Guinness introduces new beverage
Innovation is key if any entity would succeed in satisfying the needs of any market, particularly the youthful segment of the population, as their needs and wants remain rapidly dynamic.
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As the country’s entertainment and lifestyle ecosystems remain open to foreign influx and influence, so the wants and habits of the youth get tuned as they jostle to stay in vogue and relevant in the fast paced society of today.
Responding to some lifestyle changes in the country, especially with the rising consciousness of health implications of lifestyle choices, Guinness Ghana Brewery Limited (GGBL) has introduced a new alcoholic beverage, Star Lite, with a livelier taste and features that promise to ‘daze’ its targets, the youth between 18 and 34 years.
Containing less alcohol than the regular, the beverage is also 30 per cent less in calories and has no added sugar, according to Marketing Director of GGBL, Mr Kweku Sekyi-Cann, who together with the Managing Director, Mr Peter Ndegwa, the Marketing Manager, Lagers, Mr Eric Dias, and other marketing staff launched the product to a section of the media at Senchi.
“Innovation continues to be one of our key pillars of growth and we acknowledge that consumers are looking for premium beers that reflect their lifestyle choices. Star Lite gives consumers an alternative to regular beer for all drinking occasions,” Mr Sekyi-Cann explained.
Significantly, the beverage’s new design and aesthetics appears poised to excite its youth targets; its labels has an innovative temperature sensitive embossment that change from shiny white to blue, when the beer is cold enough (six degrees or below) to drink.
In addition, its crown cock helps to retain the iced temperature of the drink long after it is outside the refrigerator, thanks to a new crown cork with a blue ceiling that locks in freshness of the beer.
The four per cent alcoholic beverage, made of maize (sourced locally), malted barley and hops, is brewed in lighter proportions than the regular Star Lager beer. Guinness already produces Ruuts Beer with locally sourced cassava.
The managing director said the product, the first “Lite” beer on the local market, was the result of extensive market research which highlighted a changing lifestyle which they quickly responded to.
The Mirror observed that tried as the shrewd marketing team did to distinguish the properties of the new drink from the regular, there were still concerns whether the new product is not a fighter brand, released to quieten the raging competition in the lagers sub-market of alcoholic beverages.