Cantillon: Guinness stoutly advances the brand

Via the Wall Street Journal, news emerges of a renewed push by Guinness brewer Diageo to establish something more enduring from stout's popularity in the US on St Patrick's Day. In excess of 13 million pints are likely to be downed worldwide on the big day, almost four times the soakage on an average day.

The boost is particularly pronounced in the American market, where Guinness does twice as well in March as in any other month.

Cue efforts to capitalise on the Patrick's Day surge. The firm's USA arm, says the Journal , has signed a five-year deal to sponsor the Guinness International Champions Cup, a ritzy soccer tournament.

Diageo has also added to its portfolio of brews, introducing an American lager called Guinness Blonde. It all sounds none too appealing to weary Cantillon, whose tastes are decidedly traditional, but it must still be a whole a lot better than green beer.

All of this is a world away from the regular pint, but we have long since become accustomed to (but remain befuddled by) brand variants in the home market – Guinness Original, Extra Cold, Extra Smooth, Guinness Red, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout.

And that’s just the black stuff. In the department of ale, we have Smithwick’s Original Ale, Smithwick’s Pale Ale, Smithwick’s Blonde, and seasonal brews such as Smithwick’s Long Summer and Smithwick’s Winter Spirit.

That’s enough brands for a brand convention, but yet more Guinness brands are en route to the US market . We read of a “brewer’s project” there to revive old recipes and come “out with more and more beers”.

The basic objective is to steal a march on increasingly popular craft brewers, whose own stout varieties have made inroads into the Guinness’ share of the market.

First the upstarts chased the big beast. Now the big beast is chasing the upstarts. Happy St Patrick’s Day.