MIDDLEBURGH

San Miguel Light

Wildly niave of me to assume that either Patrick or Aaron would have more than a passing interest in what was happening here in HK. As they pointed out, they are focussed on sex, alcohol and generally having a good time.

This is therefore for #2 son whose collection of Erdinger glasses, continues to grow unabated. (well ..better than collecting butterflies or social diseases).

Last week I ordered a beer in a local eatery. Imaging how devasted I was on discovering that they had no Carlsberg, Tsingtao or anything else, only bottled "San Miguel Light". At this point let me make it clear than I don't like San Miguel beers. They are like the Watney's Red barrel of my youth: ie last resort only if nothing else available.

It fully lived up to its name and indeed surpassed expectations: weak,insipid, colorless, flavourless, lacking in body etc.

I then realised a remarkable thing .... the marketing stategy for this beer, evidently developed by a team whom I suspect may themselves be light headed (can't be due to sampling the product), is based with stunning creativity (not) on the theme of 'lightness'

Contrast the product label with that of the standard product (picture left). Notice how imaginatively the marketeers have abreviated the brand, "San Miguel" to "San Mig" as if by shortening the name it makes the product magically "lighter" (what were they thinking of!!). Of course the company could simply be trying to disassociate the product from the main brand .

This so intreagued me that I visited the "San Miguel" website to find out the intended product positioning . I found a videoclip continuing this theme of "lightness" At least it had a theme which is more than can be said for the adverts for standard product and not at all like the Guinnessadverts.

Apparently San Miguel claim to have the largest market share for beer in HK (24%) because it is competitively priced (but you get what you pay for) and brewed locally. Friends tell me that the same brew in the Philipines is much better than here.

Ironically from the San Miguel site there is a link to Rate Beer from which I discovered that San Miguel actually make one beer that is rated lower than San Mig Light which itself has a dismal rating.

Amongst the other marketing trivia I read about San Miguel was a link to the official site for the anime movie Ghost in the Shell This is the sweetest site- pure delight - well worth the visit. Apparently there is a scene in the movie with a perfectly rendered San Miguel bottle with label . Now that's product placement !!

Just for the record:The bottle of San miguel I bought to compare labels will be used to water my pot plants (I don't know anyone, whom I dislike enough, to give it to)

Posted at 6/12/2006 09:54:00 pm by David Middleburgh   Permalink

|