Lager fans blast Heineken Silver aimed at ‘lighter drinking’ Gen-Z Brits
United Kingdom | It is a big worry. Gen-Zers, also known as post-millennials, because they will come of age this decade, do not take to beer in such a big way as previous generations did. Beer marketers are confounded: How to attract them to the category? Heineken thinks it got the answer: Heineken Silver.
In March, Heineken launched its Heineken Silver in the UK. At only 4 percent ABV, it has a low bitterness level. It is aimed at the under 40s and particularly 18- to 24-year-olds (Generation Z), whose consumption of lager has halved in the past seven years, according to surveys.
Heineken believes young adults are now looking for “more subtle, refreshing and accessible beers”, a demand that Heineken Silver has been brewed to meet. Heineken Silver will be made available in 14 countries this year, backed by a GBP 20 million (USD 24 million) advertising campaign.
Back to the future?
Reading through the description, it appears as if Heineken is now offering a type of beer that uncannily resembles a light American lager, invented 50 years ago by Miller Lite. For those highly carbonated, very light-bodied, nearly flavourless lager beers, less was more. These beers proved a success, at least in the US, where they ruled the market until craft beer came along.
At the Brewers Forum in Madrid in June, where the beer was served, some pundits wondered why Heineken chose the word “silver”, given its allusions to silver medals (or second best) and Silver Birds (a polite term for old people). “As a young consumer with money in your pocket, you do not want to grab a beer for losers, do you?” they said.
Woke madness
But these reservations pale next to consumers’ responses, mentioned in an article in The Sun newspaper (2 August). According to The Sun, Heineken Silver “has been panned by fans who say it is ‘woke madness’ and are urging the company to rethink.”
Critics complained that the beer is dull and overpriced when compared with the real Heineken at 5 percent ABV. Although carrying a lower tax load than the full-strength version, it still costs the same. Others thought it marks a scary trend. “I fear this is the future of beer now, woke options aimed at Generation Z rather than traditional beer lovers who have been drinking it for years,” one punter moaned.
In June, The Sun newspaper had revealed that fans of AB-InBev’s Stella Artois were rejoicing because the new Stella Artois Unfiltered reverses a trend of lower alcohol levels, after returning to tradition by being 5 percent ABV in strength.
Dad beer and dad jeans are so uncool
All this proves to show that beer marketers, when targeting Gen-Zers, need to come to terms with a big cultural change in drinking habits. For young consumers, craft beer is a “Dad beer”, something their fathers took to, who in turn belittled light American lagers as their dads’ beer.
Across the Atlantic, Stone’s CEO Maria Stipp highlighted a similar conundrum, namely selling beer to 21, 22, 23-year-olds, whose experience of the alcohol category is one of abundant choices.
Diversifying craft beer
In an interview with the website insidehook.com (4 August), Ms Stipp pointed out that, in the old days, wine was in one section of a grocery store, beer was in the cooler, and spirits elsewhere. “Now everything is merging together. You see products in the beer cold box that are made with agave, you see seltzers. What I see in grocery baskets is a combination of all of it, and there is not necessarily any badge of like, ‘I’m a craft beer drinker’.”
She concluded that craft brewers do no longer benefit from a lifestyle approach as they did before. She stressed that craft brewers need to diversify their offerings, as Stone did with its swerve towards a Mexican-style lager, called Buenaveza. Instead of continuing to push its IPAs, Stone has made the lager its number one priority for the last two years. It has since added a hard seltzer, Buenavida, and is about to launch a tequila-based canned Margarita cocktail, Buena Fiesta, under the Buena umbrella brand.
Reaching out to new consumers
“We’re in the most important Mexican import market in the world [California],” she explained. She expressed the hope that the Buena brand “attracts new fans, and then we can add more brands under that umbrella to really grow our overall scope to new people.”
Ms Stipp’s message is: “We need to evolve on our own and become more important for those drinkers [who do not drink craft beer] and get on their radar screen. It will take innovation, focus in our marketing efforts, and we will have to stay on our toes relative to what those evolving trends look like.”
All this is to say: Heineken Silver may not be the silver bullet for brewers seeking a simple and seemingly magical solution to the complicated problem of bringing young consumers into the beer category.
