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"oblivious":2yrq29ed wrote:

"Joris P.":2yrq29ed wrote: When, pray, did Diageo offer Irish punters artisanal beers? In the seventies, when they stopped making plain Porter?[/color][/quote:2yrq29ed]

They had a test market of a rang called James gate it included a stout, wheat, red and pilsner it think around a few years ago
[/quote:2yrq29ed]We had some chat about them here[/url:2yrq29ed]. See this[/url:2yrq29ed] also from the news archives.

"oblivious":19t2mrhr wrote: i would not call them artisanal beers[/quote:19t2mrhr]Fair point, but it's the principle of Something Different. And it failed.

"Joris P.":19t2mrhr wrote: I'm pretty sure that if Diageo spent the necessary amount of money on selling this Brewmasters' (or whatever) series, it would sell a lot better.[/quote:19t2mrhr]They did a BIG marketing job on the last one, and it looks like it too has failed. And it was totally unambitious to start with.

"Joris P.":19t2mrhr wrote: And WHO exactly, is sending these messages as "not to mess with my pint...?3[/quote:19t2mrhr]The meeja, but it is a genuinely held belief. Insult Guinness, sir, and you insult Ireland.

The Porterhouse do a t-shirt that says "Drink with us or you drink with the sheep." It's extremely rude, but rather well-observed, I think.

[quote:2titmsy2]Hmmm, interesting, we'd always assumed the Irish market was tied as far as the bars, the British way.

or is it, just like on the continent, that the bars voluntarily sign agreements by which they sell the beers of one brewer only for a number of years, getting in return a loan which banks wouldn't grant them ? [/quote:2titmsy2]

Here we have a very few tied houses like Britain. Some pubs are part of small chains owned usually by families or companies but the vast majority are still privately owned who buy their drink from a number of different suppliers and it is usual to find Diageo, Carleberg, Heineken etc on draught in the one bar. The process of opening a new bar is convoluted and expensive and the whole pub licencing system needs a lot more than one post to explain.

[quote:15t2nqvj]They did a BIG marketing job on the last one, and it looks like it too has failed. And it was totally unambitious to start with. [/quote:15t2nqvj]Surely this lack of ambition is one of the problems. It won't convert [i:15t2nqvj]Mr. Don't Touch My Pint[/i:15t2nqvj] because a lot of that constituency are not for turning and it won't convert [i:15t2nqvj]Mr. I Want Something Different[/i:15t2nqvj] either because it's not different enough to bother with.

But if they actually went and made something [i:2m67eohk]different[/i:2m67eohk], instead of just tweaking/tampering, they could keep the pint as is, and offer an alternative. Because the brewhouse beers weren't [i:2m67eohk]too [/i:2m67eohk]different from their draught stout, there was always the fear that it would replace regular Guinness. This makes regular Guinness drinkers uneasy, which leads to the scrapping of the series.

&amp;quot;noby&amp;quot;:32m4jwp9 wrote: But if they actually went and made something [i:32m4jwp9]different[/i:32m4jwp9], instead of just tweaking/tampering, they could keep the pint as is, and offer an alternative.[/quote:32m4jwp9]That means we'll probably get Guinness Red, now on trial in England <!-- s:roll: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_rolleyes.gif" alt="" title="Rolling Eyes" /><!-- s:roll: --> .

&amp;quot;bigears&amp;quot;:32m4jwp9 wrote: Surely this lack of ambition is one of the problems.[/quote:32m4jwp9]
Diageo knows Guinness presents a USP in its Irishness and its popularity. With new products they will always pursue the association with Guinness since it's a brand people trust (remember the Kaliber ads where Billy Connolly reminded us that this [i:32m4jwp9]alcohol-free lager[/i:32m4jwp9] was made by Guinness?). What Diageo don't seem to get is that people don't trust it when it's changed. It's an inflexible sort of loyalty, and if it won't bend for the Brewhouse, I doubt it'll bend for anything else.