Norrelle Goldring from ShopAbility looks at the issue of locally made imported beers through the shopper’s eyes. For Drinks Trade Magazine.
Rather than my usual ‘how to’ focussed pieces, your friendly Drinks Trade editors have asked me for an opinion piece on the impact of increasing the amount of imported beers made locally. I welcome your comments and points of debate, as what follows is simply ‘sample of one’ – albeit through the shopper’s eyes rather than mine.
Opinions are widely divided on the ‘locally made imports’ topic, ranging from the usual bland and commercial corporate standpoints of the big brewers, to highly emotional rants from some of the smaller suppliers looking for an opportunity to stick one up the ‘big boys’.
So let’s get back to shopper reality, shall we?
If a shopper/consumer finds out that the imported beer they usually drink is now being made locally, their first reactions are likely going to be:
- Do I care? (So what?)
- Should I care? (Why would I care?)
- Are they ripping me off, or can I get it cheaper because of this?
And the answers to all of the above are, it depends. On who I am, and why I’m drinking that particular beer in the first place, and what I’m paying for when I buy the beer – Name? Recipe? Taste? Tariffs?
If I’m drinking the Corona, Peroni or whichever locally made import, based on image and fitting in with my mates, then I’m less likely to care about where it’s made because it’s the badge/brand that’s important.
If I’m drinking it because I specifically like the taste, I would need to be assured that the recipe was the same and that the overall taste/quality hasn’t changed. There is a small – but growing – portion of (craft) beer appreciators who understand the impact of raw ingredients (particularly water and hops sources) on a beer, where water (and hops) are the beer equivalent of ‘terroir’ in wine. These are the guys who are most likely to decry locally made imports on the grounds of ‘inauthenticity’. So the question here is around how important is the recipe vs the point of origin?
If I’m buying it based on price, I would need to understand that the quality/taste was the same in order to justify the same price point as a fully imported version (because I know that fully imported versions carry tariffs in their pricing). I would probably expect a small discount on a locally made version vs the import, the discount differential being the expected level of import tariff.
So from the shopper’s point of view, unless it’s specifically brought to their attention, it feels like a lot of them wouldn’t look at the labels closely enough to judge. And if it were brought to their attention, there are 1 or 2 groups of shoppers and consumers who would care (based on price and perceived taste changes) and probably another 1 or 2 consumer groups who wouldn’t.
For me personally, the question is more one around ethics and legalities of pack claims … what is being disclosed and what isn’t. There need to be some quite clear labelling codes around ‘product of/made in’ vs ‘imported and distributed by’ vs ‘bottled by’. Ie where the beer has come from vs where the bottle packaging/labels came from.
Currently the labelling can be quite confusing. I was in a Vintage Cellars the other day and their Corona said ‘Product of Mexico’ on the front, ‘Imported and Distributed By Fosters NZ’ on the back, but the labelling had the NZ standard drinks logo on it, so it was obviously at least labelled in NZ. So was it actually made in Mexico, but labelled in NZ? I know it sounds like labelling for dummies, but something like ‘beer made and bottled in Mexico, labelled in NZ’ would be clearer.
Even if the locally produced versions of the bigger ‘imported’ brands start to eclipse the sales of the fully imported versions of those same brands, there are still enough other imported brands/labels – and a growing craft beer and microbrew market – to ensure ongoing variety.
Global companies have been making locally produced versions of their brands and products (think Kit Kat, Coca-Cola, Mars Bar et al), often tailored to local palates and tastebuds, for years.
The idea isn’t new. It just needs to be clearly disclosed on the product – for those who care enough to actually read the label!
