The task of turning women on to beer
My New Year's resolution for 2009 is to try to get more women to enjoy beer. Mind you, I could have a bit of a struggle on my hands.
"It hasn't happened anywhere in the world," claims Auckland retail analyst Tim Morris in a report published last week. "There's something about the flavour or the concept, or the whole product, that it's just a man's drink."
What a load of rubbish! All that is needed is for brewers to stop ignoring women and start making and promoting beers that really appeal to them.
According to Lion Nathan's beer marketing director, Stephen Smith, one beer that does appeal to women is Corona. "Its easy-to-drink quality appeals to women, while its androgynous branding and packaging means they do not feel excluded," he says.
So what are Lion and DB Breweries doing to actively promote beer to women?
"We don't have anything on our agenda at this stage," Smith says.
Lion Nathan has focused on encouraging women into its other lines of alcoholic drinks.
Basically, that means "we've pretty much given up on promoting beer to women, so we're hoping to get them drinking our sweet, brightly coloured ready-to-drinks and wines instead". Great!
And what about DB? Apparently, New Zealand's No2 brewer "has seen more women consumers than the norm for its Monteith's craft range, particularly citrus-flavoured Radler and honey-accented Summer Ale, even though they are not marketed specifically at women".
Easy to drink? Citrus flavoured? Honey-accented? Why do brewers persist in the assumption that women want to drink only something that's bland, or sweet, brightly coloured and flavoured with fruit juice or honey.
I believe the big brewers have come to the conclusion that women just don't like the bitterness of hops. I think they are wrong. I reckon women just don't enjoy the blunt, unbalanced bitterness of the thin lagers the big brewers tend to promote above all other styles.
Just as it takes time and experience to come to appreciate the racy acidity of an austere white wine, or the tannins in a barrel-fermented red wine, so it is with the herbal dryness of hops. Be honest. Did you really enjoy your first taste of Marlborough sauvignon blanc? Or did you develop an appreciation for it over time?
I believe it is high time brewers started to promote beer's remarkable diversity to women. With a broader range of colours, flavours and textures than wine, beer can be as pale, dry and sparkling as the finest Champagne or as intensely sweet, dark and luscious as a Pedro Ximenez sherry.
To those of you, women and men, who think you don't like beer, I say you're wrong. You just haven't tried enough different styles yet. Check out a few of the recommendations I make in this column each week, and I'll bet you'll find something you really like. This year could well be the year of your personal beer epiphany. Cheers!
- The Marlborough Express
