I get a lot of e-mails on a regular basis from PR firms pitching one story or another for their clients. Many times they don’t even have anything to do with beer because most firms don’t have a separate category and just lump all beverages, and usually food, together in one category. Today I got one that at first glance seemed destined for the delete key, though it was more interesting than most of the ones I get.
It was titled the “Ten Trends to Watch in Packaged Goods in 2007″ and was complied by the market research company Datamonitor. Of the first nine, a few of their predictions could have some relevance to craft beer, but more likely to fringe malt beverages or other kinds of drinks. Those categories are Calorie Burning Beverages, Satiety-Enhancing Foods & Drinks, Local Sourcing of Ingredients, and Immunity Boosting Foods & Drinks.
Number 10, on the other hand, was “Better for You” Beer – Blame it on the “French Paradox.” Here it is in its entirety:
With beer losing ground to wine in many markets around the world, beer makers are beginning to fight back with new products promising new health benefits for beer. Stampede Light is claimed to be the “first ever government approved vitamin beer” for the USA market with its B-vitamins, folic acid and folate. In Germany, Karlesberg Braueri is out with a pair of new functional beers aimed at women. Karla Well-B, for instance, is made with lecithin, folic acid and other vitamins. Karla Balance mixes hops with lemon balm. Both products have just 1% alcohol by volume. Beer may never be the same.
That’s not one of the trends in beer I would have predicted needed watching, but then I don’t have the research apparently Datamonitor does. But I already have prima facie questions about it. Their initial justification is that “beer [is] losing ground to wine in many markets around the world.” But I haven’t seen anything more than polls that only anecdotally support that, and even some of that data doesn’t support that conclusion. Sales of beer are still many times wine (4 to 1 in the U.S.) so how true is that assertion?
I have no problem with the health benefits of beer being touted in beer marketing and advertising. Craft beer without any additives at all has many proven and theoretical health benefits. That the TTB doesn’t permit beer companies to make those claims because it might promote drinking is puritanical nonsense that has no place in a free society. Beer with health additives seem like novelties to me, however sincere their makers may be. Many I’ve tried taste just fine to me, but there appeal seems largely aimed at persons for whom the particular claim of each one resonates in some particular way for that customer. In other words, their appeal is more limited. They are, after all, niche products by definition and many are sub-niches of broader categories like health food products or organics.
So I just don’t see these as trends worthy of our constant attention next year. Far more likely trends to watch, I think, will be organic beers and gluten-free, but only time will tell. What do you think? What will be the hot new trends in beer next year?
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Sippin' on the Dock of the Bay
National Homebrewers Conference
June 18-20, 2009
Oakland, (yes, Oakland), California
November 30th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
It’s a common misconception that the FDA has something to do with alcoholic drinks. It doesn’t. The Alcohol, Tobacco, Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) regulates the labeling and advertising of beer, wine and spirits. This was handled earlier by the BATF under the Justice Department, but the Homeland Security Act created the TTB and placed it under the Department of the Treasury back in 2003.
[ Do’h (sound of slapping myself in the head), I knew that. That’s what I get for typing in a hurry. Thank for pointing that out, Bob. I’ve now corrected it. ]
I’m at a loss, however, how Stampede Brewing gets away with their current health claims, including as a hangover cure. “The reduced hangover claim stems from Stampede Light’s added vitamin B content, replacing vitamins which the company says are lost after drinking alcohol. Stampede Light, which is touted as the first ever government approved vitamin beer, is said to be low in calories, low in carbs and to contain no fat,” says Drinks Business Review.
Back in the days after Repeal, breweries such as the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. used to advertise their beer as containing Vitamin D, “The Sunshine Vitamin.” The Federal Alcohol Administration Act of 1935 put an end to health claims for beer.
December 1st, 2006 at 5:16 am
Organic I can live with but Gluten-Free? I’d rather drink water honestly. Blech!
Has the Summit hop variety trend ended yet? It’s amazing how many people bought into the “garlic and onions” subliminal misconception. Blind taste anyone?
If a marketing genius at any macro level was smart they would start bottle conditioning all macros with the claim that yeast has more vitamins than any additive could ever possibly have. In quantity, anyway.
Trend for 2007? Wild beers unfortunately. Too many will try and fail I think. Much like the Saison trend that followed Phil Markowski’s glorious Farmhouse Ales book release.
Cheers!
December 2nd, 2006 at 6:02 am
Loren,
I’m going to have to check with the TTB, but it’s been illegal since 1935-36 to make the vitamin claim, or for that matter, any nutritional or therapeutic attributes. From the TTB via the old ATF regulations:
“Prohibited statements [on labels and advertising materials] include those that are untrue in any particular; that, irrespective of falsity, tend to create a misleading impression; that are disparaging of a competitor’s product; or that imply that the use of any malt beverage has curative or therapeutic effects.”
Obviously, however, if Stampede Light has gotten the green light in making their vitamin claims, something’s blowing in the winds of change…
After the TTB recently allowed public input on proposed labeling changes that might allow the voluntary listing of a nutritional analysis statement on beer, pushed further by other groups who also want to see a list of ingredients and any possible allegens in the beer such as peanuts, things are in flux. Along with the other warnings now on beer labels, I imagine brewers will have to begin bottling in the old 64-ounce “picnic” bottles in order to place all this info on such a label, all in the minimum-sized required font :)
December 3rd, 2006 at 11:15 pm
At first glance, I thought your headline said “No. 1 with a Mullet.” It made me think of a wide receiver on my high school football team in 1981. He was No. 1 with a mullet, too.