Case study Bulmers Cider- Positioning Bulmers Cider has been around a long time. The traditional British summer drink, especially in rural areas, cider was first made commercially by Henry Percy Bulmer and his brother Fred, the sons of Reverend Bulmer, a keen amateur cider maker who proposed commercial production as a way of using up surplus apples in years when the harvest was especially good. The Bulmer brothers worked hard to get the business off the ground, but in 1893, just seven years after starting up, they were producing between 3,000 and 4,000 gallons of cider per day. Some of the companys best-known brands were launched early in the companys history. Woodpecker was launched in 1896, and Pomagne was launched in 1906 after Fred visited Germany on a fact-finding tour. Woodpecker proved to be somewhat sweet for customers in the 20th century, so Bulmers launched Strongbow in 1960 as a direct competitor for beer. Strongbow is a strong, dry cider and has always been positioned as a macho drink, using the imagery of two arrows being fired into a bar top. The company also manufactured perry (made from fermented pears), but in recent years has rebranded this as pear cider. This is because younger audiences did not understand what perry was, so to save lengthy explanations, the company simply called the drink pear cider. This also helped to distance the product from Babycham, the perry which was popular in the 1960s and 1970s, and which was positioned as a girls drink. Babycham had lost popularity with the advent of ready mixed drinks, and had become the butt of a great deal of humour. Several attempts to relaunch the brand have met with mixed, or even poor, results. The pear cider tactic has certainly worked in terms of providing a more macho image for perry. In 1934, a Tipperary man by the name of Magner began producing cider from local apples. In 1937, he agreed a joint marketing arrangement with Bulmers of the UK and began marketing his cider as Bulmers, taking advantage of the UK brands popularity. In 1949, the companies went their separate ways, but Magner retained the Bulmers name within Ireland (effectively being prevented from exporting the cider). Unable to expand beyond Ireland, the Bulmers brand saturated the Irish market. Within Ireland cider acquired a bad reputation in the 1980s for being the drink of choice of hooligans. So-called cider parties became a synonym for groups of hooligans getting as drunk as possible as cheaply as possible: strong, cheap cider was reputed to fuel their behaviour. Bulmers in Ireland brought in Grayling, a PR agency, to reposition cider generally and Bulmers in particular. Grayling began by establishing the Cider Industry Council, an organisation managed by Grayling to act as a focal point for queries from the press and the judiciary. The Cider Industry Council issued press releases and sponsored various events in the sport, music and comedy arenas. The aim of the campaign was to place the cider where people might not expect to see it: in golf clubs, at race meetings, and so forth. At the same time, the company reduced the alcohol content of the cider from 6 per cent to 4.5 per cent and abolished the 2 litre flagons it had been sold in. These changes reduced the perception of cider as being a high-alcohol, cheap drink. Bulmers ad agency, Young RSCG, developed a campaign which emphasised the traditional heritage of the drink. The agency avoided the slick, jokey approach of most beer ads and concentrated on showing Irish orchards, focusing on the natural qualities of the product. The theme carried over into the UK market, where the Irish company now exports the cider under the brand name Magners. This has led to the bizarre situation in which Irish Bulmers is competing with UK Bulmers using a different brand name. Magners in the UK uses the same basic advertising platform as that used in Ireland and has made considerable inroads into the UK market. Positioning cider and perry as sophisticated drinks has a long history; Babycham, Woodpecker, Bulmers Original and Magners have all gone that route. Whether the success story will continue, or whether further repositioning will be needed, remains to be seen. Questions 1 How might Babycham be repositioned? 2 What were the key features in repositioning Bulmers in Ireland? 3 What are the key factors in Magners success in the UK, in terms of its positioning? 4 How might Bulmers in the UK counteract the threat from Magners? 5 What positions currently appear to be available in the cider market?