Brewers target women in £1m Beautiful Beer marketing push

The campaign has been launched by the British Beer and Pub Association, which is hoping to stem an 18% decline in demand for beer.

According to a report in The Times today, the main weapon of the campaign will be a new, long-stemmed glass and the revival of a Victorian measure that is one-third of a pint. The glass will be introduced after a pilot scheme in pubs and bars.

Other initiatives will be training sommeliers in beer tasting and including beer lists alongside wine lists in restaurants.

It is part of a wider campaign going under the name "Beautiful Beer", to encourage people to turn back to the ale. Media relations, targeting food, drink and lifestyle sections of weekend newspapers, women's magazines and TV and radio programmes, will form the core of the consumer PR campaign.

Beautiful Beer will become an umbrella brand for a programme of activities designed to encourage more consumers to make beer their drink of choice on more occasions.

The Beautiful Beer programme has been built on three key platforms: driving up beer quality and standards in the on-trade; educating and enthusing people about beer; and a PR programme to communicate a new image of beer to consumers.

A new logo has been designed for the campaign. Showing a gold "B" inlaid with hops, it will be used on all BBPA-led image initiatives and alongside co-branding from partners -- brewers, retailers or industry bodies.

Peter Kendall, chief executive of Coors Brewers and chair of the BBPA's Beautiful Beer steering committee, said: "Beautiful Beer is about changing the reality and perceptions of beer. Improving the quality of beer in pubs and enthusing retail staff about beer will lead to a better beer experience for consumers."

He added that PR initiatives will start to replace consumers' misconceptions with a more positive image of beer, which will help to re-establish its place in the nation's drinking habits.

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This article was first published on brandrepublic.com