E-Malt.com News article: Australia: Victoria Bitter loses chare despite Foster’s marketing efforts

Foster’s marketing of Victoria Bitter, or VB, is in fact managing the decline in sales, The Age posted on May, 14.

Twenty years ago, one in three beers drunk by Australians was a VB; today it is one in four of the mainstream beer segment, which accounts for half the Australian beer market.

VB is still Australia's biggest-selling beer and is twice the size of its nearest rival, Tooheys New. But while the Australian male has changed, VB has not. Seduced by the advertising and the badge value, younger men are turning to imported beers. If they do drink a regular beer, it is more likely to be a low-carb version such as Pure Blonde, which delivers the alcoholic hit but without the calories.

Drinkers no longer stick to the one beer that defines who they are; instead they have a beer for every "drinking occasion".

And if they really must have a traditional full-strength, full-fat beer, then it is more likely to be a Carlton Draught, a once "daggy" brand that has made the leap from the smoky pub to the club. Carlton Draught and Pure Blonde are both Foster's brands, as it happens.

Australian males are no longer working up the kind of thirst that their fathers quenched with large volumes of VB. Manual work for the Aussie male today is often pointing and clicking a mouse.

But every three or four years, Foster's puts its finger in the proverbial dyke and launches a marketing campaign to staunch the flow of market share.

Australia’s largest brewer is to launch a marketing campaign for Victoria Bitter on June, it is reported.

According to Foster’s publicity team, the campaign will be a "celebration of Australia", that is a play on the brand's heritage.

VB has explored just about every avenue for a way out of the decline. Four years ago it pitched the beer at young office workers, talking about the perils of shouting beers. The narration was in the style of John Meillon, and the winning line "a hard-earned thirst needs a big cold beer" doubtless kept its core drinkers of older, blue-collar males happy.

Talking figurines of the cricketer David Boon, a wonderful viral ad of an orchestra playing the VB theme on empty bottles, and various promotions temporarily halted the slide.

Foster's even launched a mid-strength spin-off, VB Gold, which was a flop. A few years ago there was talk that the mining boom would provide VB with its next strategy; work doesn't come any harder than digging rocks out of the ground.

But the decline continues, though Foster's says it is slowing. Figures from Nielsen show VB's share of the regular beer market fell by 2.7 share points in the first quarter of the year compared with the corresponding period last year.

Unless Foster's can work magic, the brand will be left alone at the "saloon bar" to nurse an empty schooner, industry observers warn.



15 May, 2009