“One
simple way is encouraging persons to return their empty bottles to our offices
at 214 Spanish Town Road. We still buy empties at $10 per bottle and $50 for
the new one-litre bottles. All that money can come in handy if you have a lot
of bottles at home”
Communications Manager
at Diageo Levaughn Flynn, commenting on the Red Stripe Beer Festival in the
Middle of the Second Quarter of 2014
Red Stripe, for no apparently reason,
has decided to celebrate Oktoberfest BEFORE October comes and sans the Germans with their own Red Stripe
Beer Festival as reported in “Red Stripe
launches three-day beer festival”, Published Sunday May 18, 2014 by Davina
Henry, Staff Reporter, The Jamaica
Gleaner.
Take a gander at the pictures from their official Red Stripe
Facebook Page, as
it tells a better story than my words can describe. Please note, you have to be
a friend of mine on Facebook
or join Red Stripe
Facebook Page to
see this.
No
surprise as to the sponsors as per the poster above:
1.
Digicel
2.
Pepsi
3.
CB Chicken
4.
Rainforest Seafood
JA$500
to get into the Red Stripe Beer
Festival on Friday May 23rd 2014 and Saturday May 24th 2014,
which is Sabbath, so clearly I’m out. Amusingly the Thursday May 22nd
2014 Event is free, as apparently Red
Stripe has to get us to drink a couple Brewski's free and be Drunk before
the Hard work of Labour Day Begins on Friday May 23rd 2014.
Good
to note that Telecom Provider Digicel coincidentally is running a World
Telecommunications Day Promotion that ends on Thursday May 22nd 2014,
just as Red Stripe's Beer Festival
starts, suggesting that they might have a hand in this as well! Still, the
Entertainment lineup isn't too shabby either:
1.
No-Maddz
2.
Kabaka Pyramid
3.
Mystical Revolution
Red Stripe’s Beer Festival definitely
tipped off my weird meter, as this is the Middle of the Second Quarter of 2014,
not Christmas! So why a Beer Festival and worse for three (3) whole Days
starting from Thursday May 22nd 2014 to Saturday May 24th 2014,
with Labour Day on Friday May 23rd 2014 sandwiched in-between?
This
is guaranteed to make Labour Day nicer for the Barbican peeps in St. Andrew, as
after they have finished labouring on Labour Day, they can saunter across to
Barbican Beach Bar and Grill on Barbican Road in Kingston and sample one of the
following Alcoholic Beverages:
1.
Heineken
2.
Talawah
3.
Guinness
4.
Dragon
5.
Malta
6.
Smirnoff Ice
They're
also planning to indoctrinate more Millennials (ages 18 to 28) into the Art of
Drinking, as they now have new youth-oriented Flavours on Tap as described in
the article “Red
Stripe to launch two new beer flavours”, Published Sunday May 18, 2014, by Richard Brown, The Jamaica Gleaner:
1.
Green Apple
2.
Raspberry Burst
3.
Red Apple
4.
Talawah Ginger beer
5.
Tropical Pineapple
Red
Apple and Tropical Pineapple are the NKYOB (New Kids on the Block), with the
other having being introduced over the past three (3) years. What’s interesting
here is that these are all Beer Brands, the location and the Timing of the Red Stripe Beer Festival, which their
Communications Manager at Diageo Levaughn Flynn is planning to make into a
yearly Festival.
Why I’m writing about
Red Stripe Beer Festival – Weirdness Level off the Chart
That’s
what’s a little odd and really tripped my Weird-o-Meter! Hence my blog article!
Granted,
it's just after they'd launched their jumbo-sized 1 Liter Red Stripe Beer product in April 2014 that's
made with Cassava as stated in “RED
STRIPE LAUNCHES 1 LITRE BOTTLE”, published Thursday, April 10, 2014, The Jamaica Observer. So one can
assume it may be due to the fact that they're trying to get the wider public to
realize that the Beer taste the same, just a different source for the Hops that
they normally import.
From
my point of view, that cannot be the whole story, as they’d long publicized
their Cassava-to-replace-Hops Strategy for some time. Red Stripe had only recently lease 36
acres of land at Bernard Lodge in St Catherine to grow the first crop on Tuesday, January 7th,
2014 with
the blessing of the Agro-Investment Corporation as chronicled in my blog article
entitled “Red
Stripe and Agro-Investment Corporation signs lease Agreement on 36 acres of
Land - Farmers benefit from Cassava’s Day in the Sun as we catch up with
Africa's by September 2014”.
Also
this is just a Beer Festival to introduce new Products and introduce them to
the Public, which based on the location appears to be mainly affluent uptown
Millennials (ages 18 to 28). Their Target audience, Timing of the Red Stripe Beer Festival and their
plan to make this a yearly push smells more of fear than just a regular
promotion.
Red Stripe Beer
Festival – Palcohol means Red Stripe sweating but Long Hair Hide it
I
suspect this may be a fear response to Palcohol, the powdered Beer alternative
to Bottle Beer that you can have anywhere by just adding the contents to water
or any liquid as described in my blog article entitled
“Businessman
Mark Phillip's Palcohol gets TTD Approval – Drinkers will judge Powdered
Alcohol from Low Temperature Nitrogen Atmosphere Vacuum Evaporation”
The
timing is right too, as Palcohol
was introduced a month ago in April 2014, suggesting that this oddly-timed Beer
Festival is being launched more to market the fact that their product is “Natural”
as opposed to Palcohol, is a
pre-packaged, dehydrated flavoured version of Alcohol.
Somewhat
reminiscent of the brewing Battle between Coca-Cola and Sodastream, makers of
the Soda Carbonizer product that eliminates the need to buy Sodas as explained
in my blog
article entitled “Coca-Cola
to enter the At-Home Soda Market with the Keurig Cold by September 2014 - Bad
news for Sodastream as Coca-Cola 10% will prove you Can't Beat the Real Thing”.
The
setting also suggests this as well, as it’s being done to emphasize to the
Uptown Crowd, the main Drinkers of Beer in the Clubs, Parties and other Social
Events, that their product is just as versatile and portable as this new coming
Upstart. This was a product I’d predicted would reach Jamaica very soon as
Diageo, the owner of Red Stripe,
may have seen how successfully it’s taking away their marketshare in European
Party and Club Scenes, where Palcohol
is already consumed.
Palcohol, Diageo Head Honcho’s
probably reason, may either be coming to Jamaica via Jet-Set American or
European travelers carrying back satchets of Palcohol strapped inside of their
carry-on luggage for family members to sample. Or it may come down via the Businessman
or entrepreneur or Party organizer shipping it down in Bulk to sell in Food
Establishments, Clubs and Bars.
Red Stripe’s Marketing Department may
have spotted it these establishments and are thus launching this first counter-offensive
against this cheaper form of Alcohol. Folks, this is no ordinary Red Stripe Beer Festival. This is a
first strike offensive by Red Stripe,
Marketing style, against a coming threat of Palcohol. The Beer Barons fear Palcohol will upset their
Apple-Cart in Jamaica due to its lower pricing point and portability.
Folks
this is yet one more thing for me to add to my Google Alerts watchlist as
described in my Geezam blog article
entitled “Google
Alerts Diamond in the Rough coming to Google+ to deliver Technology News”.
No comments:
Post a Comment