Will “Beautiful Beer” Entice Women to Drink?

As a woman, I’m always surprised that more women don’t drink beer. It’s not unusual for me to be the only beer drinker in the crowd. Case in point: over the weekend, I was in the minority as a woman at an Irish bar drinking pints of black and tan in the midst of girlfriends throwing back cocktails.

Of the 10.7 billion pints of beer sold in the UK annually, only 13% are drunk by women. This inequity is finally being addressed by Coors UK with a new business division codenamed “Eve.” The company is trying to woo women with more “girly” variants. Also on the company’s check list, touting the value of beer’s lower alcohol and calorie count compared to wine.

The British Beer & Pub Association has also jumped on the women should drink more beer bandwagon with its “Beautiful Beer” campaign. The BBPA is aiming to change the way that we think about beer by making it, well, pretty. Tops in the campaign are tulip-shaped glasses, which apparently make you feel more elegant whilst drinking a beer. Really? Cause I don’t get it.

The goal among various brewers and marketers is to change the appeal of beer by introducing it as a “lifestyle” product. It could actually work. Think about how cosmos a la Sex and the City revitalized the cocktail market – it wasn’t that the drink tasted any different, it was that our perception of the drink changed.

Personally, as a woman and a beer drinker, I love the idea. But is anyone else having difficulty *getting* that a company associated with the Coors twins is now reaching out to women?