Only two years after the failure of Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch is once more attempting to crack the European market for low calorie beers, with the UK launch of Michelob Ultra. Despite its success in the US, David Robertson remains cautious of its chances.
Anheuser-Busch is once again attempting to persuade Europeans that they should be worried about the way they look and the quantity of carbohydrates in their beer. The US-based company is launching Michelob Ultra in the UK this month, just two years after its Bud Light brand failed to make a dent in the same embryonic market.
Michelob Ultra has had a successful launch in the US, where it is marketed under the slogan “Lose the Carbs – not the taste”. Anheuser-Busch says US sales are three times higher than expected, but the US is a market very familiar with low calorie and low carbohydrate beers: Bud Light is the second biggest beer brand in the world (by volume) and Coors and Miller also have hugely successful light brands.
According to AB figures, Michelob Ultra has a 2% share (by value) of US supermarket sales, ahead of Smirnoff Ice with 1.2% and Michelob Light at 1.4%. Bud Light has a 15.5% share.
But the UK market is a very different proposition. AB has already upgraded Michelob Ultra’s alcohol content from 4.2% to 5% so it can compete on equal terms with the premium beers like Stella Artois and Kronenbourg 1664. “People just wouldn’t take it seriously otherwise,” admitted an AB spokesman.
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By GlobalDataThe question remains, however, how AB plans to convert the UK’s beer drinkers into health conscious, figure watchers. This is particularly pertinent given the experience of Bud Light, the failure of which AB blamed on consumers’ disinterest in light beers.
AB executives continued to blame the word “light” for the failure of Bud Light last week, when Ultra was launched by TV sports presenter Gaby Logan. They believe that “light” has a connotation in the UK with low alcohol, which is why the new Michelob has been given the sexier “Ultra” tag.
“This beer is for people who want to look good and feel good about themselves,” said Randall Blackford, marketing director of Anheuser-Busch Europe. “This is like nothing that existed before in the UK, it is a real innovation in the beer market. We are really excited about the trend towards watching carbohydrates and calories and this beer is all about that.”
Blackford believes the UK is ready for American-style body conscious carbohydrate and calorie counting, partly because of the success of diets like the Atkins program. A bottle of Ultra has 88 calories and 2.5 grams of carbs; compared with Smirnoff Ice’s 177 calories and 25.9g of carbs, and Beck’s 113 calories and 8.8g of carbs.
The marketing campaign for Ultra will concentrate on these figures, although the company is not adopting the US’s “Drop the Carbs” slogan because research found that British consumers saw “carbs” as “crabs” – an unfortunate word association.
Instead, the company is using “Figures Speak for Themselves”.
AB will not reveal its marketing budget but admits it will be “substantial”. The company spent an estimated £5m on Bud Light. Ultra will be available in top-end bars and restaurants from August and in the Tesco supermarket chain for an exclusive three month trial.
But Anheuser-Busch’s competitors remain totally unconvinced that UK beer drinkers will take to Ultra any more than they did with Bud Light. Part of the problem is Ultra’s watery taste, which compares unfavourably with the other more aromatic premium beers.
“British consumers are into big taste and premium beers,” says a rival European brewer. “In the US they might be used to less taste but UK consumers want a certain type of beer.”
AB expects Ultra to be fighting shoulder to shoulder with Stella, Becks and its own Budweiser brand but industry insiders predict that it is more likely to become a specialist beer, popular with gym veterans and women.
AB insists that Ultra is for all men and women although it admits there is a danger of it being seen as a “girly” beer. Despite the company’s insistence that Ultra is for everyone, its marketing campaign certainly seems to suggest that it too sees the female consumer as its target audience.
AB has an arrangement with Tony & Guy hairstylists to promote the “Ultra Cut”; as Blackford explained: “We had an opportunity to think differently with the marketing for this and we realised that hairdressers are always giving lifestyle tips to their customers and this was a good avenue for us to approach.”
Ultra is also being touted by a number of speed-dating agencies.
Can Anheuser-Busch seriously be proposing converting male beer drinkers through a dating and hairdressing offensive?
The company’s plans elicited hoots of laughter from rivals and, needless to say, it seems likely AB will have this new market segment to itself for some time to come. There are rumours that Coors is considering promoting its Light brand in the UK but none of the major European brewers are understood to be interested.
Of course, we should probably be thanking AB for its efforts to keep us all a little healthier. But until somebody can make a healthy beer with a full taste it seems highly unlikely there will be much of a change to drinking habits in pubs across the UK (or Europe) in the near future.
