BEER POSITIONING AND DIFFERENTIATION

The perceptual map above indicates the positioning strategies of the various brands operating in the Indian beer market. The brands as can be seen are fighting on different positioning platforms. However, in many cases there are overlaps and any lack in the effectiveness of the brand’s communication strategy serves only to further enhance the negative effect of these overlaps. The question marks (???) show possible new positioning strategies, though financial viability of these is not reflected by the map.

In this map, the perceived distance (dissimilarity) between Foster’s and Kalyani is the largest. Further, Zingaro and Thunderbolt are perceived to be the closest pair among this set of brands. The clusters of beers such as Knockout, Kalyani and Haywards help to identify (sub)categories of beers that may be different from the way that the company defines its competitors.

In looking at the vectors, moving in a northeast direction from the origin, beers increase in their popularity with men. Haywards is the most popular with men. The horizontal axis (in the east direction) is most closely associated with attributes "premium," "dining out," and "special occasions", areas which have no brands operating in the Indian market and are possible areas of new brand launch positioning. In the west direction, the horizontal axis is most closely associated with the attributes "on a budget" and "good value." Thus, the horizontal axis (the west to east direction) indicates an underlying dimension of "budget-premium," along which customers seem to characterize their perceptions of the differences between these beers.

Source: http://www.foolonahill.com/mbabeer.html

HISTORY OF BEER IN INDIA

Modern brewing began for India in the early days of the British Empire — the mid-1700s. The demand for beer in the hot Indian climate by the British administrators and the troops was so great that it led to the creation of a completely new style of beer by George Hodgson in his London brewery — India Pale Ale also known as IPA. IPA is a strong, highly hopped ale designed to survive the five month ocean voyage to India without spoiling. India Pale Ale was shipped with every voyage for over a century and became very popular in Britain and North America.

In the late 1820s Edward Dyer moved from England to set up the first brewery in India at Kasauli (later incorporated as Dyer Breweries in 1855) in the Himalaya mountains, near Shimla, producing Asia's first beer called Lion. The brewery was soon shifted to nearby Solan (close to the British summer capital Shimla), as there was an abundant supply of fresh springwater there. The Kasauli brewery site was converted to a distillery which Mohan Meakin Ltd. still operates. Dyer set up more breweries at Shimla, Murree, Rawalpindi and Mandalay.

Another entrepreneur, H G Meakin, moved to India and bought the old Shimla and Solan Breweries from Edward Dyer and added more at Ranikhet, Dalhousie, Chakrata, Darjeeling and Kirkee. In 1937, when Burma was separated from India, the company was restructured with its Indian assets as Dyer Meakin Breweries, a public company on the London Stock Exchange. Following independence, in 1949 N.N. Mohan took over management of the company and the name was changed to Mohan Meakin Ltd. The company continues to produce beer across India to this day and Lion is still available in northern India. Lion was changed from an IPA to a Lager in the 1960's, when due to East European influence, most brewers in India switched from brewing Ales to brewing Lagers.

Today no brewer in India makes India Pale Ale. All Indian beers are either lagers (5 % alcohol — such as Australian lager) or strong lagers (8 % alcohol - such as the popular MAX super strong beer). International Breweries Pvt. Ltd. have recently announced an intention to work with Mohan Meakin to produce and launch an India Pale Ale called Indian IPA from India's first brewery at Solan. Kingfisher, Kings and Belo are popular Indian beer brands.

In various parts of north-eastern India, traditional rice beer is quite popular. Several festivals feature this nutritious, quite intoxicating, drink as part of the celebrations. The rice is fermented in vats that are sometimes buried underground. Elephants are known to attack villages, with the primary agenda of raiding these vats and having a good time generally. Following one such raid in north-eastern India, a police officer in Dumka was quoted in the press as saying: "Tribals who love rice beer brew the liquor at home. Elephants too are fond of this beer. Often it is found that, attracted by the strong smell of the liquor, wild elephants tear down the tribal houses where the brew is stored."

GUINNESS - FACT SHEET

Guinness is the No. 1 stout in the world, famous for its dark colour and white head. Guinness Extra Stout, otherwise known as Guinness Original, is the closest variant to the Guinness Porter originally brewed by Arthur Guinness. Launched in 1820 it has been almost completely replaced by Guinness Draught and now only represents less than 5% of all Guinness sold worldwide.
The largest variant of the stout across the world is Guinness Draught, which was introduced in 1959. Thanks to the innovation of the widget Guinness Draught is now available in cans and bottles and as Extra Cold.

The stout's top markets are GB, Ireland, US, Canada, Australia, France, Italy and Germany.
Guinness is brewed in over 50 countries worldwide, and sold in more than 150. Diageo claims that 10m glasses are consumed every day around the world.

Associated links: www.guinness.com

GUINNESS ROLL OUT IN INDIA

Diageo is looking to up the presence of its Guinness stout beer in India. The company, which began a limited roll-out of the beer in Delhi and Bombay earlier this year, has confirmed that a national roll-out can be expected within the next few months.

Diageo plans to introduce Guinness in Bangalore in the near future followed by a roll-out across the whole country. The focus would primarily be on locations where people are already familiar with stout, such as high-end restaurants and five-star hotels.