If they don't want girly beers, what DO women want?

How to sell more beer to women? It’s a question many brewers have wrestled with over the past decade confronted by a steady decline in beer sales and consumption. The brewing industry has been lobbying hard for a reduction in beer duty, but while pricing is obviously an important issue, brewers face another arguably much bigger challenge: broadening the category’s appeal.

The fact remains that the vast majority of beer is consumed by men, so the female market is largely untapped. Yet Carlsberg brand Eve and Molson Coors’ Animée, which were both targeted squarely at women, failed. So how did the brewers get it so spectacularly wrong? Are girly beers a dud concept full stop or was it the execution rather than the idea at fault? And if this approach isn’t going to work, what will?

It’s not difficult to see why Carlsberg and Molson Coors both thought gender-specific beer brands would win over the ladies.

Beer consumption has nosedived 22% since 2008, according to the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA), and this is reflected in weakening sales, with off-trade sales falling 7.5% and on-trade sales down 4.8% in the final quarter of 2012 alone.

It would look like a sector in terminal decline if not for a couple of stark facts. As the research that prompted Molson Coors to launch Animée shows, women only account for 17% of beer sales in the UK and 79% of women either rarely or never drink beer. Could there be a better opportunity to attract a new audience and resurrect a category in one fell swoop?

“Ultimately, you don’t need a brand to be girly to consider it” Heather Alderson, Bartle Bogle Hegarty

Molson Coors set up a specialist in-house team called the BitterSweet Partnership in 2009 with a remit to make beer more appealing to women - and identified this market opportunity as potentially worth £400m a year. Following an intensive two-year NPD programme in which more than 30,000 women were questioned about their opinions on beer, it launched its specially created female-friendly brand Animée in autumn 2011. The product came in three flavour variants - Clear Filtered, Zesty Lemon and Crisp Rosé - all designed to appeal to a feminine palate and presented in resolutely non-masculine packaging.

The brewer supported the launch with a £2m ad campaign with the cheery strapline: ‘Hurray for Animée.’ Unfortunately, women didn’t share the sentiment. Sales proved disappointing and a year after launch Molson Coors axed the brand, following in the wake of Carlsberg, which launched Eve in 2010 and pulled the brand in 2011.

Both had seemingly confused the need to appeal more directly to women with the need for a women’s beer. During their time on shelf, the two brands drew flak from critics who perceived them to be patronising to women, while men steered away as they could clearly see they weren’t meant for them.

Greg Vallance, managing partner, creative, at design agency Holmes & Marchant, who has worked on packaging for brands in beer and cider, thinks there are a number of lessons that can be learnt from these brand failures. “The communication of beer brands needs to be more savvy about how women want to be included in the conversation,” he says.

“It feels like an old-fashioned concept to me to try to differentiate between the sexes without really listening. There are parallel categories in supermarkets that brewers can look at where the brand owners do things well without alienating either gender.”

Beers are like cars

Heather Alderson, commercial strategy director/managing partner at leading advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which has worked with many beer brands, agrees. “I think the people trying to create beers just for women were confusing their brand with their audience,” she says. “What they seemingly failed to understand is that a lot of women already drink beer and are happy for beer to be masculine, as a lot of cars are. Ultimately, you don’t need a brand to be girly to consider it. And I don’t think beer brands themselves should be afraid that they are generally masculine. You can’t erase hundreds of years of history.”

The failure of Animée was a chastening experience for Molson Coors , but the company has not been entirely unsuccessful at attracting female drinkers. Its brands Coors Light, Corona and Carling Zest are among those that Molson Coors research found has pulled in a higher proportion of women than the market average. Miller Brands’ premium Italian beer Peroni Nastro Azzurro has also managed to build a strong female following in the UK since its 2005 relaunch.

So how have these brands done it? Canny marketing and product positioning have played a key part. While not eschewing masculinity, these brands have pointedly not positioned themselves as beers for the lads. Coolness has been prioritised over manliness and as far as Peroni and Corona are concerned, the international heritage of the brands has been played up, adding some sophistication to their credentials that appeals to female consumers.

“It feels like an old-fashioned concept to me to try to differentiate between the sexes without really listening. There are parallel categories in supermarkets that brewers can look at where the brand owners do things well without alienating either gender” Greg Vallance, Holmes & Marchant

Certain product characteristics also tend to make a beer more appealing to a female audience. Consumer research from drinks sector consultancy CGA Strategy has found that women prefer products with a premium feel and attractive glassware.

Because taste and quality are central, world lagers are a favourite. This correlates with the 11% growth in on-trade world lager sales noted by CGA. Interestingly, around 70% of on-trade volumes for world lager come via outlets that have a more balanced male/female footfall, often allied with a focus on food and drink quality - in other words, the type of setting in which wine also does well.

“Marketing campaigns of many successful world lagers portray aspirational mixed groups, appealing to both males and females, while overt marketing of ‘female friendly’ in any product positioning risks being seen as patronising,” says CGA account director Rachel Perryman. “While our research highlights that females do also look for light and fresh tastes - and ‘anything with lime’ - the attraction to low-abv alternatives does not ring true.”

A world of opportunity

The argument that abv is not as as important to women as taste, packaging and marketing would suggest that while overtly girly beers aren’t the solution, lower-alcohol 4% abv beers such as Beck’s Vier and Stella Artois 4 aren’t necessarily the way forward either. World beers, on the other hand, could be, agrees Sam Rhodes, director of customer marketing at Miller Brands.

“While still mainly consumed by men, world beers are becoming more appealing and interesting to women,” he says. “The move away from mainstream branding and a more sophisticated image means some of the biggest world beers can cross the gender divide. This is especially good news, because world beer consumers are less interested in price or promotional offers, giving retailers the perfect opportunity to trade consumers up to maximise profits.”

Miller’s Peroni is the number one world beer in the off-trade growing at 7.4% in value [Nielsen 0ff-trade MAT to 8 December 2012]. Rhodes attributes its success to its positioning as an authentic Italian-style brand and continued investment in innovative marketing and promotion that appeals to young, modern and sophisticated men and women, including the launch of Peroni’s own contemporary version of a traditional Italian opera, Opera Di Peroni.

Its flavour will also have played a part. The irony with Animée and Eve is that women may well have liked their flavours even if they didn’t like the brands.

“Women do not seem to like hoppy, bitter-tasting drinks,” attests Andy Knowles, co-founder of packaging design company Jones Knowles Ritchie. “No hops or low hops beers such as Corona and Hoegaarden are very popular with women, so brewers could look at developing more of these if they want to attract more women. But in truth, cider has replaced the need for a lot of this. It’s catering to the need for a long drink with a sweetness that a lot of women enjoy.”

The sweetness of many ciders means they are not well suited as a ‘session drink’, but are appealing to many women without necessarily resorting to overly feminine branding. Take the distinctly unisex Stella Artois Cidre, which has seen its sales soar 100% to £58.8m, helping boost the category’s sales 5.3% to £942.9m, according to The Grocer’s Top Products Survey [Nielsen 52 w/e 13 October 2012].

That said, volume sales have dipped 2.1%, and while other cider brands, notably Bulmers No 17, are also doing well, some are struggling to maintain the growth seen in previous years.

In a bid to rejuvenate sales, brands have adopted two very distinct approaches to NPD this year. With an eye very much on Cidre, Molson Coors is extending its flagship Carling brand into cider with the launch of Carling British Cider next month. Backed by a £4.5m campaign, the brand will be available through 275ml and 500ml bottles at retail. Although the brand is not being targeted at women per se, its packaging and its positioning around refreshment will likely appeal to female consumers - a more subtle, inclusive approach that suggests Molson Coors has taken the Animée failure to heart.

Others, however, are looking to flavoured ciders - the fastest-growing part of the market - and seemingly directly targeting the ladies. Next month, Heineken-owned Bulmers, which has experienced mixed fortunes over the past year (Original falling 7.8% in value, but No 17 soaring 405%), is launching two new flavoured ciders: Bold Black Cherry and Red Grape, for instance. Tellingly, it is also relaunching No 17 as the more feminine-sounding Crushed Red Berries & Lime.

Not all the same

The move is not without risk. Gender-based targeting is often developed around generalities - but what may indeed be a common truth for some members of a target group could equally be perceived as patronising and offensive stereotyping by others.

While it’s true a lot of women prefer sweet-tasting drinks, this is not the case for all women. If you look at the success of microbreweries in recent years, it’s interesting to note that a number of successful artisan brewers (and, importantly, discerning fans of their beers) are women.

Nevertheless, while it can be counterproductive, “gender-based targeting is worth it if you do it right,” insists Christina Ioannidis, CEO of Aquitude, a marketing agency focused on women as customers. She cites Baileys and niche vodka brand U’Luvka as two brands that have consistently shown they understand women through both presentation and activation.

“As women, we consume products in a different way to men,” she says. “We like incorporating little details and rituals, such as the lime with a bottle of Corona. A lot of brands go wrong because they don’t consult women in the NPD process. Seldom do they go out and properly explore their target market - often only doing that on a sampling basis when the type of product has already been decided.”

It’s an oft-repeated statistic that women make over 70% of household buying decisions. Marketers in the fmcg sector should always bear that in mind. In certain obvious product categories - within toiletries, health etc - there will be a need for gender-specific marketing. In the overwhelming majority of cases, however, the marketing solution will lie in being gender-neutral rather than gender-specific in finding appealing common ground rather than alienating a large proportion of your target audience.

It’s also wise to take certain preconceptions with a hefty pinch of salt. Men love pies more than women? Not necessarily. Research for Asda last year concluded that women eat twice as many pies as men.

Skewing a brand too far towards one gender - male or female - can make it look ridiculous. If you have the time and haven’t seen this howler before, visit YouTube and seek out the TV ad for Chilean wine Casillero del Diablo featuring Manchester United’s finest, Rooney, Giggs and Evra. The saving grace was that this was just an ad, not the brand itself.