Stroh Brewery Canada has entered the Canadian craft beer market with one of the first and most successful micro-brewed beers south of the border – Pete’s Wicked Ale.
The ale from Pete’s Brewing Company of Mountain View, Calif. – the second-largest craft brewer in the u.s. – is the first of the eight beers brewed by Pete’s to make it to Canadian shelves. It is now available in beer and liquor stores in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and b.c.
Stroh Canada has the rights to Pete’s in Canada. There is no such relationship between the two companies in the u.s., although the two do time-share brewing facilities in an arrangement known as ‘alternation’, whereby Pete’s uses some of Stroh’s resources to brew its products.
Kevin Meens, national director of marketing for Stroh and Pete’s, says Wicked Ale was chosen for the introduction because sales performance for ales is traditionally best during winter. One of the lagers will be launched in the spring.
Advertising for Pete’s is being handled in-house by Stroh and Meens says efforts will concentrate on radio and print through to the end of 1999.
Print ads running now use the line ‘Get Wicked Tonight.’ The radio campaign use a series of humorous one-liners that tag sponsorship of weather and traffic reports with, for example, ‘Brought to you by Pete’s Wicked Ale. Not better than sex. Pretty good afterwards. Get Wicked tonight at your beer and liquor stores.’
Meens says in the craft beer segment, marketing is all about providing just enough information to the consumer so they can boast to others about the great beer they’ve found.
‘For people who are marketing craft beer, it’s all about getting on personal menus. It’s smaller volumes and premium-priced products. It’s completely opposite of major brands where the personal menu is usually very short but huge in volume.’
