Brand Contest  Guinness vs Legend: Guinness Stout still leads

Grit and market loyalty seem to be critical success factors in sustaining brand dominance or are they? Despite fierce competition from uppity rivals like Legend Extra Stout, a product of Nigerian Breweries the local affiliate of Heinekens BV, Guinness Stout remains Nigeria’s premium stout brew of choice. Recent market fisticuffs have admittedly bloodiedthe brands nose and cut a piece out of its market share but consumers have largely kept faith with the ale maker.

Hallmark newspapers market intelligence investigations revealthat while Legend, a product launched in 1992 by NB Plc has wrested some ground from its older competitor, the Guinness brew still tops the chart of consumer preference, however Guinness is having a hard time protecting its market turf as desperately aggressive competitors are kicking a dent in the brands sales and inevitably profits.

For decades, Guinness Extra Stout, has been the ‘crown jewel’ of Guinness’s Nigerian subsidiary, and has dominated the bitterale market like aten tonne Gorilla. It has hitherto been (and continues to be) the brewer’s chief cash-cow and the primary determinant of its corporate fortunes. With the contribution of 45 per cent of total corporate sales globally, how Guinness Stout fares in the domestic market in terms of sales volumedetermines whether the balance sheet of the Irish company’s location operations drips red or black ink. For the most part, black has been the company’s power and colourbut in the last few years, the dominant pixel of the company has been a hue of red, to the consternation of its managers.

Checks at bars and restaurants in Lagos and its environs including social media platforms reveal that the Guinness brand stillcarries weight but with waning strength as consumers are not adverse to sampling alternative brews.

“Guinness is still what customers ask for most,” volunteeredMrs. BennedictAtumalu, owner of B7B Restaurant&Bar  atAnifowose area of Ikeja, Lagos,.  “In a week I sell about eight crates of Guinness Stout, I sell five of Legend,” she offered.

 On why customers prefer Guinness, her husband, MrAtumalu who co-owns the bar with his wife, submittedcryptically,”The difference is clear.”

AStout connoisseur, Femi Fagbule,notes that the Guinness brand is a preferred brew because, “It is very bitter. It gives you one high feeling.” A view collaborated byLanre Olalekan,35, a Lagos based banker who noted that’the taste of Guinness Stout is bitter and tingly giving a unique olfactory experience to sensitive taste buds.”

 For some die-hard loyalists like UzoamakaChikere, the love for Guinness Stout was handed down from one generation to the next. Says Chikere,“i started kissing the cup containing Guinness Stout as a lad. My late father would call us to have a kiss of the cup one after another to the objection of my late mum. As time went on, I came to know it as a brand that equates my brand.”

On its part, the NB Plc dark ale, Legend, has won for itself a teeming population of new converts especially,  youths and those looking for affordable stout offerings.

“I prefer Legend. It is nourishing and less bitter than (Guinness)Stout. Legend is cheaper in some places,” explained Tony Awhnor.

Some erstwhile patrons of Guinness Stout have either jettisoned  the brand for another beverage brand or stopped alcohol entirely for health or religious reasons.’Guinness Stout was my favourite drink. Igave me energy and stimulated my brain,” disclosed LaoyeOyemade. “I stopped drinking it for health reasons”.

 Analysts believe that Guinness Stout’s dwindling fortunes could be traced to three major factors; economic, lifestyle changes and aggressive industry competition.  Rising cost of living in the last two years has had an adverse impact on the beer industry, generally, forcing a decline in demand for premium beer brands in favour of lower cost brands. At the price of N250 for a bottle of Guinness as against Legend’s N150 for same measure liquid content, stout drinkers who keep an eye on spending buy the cheaper Legend stout brand in preference to the more expensive Guinness product.

Also, changing lifestyle, particularly, the wave of Pentecostal Christianity sweeping across the country with preaching against the consumption of alcoholis hurting the sales volume of beer and stout brands across the board. Inability to catch the youth market is also partof Guinness Foreign Extra Stout’smajor problem. At 52- years old, the Guinness Stout brand is aging and has not done much to revitalize its brand personality.

Most people who drink it are older people in their late 40s like Chikere who grew up with it. Analysts argue that Guinness Stout handlers have not done much in terms of engagement to catch the youth market like its younger rival Legend which has been investing heavily in activations and sponsorships of youth-targeted programmes. Lately, Legend has been moving from city to city initiating  young people into the Legend-drinking club with  ‘incentives’ in its ‘taste ‘n’tellcampaign where consumers are expected to tell the difference between Legend and its substitutes from tasting them. In one of these activations, a first time-drinker of the product who won a prize, pledged to continue to drink Legend.  But for its sponsorship of Nigerian national football and the recent campaign, ‘Made-of-Black’ which tries to connect the brand with the young and aspiring, Guinness Stout campaign messages have been about sexual power as epitomized by theMichael Power campaigns of the late 90s to 2006 and  ‘great’ accomplished men as typified by ‘My friend, Udeme’ campaign.

One analyst, Dan Obi, puts ‘conservatism’ at the heart of the Guinness problem. According to Obi, “The Diageo subsidiary seems to be too cautious and conservative with its engagement with the public in an internet-dictated world where the youth market, with its large population wants to bubble.”

The rivalry between the two brewing giants; Nigerian Breweries and Guinness hasn’t helped the latter’sdiminishing fortune. Recently, a consumer, EbubeOnu, alleged on a social media platform that his friend who worked for one of the two leading breweries in the country was sacked after a colleague ran into him at a bar drinking a beer brand of the rival company. Last year, the two rivals took the duel to both the market place and pages of newspapers with Guinness Plc accusing Nigerian Breweries of de-marketing  and ambush marketing at various times.

Although, in the short term things may look cloudy for Guinness Stout, Meristem, a marketing research firm believes that’the beer maker will continue to leverage on innovation to shove up its slowing top-line performance.’

Efforts to get reactions from spokesmenfor GuinnessPlc, SesanSobowale, and NBPlc, EdemVindah proved abortive as  they  did not respond to enquiry sent to them as at press time