Remember The Pepsi Challenge? No TV ad break in the 80s and 90s seemed complete without it. Pepsi set up tables in public places with two white cups, one containing Pepsi and one containing Coca-Cola. Then, participants would taste both drinks, choose which they preferred and, surprise, surprise, Pepsi would come out on top.
Maybe somebody at SIBA, the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates, was a fan? As the indie brewer’s champion has just introduced a marketing campaign designed to challenge consumer perceptions in the same way. But this one is not so much a blind-taste test as an eyes-wide-open one, involving a new trademark for independents.
According to The Guardian, small breweries in the UK are “warning that global corporations have bamboozled many drinkers into believing that formerly independent brands are still artisanal hidden gems.”
This after a specially commissioned YouGov survey revealed many beer drinkers were unable to distinguish between genuine independent beers and those brewed by the major corporations. The Guardian again, “Corporate branding has been so effective that 40% of those surveyed thought that Neck Oil, brewed by Heineken-owned Beavertown, was independent, higher than genuinely standalone breweries such as Vocation, Fyne Ales and Five Points.”
Just like a book, a beer, it seems, is judged by its cover.
But, as The Telegraph comments, SIBA’s marketing department is fighting back. “In an attempt to push back against the multinational beer makers, it has recently launched an “indie beer” label, calling on British brewers to add it to their cans and bottles so aficionados can tell the difference,” says the broadsheet.
Launching the new campaign, Andy Slee, SIBA Chief Executive, issued a defiant battle cry for the indies involved in this Davd Vs Goliath struggle – “Between them independent brewers employ 10,000 people, run over 2,000 pubs bars and taprooms, and pay millions in taxes here in the UK. They are a force for good in the local communities they represent, and it’s essential global beer companies are not taking credit for the hard work of true independent brewers.”
But, as The Telegraph points out, “Massive multinational brewers such as AB InBev (maker of Stella Artois), Heineken, Asahi, Carling’s owner Molson Coors – known as “macros” to many craft beer fans – have collectively splurged millions snapping up independent brewers to cash in on the boom over the last 10 years.”
So, presumably, the ‘macros’ would simply argue, having spent substantial amounts of cash acquiring product portfolios their customers love, why change the product by changing the packaging?
SIBA’S NEW ‘Indie Beer’ mark will be used on beer pump clips, cans, and bottle labels to identify beers as being produced by a genuine UK independent brewery, in the hope that authentic independent and craft beers will become instantly recognisable to consumers. If it works, the big brewers may find their ‘Indie Challenge’ is back on.