Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
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Sabia, who's targeting a trove of Mexican brands like Corona, Modelo, Victoria and Pacifico at various demo- graphic niches. Take the issue of food pairings. Sabia feels chefs' pairing of food with beer and cooking with beer has created avenues to better compete with wine, and by now Crown has undertaken food-pairing efforts behind its Negro Modelo and Victoria brands. Next up: a play on the Mazatlan roots of Pacifico, with seafood- related efforts grounded in the beer's prominent pres- ence in local pescaderias. Sabia is among those who feel the current trend toward proliferation of beers won't be reversing any time soon. "Think back 15 years ago and the brand set of a consumer might have been a favorite and two others," he said. "Now, it's a favorite and five others." Further, legal drinking age consumers are going straight to imports and craft, when in past years their tastes may have taken years to evolve to an appreciation of those kinds of beers. Hand in hand with that fragmentation is a parallel shift in the media landscape, which has splintered in a manner that craft proponents feel has evened the play- ing field. "The splintering of media and growing impor- tance of free media/social media is a great boon to craft beer – such a better fit than for lager beers," contends Brooklyn Brewing co-founder Steve Hindy. The big brands' domination of the last 30-40 years "has had a lot to do with the domination of media channels. It's much more complicated to get a message across, and craft is a better fit." More Sophistication for Mainsteam Brands S o what about mainstream premi- um brands then? What's in the cards for them? The marketers of these mass brands seem to be edging toward greater urbanity and sophistication in their marketing, and – as with Bud Light Platinum – looking to offer line extensions that don't garner just a tem- porary novelty-driven lift, but actually help to elevate the image of the core brand. It's too early to say whether such efforts will be successful or sustained, but they represent a dramatic response to a segment that in recent years – high- end beers aside – has seemed mainly to be in a defensive crouch against wine and spirits. They're also getting more savvy and agile about playing in up-and-coming segments. Take cider. In the past, the major beer companies might have waited longer to see whether the segment really pans out – after all, an earlier charge into the category led by Gallo in the 1990s "We could be going into a bit of a renaissance with beer." —KAUMIL GAJRAWALA, executive director, UBS Investment Bank Blue Moon, now in MillerCoors' Tenth & Blake division, has just released this Caramel Apple Spiced Ale. brought few responses from other major companies and ultimately didn't pan out, leaving cider as no more than a profitable little niche of similarly formulated and posi- tioned brands. This time, several bigger companies react- ed quickly and decisively. Sam Adams marketer Boston Beer quickly restaged its Hardcore brand as the more artisanally positioned Angry Orchard. MillerCoors acquired the upstart brand making the most noise in the marketplace, Crispin, and folded it into its fledgling Tenth & Blake brand-incubation unit. Tenth & Blake president Tom Cardella noted that he met Crispin cre- ator Joe Heron for the first time last November and they had a deal by February – blazing speed by the standards of major companies. Just a few weeks ago, Heineken USA signed a deal to bring into its core oper- ations Strongbow, the world's best-sell- ing cider and No. 2 in the U.S., after nine years of partnering with Vermont Hard Cider Co. "By growing our core and investing in innovation, we will continue to enhance our position as the industry's leading upscale importer," said Heineken USA president Dolf van den Brink, in explaining the rationale for the move, effective in January. Do the big companies realistically have a chance at playing the niches? Recall that going back to first craft boom in the 1990s, they've tried plethora of strategies – from so-called "stealth" micros to outright acquisitions – that often were rich with ingenuity but yielded modest results at best. This time, though, they seem to be pushing for more fundamental cultural change within their own ranks to prevent the types of disconnects that doomed earlier efforts to play in craft. "It's all about understanding and being part of the culture to position you to be able to par- Beverage Dynamics • www.beveragedynamics.com • September/October 2012 • 19