{"id":43,"date":"2011-07-10T18:13:52","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T01:13:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/knowledgetoday\/?p=43"},"modified":"2011-07-11T17:31:31","modified_gmt":"2011-07-12T00:31:31","slug":"a-takeover-of-iconic-australian-beer-brand-foster%e2%80%99s-is-brewing-but-the-question-is-do-aussie-consumers-really-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/blog\/2011\/07\/a-takeover-of-iconic-australian-beer-brand-foster%e2%80%99s-is-brewing-but-the-question-is-do-aussie-consumers-really-care\/","title":{"rendered":"A takeover of iconic Australian beer brand Foster\u2019s is brewing. But the question is, do Aussie consumers really care?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Foster's<\/a>The Foster\u2019s slogan might say: “Australian for Beer”. But if the latest suitor in the series of rumoured potential owners has its way, Foster\u2019s will no longer be Australian-owned.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In June, British-based brewing behemoth SABMiller launched a A$4.90 per-share A$9.5 billion takeover bid. The takeover attempt failed but speculation is rife the world\u2019s second-biggest brewer will be back to sweeten its deal.<\/p>\n

Foster\u2019s has been brewing beer since 1887. With such a long history in a young nation, and a marketing campaign built on true-blue Aussie accents, sunny beaches, larrikin humour and bikini-clad girls, it might be natural to anticipate a backlash from Australians if Foster\u2019s was to fall into foreign hands.<\/p>\n

The funny thing is \u2013 and one of the reasons that a takeover could pass without too much fuss \u2013 not many Australians actually drink Foster\u2019s lager. Only 100 million litres of the beer, with the distinctive blue and gold logo, is imbibed in Australia each year versus nearly 682 million litres in Britain.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, most Australians know that Foster\u2019s is part of Carlton United Breweries, which brews the more popular VB, Carlton Draft and Pure Blonde labels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australian association works for Foster\u2019s overseas because the Australian lifestyle appeals to consumers \u2013 it\u2019s a point of difference within the market,\u201d says Australian School of Business marketing lecturer Dean Wilkie.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocally, many brands try to create an emotional connection with consumers by using their Australian heritage. \u2018I am a proud Australian, Brand X is a proud Australian, so I will buy their product.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

However, such a positioning is ineffective for Foster\u2019s because many beer brands have created stronger connections with consumers through being associated their state (for example, the XXXX brand and Queensland) or their city (Melbourne Bitter) or their lifestyle (VB and the blue-collar worker), observes Wilkie.<\/p>\n

If Foster\u2019s ownership goes overseas, it will join a swathe of Australian \u201ciconic\u201d brands that are no longer locally owned. However, Foster\u2019s will still be able to maintain its Australian association, provided the new owners continue to invest in it, Wilkie says. \u201cThink of Vegemite, Arnott\u2019s, Holden and from the beer industry, Tooheys.\u201d Their investors are now in faraway lands, but they \u201cstill maintain a very strong association of being Australian\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost consumers have probably experienced an international takeover of one of their favourite brands,\u201d says Wilkie. \u201cTherefore consumers will be less reactive to Foster\u2019s being taken over by SABMiller. You could also argue that Foster\u2019s \u2018Australian\u2019 image is mainly associated with the Foster\u2019s beer brand itself.\u201d And that image in recent years has lived on outside of the nation, rather than in it.<\/p>\n

In the end does it really matter if Foster\u2019s remains Australian-owned? \u201cIt won\u2019t matter to consumers as long as the new owners do not mess with their brands,\u201d says Wilkie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Foster\u2019s slogan might say: “Australian for Beer”. But if the latest suitor in the series of rumoured potential owners has its way, Foster\u2019s will no longer be Australian-owned. In June, British-based brewing behemoth SABMiller launched a A$4.90 per-share A$9.5 billion takeover bid. The takeover attempt failed but speculation is rife the world\u2019s second-biggest brewer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":336,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[368],"tags":[12683,8406,12682,12680,12681],"class_list":["post-43","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing","tag-australian","tag-brand","tag-dean-wilkie","tag-fosters","tag-takeover"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}