Brewers Raise Glasses to New Pals--Women
Whenever Christine Lubinski wants to see what beer makers are up to, she turns on “Saturday Night Live,” where the big brewers often test their newest TV ad campaigns. Her latest observation: Beer makers are targeting ads at women--a market they had previously ignored.
“Beer makers are responding to a shrinking and aging population of young, white males,” said Lubinski, who is director of public policy at the Washington-based National Coalition on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. “They can’t create more men, so they have to target women. It’s as if they’re suddenly born-again feminists.”
For years, the big brewers virtually ignored women in their ads because women represented such a small percentage--less than 20%--of beer drinkers. But with beer consumption clearly on the decline, and no where else to turn for business, beer makers are embracing women. This is particularly evident among the low-alcohol and low-calorie brands.
“For the first time in their history, the big brewers are facing a decline in market development,” said Bob Weinberg, a St. Louis-based consultant who formerly worked for Anheuser-Busch. The future of the beer industry, he said, “will depend on how successfully the brewers can introduce beer as a positive alternative to market outsiders such as women.”
But brewers who try to appeal too blatantly to women risk the possibility of alienating male customers. “Beer one day will become as sexually neutral as soft drinks,” said Clive Chajet, president at the New York corporate identity firm Lippincott & Margulies. “You can no longer position a broad based consumer product for one particular sex.”
Right now, brewers are simply trying to tell women that it’s OK to drink beer. “Some brewer stands to make a fortune if it can create a brand that does for the beer industry what Virginia Slims did for the cigarette industry,” said Tom Pirko, president of the Los Angeles consulting firm BevMark. “The first brand that gets away from that macho stuff could really be successful.”
Miller Brewing Co. has just unleashed an extensive print advertising campaign in women’s magazines that features women who are professional rodeo riders, aerobics instructors and even surfers. Michelob, an Anheuser-Busch product, has new print ads and TV spots that prominently feature women in professional roles--not swim suits. And Adolph Coors Co., perhaps the first to exclusively target women, is continuing a print campaign for Coors Light that features women relaxing after a bike race.
“Getting women to drink like men is what this is all about,” said Patricia Taylor, director of the alcohol policies project at the Washington-based Center For Science In the Public Interest. “But women can’t drink like men,” she said, noting that a recent federal study said women should not consume more than one standard serving per day of alcoholic beverages. Others point out that brewers--wary of congressional subcommittee hearings scheduled next month--are trying to develop more respectable advertising. The topic of the upcoming hearings, the Alcohol Advertising Act of 1991, would require rotating health messages on future print and broadcast ads for beer.
Some critics say the most recent ads are actually attempts by brewers to make amends for all the years of advertising that has depicted women as sex objects. “Instead of just exploiting women, now they’re targeting us,” said Jean Kilbourne, ad consultant and visiting lecturer at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
But the brewers insist that they are doing the right thing.
“We should be applauded,” said Evelinda Urman, assistant brand manager at Coors, which has specifically courted women in beer ads for nearly five years. “We recognize that women purchase products just like men. They should be marketed to directly.”
Before running its current campaign that targets women, Michelob asked men and women how they felt about the ads, and the results were overwhelmingly positive, said Jim Schumacker, senior brand manager for Michelob. Women now represent 30% of Michelob drinkers, he said. “There’s nothing wrong with developing a print campaign that runs in women’s publications.”
Miller’s most recent print ads, in particular, have some critics concerned. The ads feature real women athletes--even female rodeo riders--informally socializing over beer.
Critics, such as the National Coalition’s Lubinski, say the ads encourage women to believe that they can drink like men.
“Absolutely not,” said Eric A. Kraus, spokesman at Miller. “The campaign is designed to increase brand awareness. There is no correlation between advertising and consumption.”
Briefly. . . .
The Santa Monica-based Shalek Agency, consulting for the New York firm Site-Based Media, is down to a handful of employees and is no longer listed in the agency bible, the Standard Directory of Advertising Agencies. . . . The ad agency Suissa Miller of Santa Monica has won the $5-million ad business for Los Angeles-based Catalina Swimwear. . . . The Encino agency Inter/Media Advertising has been handed the $2.5-million ad account for Lombard, Ill.-based Electronic Gaming Monthly Magazine. . . . The Los Angeles agency Adtec Marketing has won five high-tech clients over the past three months with combined billings of $3.5 million. . . . Adweek has named Nike ad creator Wieden & Kennedy of Portland as 1991 Agency of the Year. . . . The recession has forced the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies to cancel its annual Western conference. . . . To boost attendance at the 42nd Annual Western States Advertising Assn. conference scheduled in May in Palm Springs, promoters are flaunting the theme, “Sex, Politics & Money.”. . . The Los Angeles-based Hispanic Public Relations Assn. has named Jacqueline Diaz as president.
BEER LOSING ITS HEAD
For years, brewers enjoyed big growth as domestic consumption of beer steadily increased. That is no longer the case. Last year, beer consumption in the U.S. fell, and analysts say that trend will continue. Here is a look at U.S. beer consumption over the past decade:
YEAR BEER CONSUMPTION (thousands of barrels) 1991 188,933 1990 193,257 1989 188,057 1988 187,691 1987 187,212 1986 187,562 1985 183,046 1984 182,682 1983 183,809 1982 182,332
Source: R.S. Weinberg & Associates, St. Louis, Missouri
