Love for the Guinness brand is alive and well but this is not always converted into sales at the point of purchase – whether, pub, bar or shop.

 

We were tasked to investigate and solve this by uncovering fresh insights regarding how people choose their first drink of the night. If more people could be encouraged to choose Guinness, sales would look a lot healthier.

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We realised that risk-mitigation was a very important factor. People are highly motivated to avoid risk (social, emotional, physical, financial) when choosing their first drink. But Guinness often presents itself as a challenging, risky choice in its branded comms, associated with extreme characters and situations.

 

Our solution was to incorporate risk-mitigation language in communications that the audience were exposed to when closer to the point of decision. This language would reframe Guinness as less challenging and more accessible. Our recommendations have been used to inform point of sale messaging, product descriptors and promotional activity.

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By doing this, Guinness could retain its much-loved brand heritage, while engaging and expanding their audience using empathic and welcoming language.