The man who gave the chop to Connemara's samurai warriors says he is changing the focus of Murphy's as it seeks to increase its market share.

With a CV that includes stints working for McDonalds, Pepsi Cola and Heineken beers, Mr Peter Bray is a Canadian in Cork - as the new group brand manager for Murphy's Brewery.

Mr Bray (36) is originally from Montreal, but has got used to moving. He went to school in the US, and estimates that he has lived in eight different states and two Canadian provinces in "mostly corporate moves".

He is one of a growing number of examples of economic immigrants who have moved to Cork to wage the beer war against the Guinness giant.

He says there is "a great combination of personal challenge and great quality of life".

"In terms of stout segment, Guinness is by far the share leader. That was a big part of the appeal of coming into the position - because of the huge challenge I would face here.

"I think the Murphy's Brewery has tremendous potential versus the other brands."

So why are the popular samurai going? He says that they had their day, establishing the stout "as proprietorial to Murphys".

"It was the right message for the time. It made a tremendous impact."

Now he is switching the marketing focus from brand-awareness to a results-driven campaign aimed at developing what he sees as the unrealised brand potential in his beer stock.

"We are actually going for a more sophisticated consumer, a more sophisticated beer drinker who demands quality, who demands easy-drinking, smooth beer."

He cites a scene from the film Pulp Fiction when the character played by John Travolta describes Europe as having everything the US has, except that it is a little different.

"Probably the biggest difference is Irish people are much more polite, not just to each other but polite to the competition.

"Virtually everyone knows each other, so you have to be polite."

The other difference lies in the dynamics of the beer market, which is more pub-oriented than in the US and has less regulations governing brand entry. He says he enjoys the simplicity of how the battle lines are drawn, with one major competitor, Guinness, to contend with.

Per capita beer consumption is rising, reaching 141.3 litres in 1995 from a 1987 low of 106.4 litres, with stout accounting for 48 per cent of the market. According to Checkout magazine, more than 90 per cent of beer consumption is in pubs and licensed venues "as against 70 per cent in the UK, 68.1 per cent in Spain, 51.9 per cent in Belgium and 38 per cent in Germany".

"I find Ireland to be as competitive an environment as I have been in before," Mr Bray says. The other Cork competitor, Beamish & Crawford, has gone after a different customer, he says.

"Beamish has fought the battle on value, and they have been somewhat successful in the areas where people respond to that."

Brewers are shy about disclosing their market share, but Beamish says it is the second largest stout seller in Ireland after Guinness.

Murphy's, however, claims it is the fastest growing brewery in the Irish market, with a growth rate of 10 per cent annually. Including its production of Heineken lager, it claims a 18 per cent share of the domestic beer market.

Mr Bray says Murphy's has a 6 per cent share of the stout market. "Really, there is a hell of a lot more potential there, a lot more growth that we should be looking for in the Irish market."

He did a Masters in Business Administration at Purdue University, Indiana, and attended the Krannert School of Management.

"I started off my career on the ad agency side, working on the McDonalds account," he says.

He later jumped sides, working for McDonalds, first on the national market and then opting for a more regional focus, in charge of a $12 million budget and directing four advertising agencies "to round off my career". "I needed to get the regional marketing experience, which at that time was increased responsibility for me," he says.

He describes McDonald's, the world's largest brand advertiser, as very disciplined, spending "an extraordinary amount of money" on staff training.

"They are a totally integrated marketing machine, everything from above the line to local store marketing, and everything in between."

He then worked as executive director for Airship International, developing a marketing department for a company "that was very operationally-driven". The company specialises in providing an advertising service on huge floats, "a niche tool that is really designed for the upper 3 per cent of advertisers".

"I think what was interesting was being part of a start-up operation that was taken public at the time. It had gone through an initial public offering on the stock market.

"I was able to expand on the new products experience I had got in McDonalds." He went on to work for DDB Medium, an advertising agency, taking responsibility for the Pepsi Cola account. He later became the account director for a Pepsi-Lipton joint venture when the soft drinks market exploded into isotonic and sport-identified drinks.

"We were really the last major entrant into the iced tea category. In a matter of 14 months we took share leadership," he says, putting it down to "having products that were relevant to the consumer".

Working for Heineken USA was his first introduction to Murphy's which is one of the nine brands aimed at the American beer market. Two-and-a-half years later he was asked to work in Ireland by the former managing director of Murphy Brewery, Mr Michael Foley, now president of Heineken USA.

Mr Bray also has responsibility for Britain, the world's largest stout market, where Murphy's has claimed a 13 per cent market share since 1989.

It sells 136,000 pints daily with its new logo aimed at the 18-35 urban male population: "Like Murphy's, I'm not bitter".

Most work has to be done in the home market, particularly in Dublin which h as yet to see significant penetration by the Cork brew.

"It is a very important market. A little more than a third of the population is there and trends start there. Probably half of the young population is there," he says.

Although a beer's taste is probably the least reason why it will have market prominence in the sophisticated advertising world, Mr Bray maintains that Murphy's "smoothness" for first-time stout drinkers is a marketing advantage.

"The young stout drinker is looking for easier drinking beers.

"We all know that Murphy's is not as much an acquired taste as some of the others out there."