull the beer market out of decline and help brands create an impact.

1. HOW BEER BRANDS CAN MAKE AN
IMPACT IN A DECLINING MARKET.

2. IT’S NOT GOOD NEWS…

3. PREMIUMISATION
TREND
HEALTH &
WELLNESS
TREND
EMERGING
FEMALE MARKET
DECLINE OF
THE PUB
DESIRE FOR
AUTHENTIC,
CRAFTED
PRODUCTS
HAVING AN IMPACT
HAS NEVER BEEN
AS HARD AS TODAY
IN YOUR CATEGORY.
THE MARKET HAS CHANGED, LEAVING SALES IN DECLINE.

4. WE UNDERTOOK IN-DEPTH RESEARCH INTO CONSUMER
ATTITUDES TOWARDS BEER BRANDS IN THE UK*.
WE WANTED TO FIND OUT MORE.
*Brand Desire 2013 – a study of 20,000+ consumers, 678 brands, across 3 countries, to find out not only how desirable brands
currently are, but what they need to do to increase their desire and commercial impact. www.brand-desire.com

5. THE RESULTS WERE REVEALING.

6. POOR
DESIRE

7. CATEGORY DESIRE RANKINGS ACROSS BRAND DESIRE 2013
The desire for
beer brands is
incredibly low,
barely overtaking
financial
services,
and below
telecoms brands!
POOR
DESIRE
0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 120.0 140.0 160.0
Tobacco
Energy
Financial Services
Beer
Telecomms
Restaurants
Pet Care
Sports Apparel
Travel & Leisure
Professional Services
Alcohol
OTC Healthcare
Home Care
Apparel
Food & Drink
Personal Care
Consumer Electronics
Snacking
Retail
Other
Media
Handheld Technology
Automotive
Beauty
Not for Profit
Luxury

8. Beer brands
underperform in
creating real
connections with
people.
112
90
85 84 83
79 77 77 75 75 75 74 74
70 66 66
60 57 56 53
45
41
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Guinness is the most desirable brand, some way ahead of the rest of the pack.
It is also the ONLY beer brand to score higher than the average desirability score in the UK (100),
showing the real lack of desirability beer has as a category - an incredible disconnect given it is a
category associated with fun, social occasions.
Cross-category average
DESIRE RANKINGS WITHIN THE BEER CATEGORY
POOR
DESIRE

9. POOR
DIFFERENTIATION

10. Almost all brands fall
into personality
territories split by sub-
category lines.
Lagers, for example,
are all seen as cool
and sociable.
POOR
DIFFERENTIATION
BEER BRANDS DON’T STAND OUT:
IT’S ALL JUST LAGER OR ALE.
Cool
Status
Respect
Reassurance
Care
Sociability
Heineken
Budweiser
Carlsberg
Becks
Stella Artois
Amstel
Carling
Coors
Corona
Fosters
Kronenburg 1664
Peroni
Brand Personalities mapped for the Lager Category in the UK,

11. POOR
CUT THROUGH

12. 38%
We asked what media
touch points had
influenced a
respondent’s opinion of
a beer brand.
An average of 38% of
people said their view
was not influenced by
ANY media.
POOR CUT
THROUGH Not influenced by
any media type
Influenced by one
or more media
touchpoints
38%
BEER BRANDS UNDERPERFORM IN MAKING PEOPLE NOTICE
WHAT THEY SAY AND DO.

13. A CATEGORY WITH A LACK OF DESIRE,
DIFFERENTIATION AND CUT THROUGH.
IN SUMMARY

14. CREATING MORE DESIRE
AND COMMERCIAL IMPACT
FOR YOUR BRAND.
THAT’S FIGHTING TALK..
WE CAN
REVIVE THE
UK’S DESIRE
FOR BEER.
WE BELIEVE

15. BY LOOKING AT
THE PRINCIPLES
OF HOW BRANDS
CREATE IMPACT
THROUGH DESIRE,
WE CAN SEE HOW A
REAL DIFFERENCE
WILL BE MADE
IMPACT =
ENERGY + SUBSTANCE + CONNECTION

16. ENERGY
Have an ambition that energises your world.
A brand has greater impact on business performance if it has a tangible
purpose with the power to inspire and drive the business forward, and
the authenticity to deliver against it.

17. Energy is all about your purpose
and reason for being. To be
successful in this area, brands
need to have an ambition that
inspires their internal audience,
customer and wider society.
This ambition also needs to be
genuine - a vision that is rooted
in the realities of the business.
Innocent is a brand with great energy. Their
raison d’etre is to help people ‘live well and
die old’. Innocent is the most desirable food
and drinks brand in the study and has seen
sales rocketing by 35% in 2012.
ENERGY ACROSS
CATEGORIES
Live well and die old
+35% sales Look, feel and do
good
+3.8% turnover
Unleash your inner athlete
+7% vol. sales
Brand Energy describes the right fit between an ambition to do good
and actually making good product

18. Does the beer category have energy?
When it comes to energy,
beer brands have a real
lack of fizz.
Aside from a slightly better
performance from
Guinness, few beer brands
score well on this measure.
ENERGY
Brand Energy describes the right fit between an ambition to do good
and actually making good product
Thisbrandmakesgreatproducts
This brand is on a mission to improve society
Guinness
Heineken
Budweiser
Carlsberg
Becks
Stella Artois
Amstel
Boddingtons
Brew Dog
Carling
Coors
Corona
Fosters
Greene King IPA
Grolsch
Hoegaarden
John Smiths
Kronenburg 1664
Old Speckled Hen
Peroni
San Miguel
Tetley Smooth

19. OLD TIMER GUINNESS STILL HAS MORE ENERGY THAN ITS RIVALS.
Heritage & legacy still helping support
it’s higher purpose.
Association with Irish-ness and
special occasions.
Huge, iconic advertising standing for
more than just beer.
Guinness shows that brands can have real longevity and energy in old age. People
continue to hugely respect – and desire – the Guinness brand, and it is seen as being
on a mission to improve society; this being driven by its current and past
associations with things bigger than just beer!

20. SURELY THERE IS A SPACE FOR A BEER BRAND
WHICH HAS A HIGHER AMBITION BEYOND GETTING
PEOPLE TO RELAX OR HAVE A GOOD TIME?

21. HOW TO WIN IN BEER Bonus Tip!
Direct your energy so you make, not
just take volume. In a shrinking
category, the only way up is to grow
the category.
Peroni and BrewDog have high
desirability scores and are starting to
do just that– Peroni appealing to
women, BrewDog to younger, more
affluent males, who enjoy the craft
beer experience.
Their aspirational and differentiated
purposes put them in a great
position to excel on this measure and
fuel their growth in the future.
Stand for something bigger.
Get consumers to buy into your ‘reason why’ instead
of making purchase decisions on slight variances in
product and communications.

22. SUBSTANCE
Keep reinventing your offer in a meaningful way.
A brand has greater impact on business performance if it continues to
evolve the substance it offers in people’s lives.

23. Substance is the tangible proof of
energy. It isn’t solely about producing
a great product or service, but
continuously re-evaluating and
innovating to ensure the brand has a
real role in people’s lives.
Dyson came out as one of the highest
performing brands in this area -
known for its game-changing
innovations, products like Airblade
and ball vacuum cleaners. Dyson was
the 10th most desirable UK brand in
our study.
SUBSTANCE
ACROSS
CATEGORIES
184
Amazo
n
#7 brand
+27% sales
#10 brand
+25% sales
#1 B&M retailer
+6% sales

24. SUBSTANCE
Beer brands are seen as
woefully un-innovative in
consumers minds, and not
making any differences to
people’s lives with their
products
The only beacon of light in terms
of innovation is BrewDog, and to a
lesser extent Stella Artois.
Consumers are clearly registering
that BrewDog is breaking the
mould with it’s outrageous and
extensive product range, whilst
Stella Artois’ early stretch into
Cider has clearly been noticed too.
GuinnessHeineken
Budweiser
Carlsberg
Becks
Stella Artois
Amstel
Boddingtons
BrewDog
Carling
Coors
Corona
Fosters Greene King IPA
Grolsch
HoegaardenJohn Smiths
Kronenburg 1664
Old Speckled Hen
Peroni
San Miguel
Tetley Smooth
Beer brands fail to make a meaningful difference.
Brand Substance describes the right fit between constantly
innovating and
making a difference to people’s lives; examples UK

25. BREWDOG – INNOVATIVE IN EVERY WAY TO GIVE BEER A FIRM SHAKE BY THE NECK
BrewDog take innovation to the next level, in their marketing, but even more so with their products…with
a vast, constant stream of truly innovative/outrageous, high quality products
Their innovation exudes fun and passion – like a bunch of mad professors let loose in a brewery.
And consumers love them– because they love what BrewDog’s brand is about, and therefore know what to
expect from their products – a wild, unpredictable ride.
Vast core range, with constant rolling
innovation, with strong consistent
branding
Stretching ABV to the
max (32%)
Creating beer as Art with their premium ‘Abstrakt’
range (selling for £80 on ebay)
Using outrageous
ingredients

26. However, whilst BrewDog has pulled away on being
seen as innovative, no beer brands are being seen to
create products that make a real difference to people’s
lives.
How can we create a deeper role and meaning
to innovations in this category?

27. HOW TO WIN IN BEER
Bonus Tip!
If your product innovation drives forward
your brand purpose, you have a potent
cocktail to give your brand more
desirability.
BrewDog’s outrageous innovations add
huge substance to its similarly outrageous
purpose.
Stella’s ‘Cidre’ and Stella ‘4’ innovations
add real substance to it’s move to a more
sophisticated, feminine positioning.
However, to add more substance, all beer
brands can do much better to add a
deeper meaning to what their products are
about and what they are offering to
consumers lives.
When creating innovation, ensure it is
clearly meeting a deeper need. Always
ask yourself ‘why will this product
make a difference?’

28. CONNECTION
Develop a personality that humanises
connections
A brand has greater impact on business performance if it has a clear
personality to connect with that reflects the relationship consumers want
to have with it.

29. People build relationships with brands in the same way they do with real people. Some want friends
that reflect who they are, whilst others feel drawn to those who they’d like to be. Either way, the
clearer you are about who you are and the more coherent you are across touchpoints, the more
memorable and desirable your brand will be.
…As long as it’s a personality your audience wants to connect with.

30. YET ONCE YOU GET PAST THE CATEGORY DECISION IN BEER (LAGER OR ALE?),
THERE’S OFTEN NOT MUCH REAL CHOICE TO BE HAD.
Cool
Status
Respect
Reassurance
Care
Sociability Heineken
Budweiser
Carlsberg
Becks
Stella Artois
Amstel
Carling
Coors
Corona
Fosters
Kronenburg 1664
Peroni
All lager brands follow the same shape
– all playing the ‘sociability’ game.
LAGER BRAND PERSONALITIES

31. Cool
Status
Respect
Reassurance
Care
Sociability
2013 - UK - Stella Artois
2013 - UK - Guinness
2013 - UK - Brew Dog
2013 - UK - Old Speckled Hen
2013 - UK - Peroni
PERSONALITIES OF THE TOP 5 DESIRABLE BEER BRANDS
THE MOST DESIRED BRANDS HAVE A STRONG, WELL DEFINED
PERSONALITY

32. BrewDog is seen as much cooler than other beer brands – and unashamedly not ‘caring. It has
created this differentiation by creating a brand with a ground breaking ‘punk’ ethos that runs
through everything it does.
Standing out has helped drive it up to the 5th highest beer desire score and the highest score
of any beer for both ‘a brand I want to know more about’ and ‘a brand I like to talk about’.
This proves that people can get excited about beer again – we just need to give them
something different to get excited about!
BREWDOG – A BRAND NOT AFRAID TO STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD
Celebration of beer
Call to action & welcoming to their
club
Creating buzz through break-through marketing
& PR

33. WHAT PERSONALITY WILL HELP US STAND
OUT IN A DECLINING CATEGORY?

34. Bonus Tip!
Standing out in how you connect comes
not just from your message but the
medium too.
Beer brands should look to connect with
consumers beyond the conventional
mainstream media… beers have been
plying their message here for far too long,
converging in their medium as well as
their message!
If we want to bring in new types of
consumer, we must adopt new ways to
find them!
Now is not the time for blending into the crowd.
Be bold in selecting the 2-3 personality attributes you
want to stand for and do it in a truly differentiating way.
HOW TO WIN IN BEER

35. HOW TO WIN IN BEER…KEY TAKE OUTS
Differentiate on
personality to stand
out in a sea of
sameness.
Stand for something
bigger than ‘having
a good time’.
Create desirable
innovations that
support your purpose
and add value to your
customer’s lives.

36. SO HOW CAN WE HELP YOU DRIVE IMPACT THROUGH DESIRE?
THE BIG IDEA
• Finding your brand purpose
• Brand engagement
• Brand experience design
PRODUCT EVOLUTION
• Innovating to support the
purpose
• Portfolio strategy
• Brand architecture innovation
strategy (business model,
service, product, offer)
UNDERSTANDING AND
CONNECTING WITH CONSUMERS
• Creating a bigger
experience that transcends
the category
• Insight & market analysis
• Consumer segmentation &
growth mapping
• Brand positioning &
personality
• Activation strategy
ENERGY
SUBSTANCECONNECTION
IMPACT

37. THANK YOU!
WWW.BRAND-DESIRE.COM