Beer Marketing at the Australia New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference (Perth, November 2011)

Surprisingly there is not yet a specialist academic Journal of Beer Marketing, or indeed, a Beer Marketing Research Institute. There are specialist academic marketing journals and research institutes for Wine, Food and lots of other types of markets, products  and services, including Banks, Services, Health Care, Sports, Tourism and so on.  Why is this?  We (not personally) drink more beer than wine, beer has a long and distinguished history and place in the culture of all societies; beer is a major industry in most countries – from Octoberfest to the Campaign for Real Ale to the impact of Germans on Chinese beer brewing for instance; beer consumption is celebrated in many ways in many countries; there are many diverse cultures of consumption – think lagerlouts in England, beer drinking competitions, the English Pub, The Irish Pub, the Aussie Pub, the Local and so on.  Innovations and entrepreneurship in beer production, branding, marketing, competition, packaging and drinking are famous in marketing textbooks and used frequently in teaching marketing – think of the beer wars in Japan, the campaign for real ale in the UK, the boutique breweries in the USA, the Fosterisation of the world in the world for example.  Beer is featured significantly in international marketing and business – Fosterisation again, Heinekenisation and many others. It’s an SME and MNC business.   

All the concepts and theories of marketing are relevant to this product and consumption context. Here are just a few translations from the general to the particular: CB (Consumption of Beer); B2B (Beer to Beer Marketing); IB (international Beer); 4Ps (After a few pints at the pub); BB (Beer Bellies); 5 Forces (Heinken, Asahi, Fosters, Corona, Guiness?) and so on.  You make it up from now on.

A call for papers for special sessions on Beer Marketing was sent out and invitations to submit papers for the special sessions were sent to a number of researchers with relevant research expertise in various countries. We were delighted by the response and the papers are of a high standard. Some international researchers, already presenting other papers at ANZMAC, opted to make a research presentation only but may contribute a formal paper to a special issue of the Journal of Food Products Marketing. Other special issues and sessions at future conferences are anticipated and, maybe, even a Journal of Beer Marketing may be borne.  Drink on!

ANZMAC Conference Day 2 (Tuesday) Afternoon Sessions:

Beer Session 1 CB: The Consumption of Beer

 Chairs: Ian Wilkinson, Sydney University and Louise Young, University of Western Sydney

Ian Wilkinson, Sydney University and Louise Young, University of Western Sydney “Opening Remarks: The Case for Beer Marketing”

Charles Areni, Sydney University “Having a Beer with Me Mates after the Footy:

Australians’ Enjoyment of Daily Life Experiences”

Louise Young, UWS “A Californian Yankee in King Arthur’s Court Hotel:  A Self-Reflective Essay on (the Pleasures of) Real Ale Consumption”

Michael Mizon and Rohan Miller, University of Sydney “Virtual Lubrication: A Preliminary Investigation of the Role of Facebook in the Development of a Contemporary Drinking Culture in Young Australian Adults”

BS 2: BM1: Cases of Beer Marketing 1

Chair: Charles Areni, Sydney University

Stephen Holden, Bond University ““Three cheers for a new beer: Marketing insights from the birth of boutique brewing in Australia”

Yimin (Stephanie) Huang, Macquarie University and Hongxia Zhang, Peking University “How to Turn Brand Value into Sales Volume in the Beer Market in China: A Case of Tsingtao Beer”

Roger March, Central Queensland University “The Japanese Beer Industry”

Nguyen Thai, University of Melbourne, “Vietnamese ‘Bia Hoi’ – The world’s cheapest beer!”

BS 3: Beer Tasting Session

MC: Stephen Holden, Bond University

This session will feature boutique beers from Little Creatures and Matilda Bay Brewing and others

ANZMAC Conference Day 3 (Wednesday) Afternoon Sessions

BS 4: BM2: Cases of Beer Marketing 2

Chair:  Louise Young, University of Western Sydney

David Low, James Cook University and Laurel Jackson, University of Western Sydney, “Your shout mate: From the Rum economy to the Beer economy”

Ian Wilkinson and Fabian Held, University of Sydney, “The Beer Game: Research Implications and the role of Agent-Based Simulation Models in Beer Distribution”

Michael Kleinaltenkamp, Freier Universitat Berlin, “B2B to Beer Marketing: A 20 Century Marketing Textbook” (Presentation only)

Per Freytag, University of Southern Denmark, “A Case of Danish Beer” (Presentation only)

Session 5: More Cases of Beer and Panel Discussion

Chair: Ian Wilkinson, University of Sydney

Henrikki Tikkanen, Joel Hietanen, Timo Järvensivu et al, Aalto University “A Case of Finnish Beer” (Presentation only)

Phil Gendall, Massey University, “A Case of New Zealand Beer” (Presentation only) to be confirmed

Panel Discussion “Do we need a Journal of Beer Marketing and which idiot is going to do the serious stuff?”

Panelists (in drinking order):
Louise Young, UWS (Chair and drinker)

Charles Areni, USYD (Drinker and Discussant)

Phil Gendall (D&D)

Yimin Huang (NonD&D)

Michael Kleinaltenkamp, FUBerlin (D&D)

Stephen Holden, Bond (D&D)

Henrikki Tikkanen, Aalto (D&D)

Ian Wilkinson, USYD (D&D)

and others on the floor.