The Gender Pint Gap Revisited FINAL - Flipbook - Page 43
THE GENDER PINT GAP: REVISITED/BARRIERS
Commentary and Opportunities
As women begin to outnumber men as alcohol consumers, the beer
world is counting on them to imbibe.
Younger consumers are more brand/advertising aware and have
grown up in an age of social media and targeted advertising. They
expect adverts to be targeted at them and are more cynical when
they’re not. This isn’t specifically about beer, the younger
demographic expect any brand owner to work hard to understand
and pursue them. If a brand owner isn’t doing this, this group will
ignore or reject the brand and/or category.
“Female drinkers under 25 [in the US] now outnumber male
drinkers under 25. So, for craft to continue growing and moving
more in the larger beer and beverage alcohol consumer market, it
will need to connect better with that diverse customer base.”
Bart Watson, Chief Economist for the Brewers Association, representing
American Craft Brewers (2023)
A History Lesson:
Understanding the reasons behind male orientated beer advertising
“Undeniably, lager consumption and the cultures surrounding it have been
explicitly masculinised within the United States. Following American Prohibition,
beer became the masculinised alternative to the feminised cocktail. During the
interwar years, beer advertisements reinforced this masculinisation process by
constructing women as the enablers of men’s beer consumption, but rarely as
consumers in their own right.
Advertisers more explicitly masculinised the product during World War II,
constructing it as a domestic comfort for which soldiers risked their lives.
More recently the rhetoric has focused on a ‘holy trinity’ of beer, sport and pubs.”
(Randy Mosher, 2009)
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Advertising and Marketing Standards
In the UK there are guidelines and recommendations from the beer
industry about acceptable advertising and marketing standards. It’s
worth highlighting that these standards don’t actually help drive
women-friendly marketing, they just restrict actively exclusionary
communication.
The Portman Group Code of Practice (2023)
A drink’s name, its packaging and any promotional material or activity
should not cause serious or widespread offence. Particular care must be
taken to avoid causing serious offence on the grounds of race, religion,
gender, sexual orientation, disability or age.
The Brewers Association Marketing and Advertising Code (2023
edition)
Beer advertising and marketing materials should not contain sexually
explicit, lewd, or demeaning brand names, language, text, graphics,
photos, video, or other images that reasonable adult consumers would
find inappropriate for consumer products offered to the public.
SIBA and CAMRA Code of Practice
In the UK in 2017 the Society of Independent Brewers Association and
the Campaign for Real Ale made a commitment to ban beer with sexist
names or labelling entering any of their competitions.
A gradual change
The Opportunity
It cannot be denied that brand
owners – especially in the UK have sought to debunk the
discourse about male orientated
marketing through their
advertising campaigns, focusing
largely on the beer drinking
experience: food occasions,
holidays in the sun, stylistic
environments, and diverse
groups of people.
There has also been a positive
change in on-line images: an
internet search of ‘images of
beer drinkers’ show much
more diversity than when we
did the same exercise for the
2018 report. Women are less
‘enablers’ of male beer
consumption and much more
adopters of beer in their own
right. Let’s see more of this.
