±±¾©Èü³µpk10

Scottish Courage is revamping its Newcastle Brown Ale brand, and

backing it with a through-the-line marketing push to strengthen its

appeal to younger consumers.

The brewer is dropping the word ’ale’ from the label and has updated the

bottle’s design to give it a more contemporary feel.

The new look will be followed by an advertising and direct marketing

campaign through Carlson Marketing Group, which has been working on a

strategy since April last year.

Trevor Pettit, creative director at Carlson, declined to reveal details

of the campaign, which is at research stage, but said it would herald a

major change in direction: ’We’re going to reinvigorate the brand. It’s

not had a lot of support in the past year or so.’

While Newcastle Brown Ale still has a 70.7% share of the premium bottled

ales market in the on-trade, sales of the brand by volume have declined

over the past year, down 7% in the off-trade and falling 13% in the

on-trade.

This has prompted Scottish Courage to market the brand more aggressively

to win back drinkers in an increasingly competitive market.

Sanjay Patel, who took over as brand manager for Newcastle Brown Ale in

December, said: ’We’re freshening up the image in line with the

expectations of our target audience, which is 18- to 24-year-olds.

People don’t actually use the word ’ale’ when ordering the brand.’