This isn’t a beer review, there are loads of those already out there. This post is to give some marketing credit where credit is due. Heineken has been quietly and steadily fighting off it’s perception in the US of being the single most identifying outward characteristic of doucheyness. The caricature is a pastel polo shirt with an annoying country-club laugh and a Heineken in hand. The new model is a slightly gritty, internationally informed lover of beer time. Any beer, any time.
What has formed this new perception? Honesty in message and a bit of invention.
They didn’t really get a choice on the honesty part. An increase in international travel (and, of course, the internet) have let the “But that stuff is shit in Europe!” cat out of the bag. To roll with this, Heineken has added a dose of reality to their advertising and left the newer imports paying to prove their “high-society” stature. The perfect example is Stella Artois’ “Perfection Has It’s Price” billboards, and it’s persnickety train barman TV ads.
The summation of Heineken’s new attitude can be found in two ads, one for Heineken Premium Light (a market expander in and of itself) and one for Amstel Light. The Heineken Premium Light ad is a retread of some of the most haughty millennium “we are the world” ads. The refreshing part; the awkward and puzzled looks on the faces of the individuals from various parts of the world confronting each other. The ballerina delivering cold brewskis to a group of very large, sweaty and barely dressed men in a steam bath is far from “high-society”. A stunt of honesty the “every man” likes of Bud Light wouldn’t even pull.
On the Amstel side, leaning back on heritage typically gives license to pull out the dusty clichés, and prattle on and on about craft and history…except when your heritage is anything-goes-Amsterdam. The “Dam Good Beer” line is slightly less than imaginative, but you can’t argue with the fun-loving Dutch sentiment in this ad.
The invention part of the equation is simple: Get beer in the right container for the right occasion. Beer on the beach, beer on the boat or beer around the pool? This calls for cans so as not to shred our bare feet on the occasional chunk of broken glass. Witness the Heineken can roll out, and the 24oz keg can launch. Beer for the party at home? Dozens and dozens of 12oz. glass bottles are not going to cut it in this newly Green World. This calls for kegs. And not those gigantic wads of collegiate aluminum all the scrap metal collectors are hoarding. Thanks to engineers at Heineken we now have this pressurized work of genius, AND it’s on the refrigerator scale.
With extensive global distribution (while traveling outside the US you typically get a choice between a local or two and Heineken), an increase in draft availability and a partnership with Krups to create this gem, they are a brewer that are changing where and how frequently consumers choose their product.
So what is the new call sign for doucheyness? Bottle service.