How not to market your beer - a case study
Pump clips that speak to dark-clad adolescent boys, a website to please Enrique Iglesias fans. The Hart Brewery in Little Eccleston, near Preston, is aiming for an odd demographic indeed.
I spotted the beer on the left at The Pembury Tavern recently. I didn't try it, but took a snap of the pump clip and resolved to find out more about the brewery. I've written recently about my dislike for the way real ale is marketed. I don't think I've seen a more extreme example than this. After listening to the Latino warbler on the website's front page (somebody wants you), check out this gallery of shame. I'm reminded of the scene in Peep Show when Jeremy, hunting for porn, finds Mark's stash of role playing magazines and wonders if his flatmate really does masturbate over scantily-clad elves.
Who does this stuff appeal to? I'd hazard a guess that women - not to mention men who've ever had sex with one - will be instantly turned off.
58 comments:
If they're going to put soft porn on a pump clip, they should at least put good soft porn on there, what on earth is that squirrel woman thing all about.
While beer and porn are two of my favourite things, they should be kept separate for best effect. :P
That's terrible. I wonder what the beer's like? Something tells me it won't be very good but just as you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, don't judge a beer by the label!
what on earth is that squirrel woman thing all about
Real Ale for Furries, surely the most niche of all niche markets!
If you've ever been to Little Ecclestone (or better still, Great Ecclestone) you'd know.
Not many surnames..that's all I'm saying..
How timely. I was in Nelson Wines on Saturday when I saw some particulary sexxy bottle lables from the Fallen Angel brewery.
Sadly I can't find a picture of my favorite, a tasteful rendering of a bare-arsed nun on all fours as my work firewall blocks their website, but for John's sake and to point out the size of the Furry/Ale venn diagram I thought I should give you the link for Black Cat Ale's ratebeer entry.
http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/fallen-angel-black-cat-ale/51456/
Hold your heads high fellas, classy stuff.
Well, first things first. The beer is pretty good. I've visited the brewery quite a long time ago, probably 4 or 5 years since, but it isn't uncommon around here.
I guess what they'd say is that it makes a point of difference to free houses and is a bit of fun.
I think that while it is tacky, it is no more tacky than some other pump clips around, not always featuring near naked simulants. There is a culture among micros to give beer daft names. It doesn't help to seriously market the beer on one level, but on another it can be a talking point. I think there is a wider need to clean these particular stables. So I'm on the fence on this one.
On a final point. Not all women are turned off by this obviously, as the web site features a female person behind an array of such pump clips. She doesn't seem to be obviously gritting her teeth!
I always thought that kind of pump clip was a secret signal "it's ok to have a wank at the bar".
Ooops!
Tandleman:
"I guess what they'd say is that it makes a point of difference to free houses and is a bit of fun."
To each his or her own, I suppose. You obviously aren't concerned about the skewed demographic that enjoy real ale, and the fact marketing like this perpetuates that.
"Not all women are turned off by this obviously, as the web site features a female person behind an array of such pump clips. She doesn't seem to be obviously gritting her teeth!"
She's the barmaid - she's getting paid to stand behind the bar!
Real Ale for Furries, surely the most niche of all niche markets!
BAHAHAHAHA!!!
Furries are messed up individuals.
Stonch
As you remark yourself from time to time, the real ale market is relatively buoyant at the moment. The odd distasteful pumpclip isn't going to change that one way or another.
One man's skewed demographic is another man's niche I guess. I rather doubt if decent pumpclips will be the saviour of real ale. If it is, let's get 'em all redesigned quick!
I don't care what the pump clip is like - I judge beer on how it tastes.
Tandleman:
"One man's skewed demographic is another man's niche I guess."
Well, that's a pretty bad niche. I'd guess the type of people that sort of thing appeals to will tend to be poorly educated and low earners. That's hardly a lucrative niche if you want to sell a premium, craft product like microbrewed cask ale.
"I rather doubt if decent pumpclips will be the saviour of real ale. If it is, let's get 'em all redesigned quick!"
I don't think a good pump clip would drive sales, but a dramatically bad one will surely depress them. For every person who sees it as a laugh, you'll get one sensitive soul who finds it mildly offensive, and about a dozen who have their prejudices about real ale reinforced.
It's just a fact that people judge products on the basis of how they are presented. Why do you think a product like Brahma lager from Brazil has done so well so quickly? Because of a good advertising campaign and an attractive bottle.
Great post. I loved the gallery of shame. The beer is good, I'm glad to say. I voted for the Val Addiction one at the Southport Beer Festival, fortunately there were no pump clips on display at the festival or they might have lost it
Its better than having a picture of a half naked guy on the pump clip.
I agree with your point that it is tacky or whatever, but not your conclusion where you say "For every person who sees it as a laugh, you'll get one sensitive soul who finds it mildly offensive, and about a dozen who have their prejudices about real ale reinforced."
I think Stonch my point is that I doubt if there will be one in a hundred that cares enough to boycott it or even notice it in a negative way, nor indeed in a positive one.
This subject of broadening real ale appeal is deep and complex. I'll have a go at it on my blog soon
"Its better than having a picture of a half naked guy on the pump clip."
Why?
Maybe they have have a misconception on the average Ale drinker ,and so put a bit of flange on as they reckon its the only way they are going to see a bit.What next,Hop Back Golden Shower and Timmy Taylors Labia.
Tandleman, yes, widening the appeal of real ale is a complex matter, but are you denying that presentation has anything to do with it? If so I just don't understand your perspective, which runs counter to common sense. You might think I'm overplaying the importance a little (I'd disagree), but surely you don't think marketing like this isn't harmful?
I can't see how using an InBev beer is a helpful exemplar of 'good' marketing, unless you mean in terms of shifting units. InBev can work in volume above and below the line to get their beer in front of that niche you frown upon, Stonch, meanwhile this brewer has his beer being debated on your blog because he paid some Hobbit fan a tenner to draw his wank fantasy on a pumpclip. I dunno about appeal to a demographic (I like beer, myself), but that seems like pretty effective bang for his limited buck. And I don't imagine he had world domination in mind when he commissioned it.
Why pigeonhole cask as a "premium, craft product like microbrewed cask ale" aimed at people with high disposable incomes, who are highly educated and high earners. What's that got to do with beer? This is the dynamic po-mo early 21st century - I'm sure our thrusting New Young Urban Professional Elite fresh out of their meejah studies degree courses can spot a bit of low-brow irony... And if not, maybe ale will continue to be a choice of all drinkers of good taste, be they pretentious self-obsessed colour-supplement lifestyle twats, the poorly ejukated (like me) or Michale Jackson, who is a demographic on his own 8-)
Where's all the "get your tits out for the lads" fanfare?! Stanch, you seem a bit tender regarding this pump clip. I'm starting to think you're a tad too civilized.
Its biker culture, the sort of which you find in many tattoo parlours, it is awful. And the music on that website is disgusting.
We have similar struggles here with certain micro brewers and beer publications wanting to do bar maid of the month promos and the like. Its pretty crass.
"Its pretty crass."
Says it all really.
Those pump clips and marketing would put me off. I would be more likely to buy beer from a bear in a pork pie hat. My wife probably would be even less keen.
Of course their marketing does not owe the real ale industry anything. The brewers can market as they see fit even to the detriment of the industry as a whole.
Just one question, how many "Squirrels Hoard's" did you have to drink before you found the squirrel dressed in her naughty night attire attractive?
My final contribution on this is that while presentation is important, you have to take a broader view. I'd say while it may offend the odd metrosexual, nobody in its heartland will give a toss.My contention is that to eradicate silly names and pumpclips, you have to go a lot wider than you have.
I would be interested in the demographic you think "ought" to be drinking real ale. Given the large number of microbreweries now, you are going to find some gimmicky and offensive. Some drinkers will have a problem with that while the rest of the world just sups and enjoys. There isn't a "one answer fits all" to this and one person's offence is another's good laugh. I don't care either way. The odd duff pumpclip is neither here nor there. It's a perspective thing! Good beer and good availability are far more important.
I'm with Stonch on this one, as I've blogged about in the past.
It just makes me think: "how tacky. Bet their beer's rubbish". It's just counterproductive for the brewery.
Nice Peep Show reference.
Don't you all think that this is one area that the little guys can learn from the likes of InBev et al. Obviuosly they can't match their advertising budget but they can copy the style of their point of sale logos/marketing/etc. (e.g. Adnams). Or look at the simplistic retro look of brewers who have been around for ever (e.g. Timothy Taylor).
From the way the brewery history read, I think the pump clips are the least of real ale's image problems!
Agreed, that the furry clip is over the top. The others aren't too bad, but I can see that people with a more politcally correct inclination may find them offensive.
The strange think about Hart beers and their dodgy pump clips is that The Cartford Hotel (brewery tap) seemed to be a decent place with decent clientele when I visited about ten years ago. Not sure what they think about the art work. The beers are pretty good. Back then they did an Oatmeal Stout called Road To Rome which was sublime (and had a clean pumpclip)
Forget about the cheesy pictures of partially naked women and squirrels. All those beers in the gallery of shame are less than 5% ABV! What's up with that? Where's the IIPA or RIS?
Hmmm - as a female fan of good ale, I think I'd have to agree with Stonch on this one. I also agree with Matt - something silly & fun like a bear in a pork pie hat is likely to appeal to both men and women.
Plus, is anyone besides me a tad disturbed that the label featuring what appears to be scantily-clad lesbians is on the ale dedicated to the brewer's daughter???
If it's good enough for Captain Sensible, it's good enough for me. The pump clips apparently don't bother him much. He's fully endorsed the beer.
Stanch, you might want to start listening to The Damned. You'd probably spend less time worrying about risqué pump clips.
Tandleman - I don't think anyone has said they're offended by their pump clips. They're just rubbish.
That's right - this isn't about "political correctness" (an expression I hate, btw). The issue is that pump clips like that make the product look crap.
Spot on Stonch. I would not be tempted to drink the beer by looking at the clip, rather repelled by it.
(Although with regard to PC concerns, it *is* the product of neanderthal and rather sexist thinking.)
Lighten up stonch, it's a clip,thats all.The only important information on it is, who conceived it and how strong it claims to be.
"All those beers in the gallery of shame are less than 5% ABV! What's up with that? Where's the IIPA or RIS?"
I doubt such powerful stuff would go down terribly well with the burghers of Little Eccleston ...
Most British micros brew for local pub-goers, not for extreme beer fans.
Just picturing the bloke who came up with this crass load of bollocks would put me off their beers for life.
See also: Any beer with a half-arsed innuendo for a name.
It's worth pointing out a new brewery that's got its image and marketing spot on. Leeds Brewery has smart pump clips in a distinctive shape which is reflected across their entire brand, including their equally smart website:
http://www.leedsbrewery.co.uk/
What's more, their beer's spot on and is already starting to win awards. We're off on a tour of the small bewery in a couple of weeks and I'm already looking forward to it!
Excellent post Stonch (or is it Staaanch?)
God, this is the same elven hobgobliny rubbish I have to battle against constantly with my ntirokeg-swiiging friends. Dorothy Goodbody is a tad on the buxomly mysongist side, but at least the tongue is firmly planted in the cheek at Wye Valley. I think the bloke who commissoned these clips has his tongue stuck firmly somewhere else, in his dreams (nice Peep Show refernec BTW).
Awful awful awful, but the fact that this little brewer has got some free publicity because of this means that he wins in end!
I can't believe I'm reading such saintly comments. Beer has been advertised for decades by companies using pretty girls wearing little or nothing. Do you remember the Scottish Tenant labels which became collectors items in the 60's. The great Czech artist Mucha adorned his beer advertisements with nude women. Belgium sold beer with bare-breasted ladies on their advertising literature even before the first world war. I never realised real ale drinkers were such puritans. Very few of you seem concerned about how the Hart Beers taste, they are outstanding, and their eye-catching pump-clips make their beers stand out for the brown, bland liquid that many of our "tasteful" brewers call beer.
Get a life!
It might not be your (or my) style, but a lot of perfectly decent people actually like this type of imagery. Go into a new age/goth bookshop and it's common across a whole genre of material where buxom super-hero ladies brandishing broadswords in their thongs are considered completely normal and above-board.
Now, if the guy who makes this beer likes that kind of scene, he has every right to market his product using it - and I think without a load of stiff bloggers getting hot under the collar about it. Good luck to him - I'm sure he sells a shed-load at biker conventions and stoner bars. Isn't that the kind of market real ale should be penetrating if it's ever going to be the drink of choice ? Or shall we just get affronted when it turns up in our local in Fulham ?
I'm used to a brewery making a range of beers from 5% up to 10%. Doesn't anyone in Britain want big beers? I mean how many different ways can you do a golden fruity session beer with secret hops formulas?
Keith, there are breweries in Britain producing more extreme beers. I've written about several on this blog. However, most small breweries will concentrate on producing what local people want to drink.
Many (if not most) British micros do little or no bottling: they produce cask ale only, for consumption in the pub. People don't want to drink 10% abv beers in the pub because it simply isn't conducive to social drinking.
Couldn't you drink a 10% beer half as quickly, and be just as social about it?
Well said Fyldeboozer. I have never read so much puritanical rubbish in my life. Its even worse than the Hobgoblin thread. Everyone's now a marketing expert. What it actually represents is how out of touch some real ale fans are-something I'm usually found arguing against. As Tandleman has said, in the scale of things, it matters not a jot. And as for being offensive, don't make me laugh.
Showed it to a mixed bunch in my local, where they found it interesting, rather than offensive. People were more bothered about how the beer tasted. Some of the women did find it amusing that "sad beer geeks with blogs" (their words!) were so upset. Seems they hold beer bloggers in the same regard as you do elf lovers etc.
As for Leeds Brewery, it's horses for courses. They may have their marketing sorted, BUT some of their beer has been dodgy-which is more important?
Having drunk more Harts beers than I can remember (although sadly I didn't try any of his before he got busted!) I can confirm that, by and large, they are cracking beers, full of flavour, and as subtle as the pumpclips.
Really, have you soft southern jessies nothing more important to moan about than pumpclips? The beer's good, you don't have to drink it if you're offended by lasses...
Flydeboozer, Alex, Jon W and Gazza: Hold on a minute - I didn't once say these pump clips were offensive. I don't think they are. Nor am I being "puritanical". It's not about that.
I'm not getting hot under the collar and I'm certainly not outraged! I'm just taking the piss. If you can't see that, then it's you that needs to "get a life".
Don't be so defensive all the time and learn to see the funny side of yourselves. Everyone else does.
i shagged a goblin wench once. right afterwards i tied my hair into a pony tail and rode off on my harley. i'm a real man yeah
I'm very torn about this because I like Hart Ales, they really are very good, but I do find their pumps clips - well puerile to be honest.
I don't think I can put it better than you did Stonch with the Peep Show reference, you do imagine that the creator of these pathetic things stays home on a Friday night playing Dungeons & Dragons online with complete strangers whilst boasting that he's got the 'biggest broadsword'.
It may not be the case but it's very much my initial reaction to tired stuff like this.
If this stuff distburbs you,
check this out for wildly inappropriate:
http://www.tardhard.com/#
An energy drink called Retard Strength... Makes scantily clad women seem tame by comparison... I can only hope this is a put-on!
Bit harsh on my post there Stonch. I wasn't commenting on your lead article but on the blog thread that had developed - which was very much focusing on whether the images were offensive in one way or other and that they/the guy who uses them was 'crass' (e.g. Albert Campion). Your lead article was amusing, but some of the blogs that followed were not.
Real ale loving furries are a growth market.
Everyone is chasing the furry pound now. Deep analysis of search engine statistics show an active population of over 24million furries with a gross income larger than some EU countries, Many of whom are Real Ale Fans.
Yet they are a very overlooked sector of the global community.
Some of the comments above are bordering on furry discrimination, a subject which is ignored by the main stream media.
(There are many thousands of furries who are Enrique Iglesias fans but we won't mention them.)
Face reality - many real ale drinkers are sad geeks. Geeks like all this sword and sorcery shit. This brewery is just playing to the gallery. What's wrong with that?
Never been near a sword or sourcery game in my life, unless you count reading Harry Potter!
And the truth is... that kind of sweeping statement is as narrow-minded as you can get - enough said!
well i have just seen your blog on my mates web site and had to write as i know the history of these clips 2 of the beers are dedicated to one woman she did not find the clips affensive he told me if i affended her i would scrap the beer, ice maiden and dishy debi are the bread and butter of hart brewery as for the music he cant write classic love song to her but he can brew a classic beer for her
I'm perhaps more affended(sick) by the choice of Enrique's music on the website! - Does Capt Sensible know? I think he might not approve :~)
note to Sid Boggle - who writ - "Michale Jackson, who is a demographic on his own" you do know the much-loved chap died last year, don't you?
cheers
MikeAle McG
The yawn inducing shocked comments about a woman in shabby clothes (not nude, notice) make me think they are made by fat bearded Guardian-reading pillocks for the benefit of other fat bearded Guardian reading pillocks who like to bleat how "right-on" they are,and "non-sexist" when in reality, it's because they wouldn't know what to do with such a woman if they had the chance.
(Unsurprising seeing the kind of "women" writing in the Guardian !)
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