Foster's tops up NZ beer battle

By DITA DE BONI

As the beer proposition becomes a more complex science, so does the advertising and marketing efforts designed to carve out a share of bitterly fought Australasian ale markets.

Witness a more aggressive return of an outside entrant into the beer marketing wars in New Zealand - Foster's International (NZ), a subsidiary of the Australian liquor giant, which intends to stamp the signature brand more forcefully on the New Zealand landscape when it comes into force tomorrow.

Foster's has made only a small dent in the local ale market, holding 5 per cent with Crown Lager, Foster's, Carlton Stripe and associated brands.

Its relatively small market share here seems to perplex Foster's top brass. Foster's, after all, is the third most widely distributed beer in the world, the No 1 brand in London and No 2 in Britain.

Kiwis have largely ignored it, some citing flavour incompatibility, others feeling that it is too aligned with all things Australian.

Foster's will take a double-pronged approach to capturing the hearts of Kiwis.

It has lifted the alcohol content of the brew from 4 per cent to 4.9 per cent, to take on Lion Nathan's Steinlager, and will launch an advertising campaign of "Think Foster's, Drink Foster's."

The launch coincides with the lead-up to the Olympics.

Foster's admits that research in New Zealand before the launch of Foster's Lager into the marketplace confirmed our antipathy to too much Australian-ness.

Foster's International (NZ) vice-president Andrew Bonner said: "What we found is that there is an upfront, traditional and friendly rivalry in every walk of life [between Australians and New Zealanders] and this is reflected in consumer products."

Foster's has reclassified New Zealand as an "international" market and marketing will avoid Ocker ads. "Global advertising works better [in NZ] as it takes the edge off any attitude the audience might have ... we can present the product without distraction."

The ads will need to have more of an impact than those for Carlton Stripe, which colourfully played on the New Zealander's penchant for D-I-Y but did not work to popularise the brew.

Generator's James Mok said he was not sure who the Stripe ad was talking to. "People I knew were amused but they weren't drinkers."

"Overall, the best beer ads I've seen have been about men and their beer. The "man-made" ads from Heineken [from Meares Taine] are a good example of what works. Men are basic creatures and I think that if the idea is not about the beer, people don't build a relationship between themselves and that brand."

Lion Nathan Australia managing director Walter Bugno, who oversees an intense marketing war between Foster's and Lion, says that even in Australia, advertising varies greatly between states and brands.

Mr Bugno does not know if the beer drinker has become more sophisticated, but he believes one key to successful marketing is simply to recognise that across the two countries, the "beer for all men for all times" no longer reflects real consumption habits.