Jase71
Out of Order
- Joined
- 15/10/08
- Messages
- 782
- Reaction score
- 6
I've got my name on a couple of paid market research lists, and although I haven't been called up for many (two in two years!), I was called upon a few weeks ago for one concerning beer. How could I refuse, I thought, they were paying me $100 cash to spend 1.5 hours giving feedback and hopefully a few free drinks.
So I turn up to the place, and straight off the bat I'm handed a bottle of what some consider the Very Best beer in town. I cannot name the beer of course, nor can I suggest that it was or wasnt the Very Best. What we all know here is that's it's quite a popular choice (not here, but amongst our peers).
It worked out that it wasn't actually to do with beer tasting, comparion or anything else of that nature, but to glean some feedback from a cross section of men between 25 & 40 on a draft for an up & coming advertising campaign. I won't get into the campaign for the same reasons I won't name this Very Best beer. What did interest me was the perception that people have of this beer, and the image that it has in the marketplace.
To give you an idea of the attendees, it was 10 guys, mostly in their early 30's, a couple of which may have been tradesmen, the rest being in that zone of not quite traditional white collar, nor particularly conservative types, but the feeling I got was that all of them (OK... us) were the types to enjoy a few beers down at the pub from time to time. Everyone was articulate enough to express their thoughts & feelings.
And the shock to me was this.... that apart from myself & one other guy who said that Coopers was his drink of choice, every single other person was a dedicated drinker of the beer that we were there to comment on (or at least the ad campaign).
Right from my arrival, when we were all sitting outdoors having a couple before the market research began, someone said "oh we're all obviously here because we love this beer". I pointed out that this wasn't a question in the pre-screening process and that no, in fact I'm not a fan at all. All eyes on me now, as I tried to explain that i go for beers that are driven by flavour & character, as subtle as they may be - for example, I don't mind Schwelmer, Urquell, Dab etc - which are really not too far removed from Aussie Megaswills, but have a little more charachter. When pressed on the issue, I mentioned a couple of Aussie craft-style brews to keep it local - Murrays, Squire, Little Creatures, until blank looks all around stopped me from entering into a rant (anyway, that's not my style LOL)
So when the official research began, and we were asked to give feedback on the draft advert (think pictureboards, voiceovers etc) the host opened a discussion along the lines of "What does this beer mean to you?" Typically the concensus was that the beer in question is a no-bullshit, no pretension beverage that everyone can enjoy, that it bonds men together (WTF!?), that it's a great drop after a hard day at work and that it tastes good (again, WTF!?). It's a brand that everyone can identify with, it's a beer that they grew up around, a great working-class social leveller, one that their Dad's drank, and one that they would be sticking with, no matter what. Keep in mind what I said earlier, this wasn't a room full of yobs either (well, apart from me!).
The extension of that was the perception of guys who go a the pub/club/venue and drink 'imported' beer (these guys knew nothing of BUL, so it's not worth a mention). The thoughts were that these people were try-hards who only buy the 'trendy' beer because they are trying to portray an image (to which I noted that their active choice in drinking this megaswill was just as much an image-driven concept, non?). In many ways I would agree that the young guy at the funky pub that orders Heinekin is being a 'scene-queen', it amazed me to observe the group's devotion to, let's face it, a pretty bland beer.
The message that I got from this is that there's not too many people in the key demographic of beer drinkers with disposable income that are ever going to allow themselves to alter their perceptions and become familiar with the huge range of better beers available on the market, either local or imported. Which is quite sad, in that the effect on the market mean that there's little scope for growth in modern day Australia.
And no doubt this post will turn into a 'megaswill sucks' thread yet again - butu I found it interesting to hear a bunch of articulate guys speaking out about their tastes.
So I turn up to the place, and straight off the bat I'm handed a bottle of what some consider the Very Best beer in town. I cannot name the beer of course, nor can I suggest that it was or wasnt the Very Best. What we all know here is that's it's quite a popular choice (not here, but amongst our peers).
It worked out that it wasn't actually to do with beer tasting, comparion or anything else of that nature, but to glean some feedback from a cross section of men between 25 & 40 on a draft for an up & coming advertising campaign. I won't get into the campaign for the same reasons I won't name this Very Best beer. What did interest me was the perception that people have of this beer, and the image that it has in the marketplace.
To give you an idea of the attendees, it was 10 guys, mostly in their early 30's, a couple of which may have been tradesmen, the rest being in that zone of not quite traditional white collar, nor particularly conservative types, but the feeling I got was that all of them (OK... us) were the types to enjoy a few beers down at the pub from time to time. Everyone was articulate enough to express their thoughts & feelings.
And the shock to me was this.... that apart from myself & one other guy who said that Coopers was his drink of choice, every single other person was a dedicated drinker of the beer that we were there to comment on (or at least the ad campaign).
Right from my arrival, when we were all sitting outdoors having a couple before the market research began, someone said "oh we're all obviously here because we love this beer". I pointed out that this wasn't a question in the pre-screening process and that no, in fact I'm not a fan at all. All eyes on me now, as I tried to explain that i go for beers that are driven by flavour & character, as subtle as they may be - for example, I don't mind Schwelmer, Urquell, Dab etc - which are really not too far removed from Aussie Megaswills, but have a little more charachter. When pressed on the issue, I mentioned a couple of Aussie craft-style brews to keep it local - Murrays, Squire, Little Creatures, until blank looks all around stopped me from entering into a rant (anyway, that's not my style LOL)
So when the official research began, and we were asked to give feedback on the draft advert (think pictureboards, voiceovers etc) the host opened a discussion along the lines of "What does this beer mean to you?" Typically the concensus was that the beer in question is a no-bullshit, no pretension beverage that everyone can enjoy, that it bonds men together (WTF!?), that it's a great drop after a hard day at work and that it tastes good (again, WTF!?). It's a brand that everyone can identify with, it's a beer that they grew up around, a great working-class social leveller, one that their Dad's drank, and one that they would be sticking with, no matter what. Keep in mind what I said earlier, this wasn't a room full of yobs either (well, apart from me!).
The extension of that was the perception of guys who go a the pub/club/venue and drink 'imported' beer (these guys knew nothing of BUL, so it's not worth a mention). The thoughts were that these people were try-hards who only buy the 'trendy' beer because they are trying to portray an image (to which I noted that their active choice in drinking this megaswill was just as much an image-driven concept, non?). In many ways I would agree that the young guy at the funky pub that orders Heinekin is being a 'scene-queen', it amazed me to observe the group's devotion to, let's face it, a pretty bland beer.
The message that I got from this is that there's not too many people in the key demographic of beer drinkers with disposable income that are ever going to allow themselves to alter their perceptions and become familiar with the huge range of better beers available on the market, either local or imported. Which is quite sad, in that the effect on the market mean that there's little scope for growth in modern day Australia.
And no doubt this post will turn into a 'megaswill sucks' thread yet again - butu I found it interesting to hear a bunch of articulate guys speaking out about their tastes.
