VB returns to full strength and says sorry to customers ‘for tinkering with their beer’
Carlton & United Breweries is running full-page ads in the national press today to apologise for reducing the strength of its most popular beer, VB.
The ad is to run in News Limited papers the Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, Courier Mail, Adelaide Advertiser and the West Australian – the first time an ad has run on page five in all of these papers.
The ads take the form of an apology letter from the CEO of CUB, Ari Mervis, which begins: “A few years ago, we made several changes to the recipe of your favourite beer. We altered the brewing process and we got it wrong.”
The brand has restored the strength of the beer from 4.6% to 4.9%, changed its name back from VB to Victoria Bitter, and reintroduced the old packaging and the tagline ‘For a hard earned thirst’.
CUB’s CMO Andy Gibson said: “The Vic Bitter drinkers have spoken and told us that we should not have tinkered with their beer. So we have listened and during the course of October Victoria Bitter will be returning to its best, in fact we reckon it will be better than ever.”
This is irresponsible of SAB Miller to increase the alcohol content of VB at a time all other beers are if anything becoming lower and there is a positive shift to more responsible drinking through 4x gold.
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The market has spoken – Sales dropped ! Why is it irresponsible?? – People who drink too much are irresponsible!! not SAB Miller. Plain packaging beer next is it ?
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Just like the old days!
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Given these three big retrofits for VB: alcohol, tagline/advertising and visual branding. One wonders if there is a similar trifecta coming down CUB’s beerlines for Carlton Draught.
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Great news. They dropped the alcohol to avoid paying the government stamp duty. Plus, this idea that brewers are (and should be) responsible for our health is a total nonsense!
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yeah, but, the shil for VB said that there would still be 1.4 alcoholic drinks per can. Does this mean 330ml cans?
Stick that up your bum.
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Hell hath no fury like a nanny state abolitionist scorned.
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They should have changed it more…. It still tastes like pee water.
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I Believe VB is 4.6% at the moment and not 4.8%! Just saying…
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The best thing about this I as can tell is they have reverted back to their old CUB logo on the letterhead and not the horrible one they launched last year. Or am I wrong?
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So, let me get this straight. Sales dropped because CUB lowered VB’s alcoholic content by .1 % and they changed the logo, not because a case of VB tastes like it does yet now costs $44, roughly the same as a case of Crownies, Little Creatures, Blue Tongue, Grolsch, etc, etc…
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bit too similar to NAB breakup?
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who drinks VB?
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Good on them for trying different things. It was always going to be a challenge to beat the original VB brand. I wonder if the same thing will happen to Bundy Rum. Will we be back to the Bundy Bear in a few years?
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Deckchairs………..Titanic……nuff said!
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6 mths later – “Try new VB Platinum, made with strawberries so your girlfriend can enjoy that great VB taste”
1 yr later – “We humbly apologise for the strawberry crap, it’s gone, never again will we mess with VB”
18 mths later- “IT’S BACK – whether your up a pole, down a hole or on the dole – the old VB campaign is BACK (and so is the Boony Doll)”
2 years later – “Our new TVC featuring young metrosexual hipsters on bicycles reflects the changing demographic of beer drinkers, who have moved on from the working class genre of yesteryear”
2.5 years later – “VB is no longer to be manufactured. It’s over, the world has changed. We fully appreciate that everyone will be outraged, primarily due to our coordinated PR spin campaign and heavy social media interlink”.
2.6 years later – “IT”S BACK – BY POPULAR DEMAND, VB IS BACK!!!! There is VB Original, VB Gold, VB Platinum, VB Orange, VB Watermelon. Our new TVC campaign has Boony being made over by Carson Kressley into a metrosexual”
I can see it all now. 🙂
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Also interesting is this letter that was posted to Reddit today, purporting to be from a disgruntled customer, coinciding with this announcement. A little bit of under-the-radar content circulation quite possibly? To me it just seems to be formatted to the extreme and the use of correct company names raises a bit of suspicion too
http://resources.news.com.au/f.....letter.pdf
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The big issue for VB is price point. When Premium beers such as Heineken, Peroni, James Boags are $2-3 less per carton, something is outta whack. VB should be the cheapest full strength VALUE beer on offer. I’d wager that most beer drinkers barely noticed the alcohol difference.
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I worked on VB in the mid 1990s when CUB could boast 1 in 4 beers sold in Oz was a VB. It was 4.9%, in a 375ml can/ stubbie, the recipe was the same as it was 20 years before, and they used a dead guy to voice the TVCs (John Mellion) with a great call to action for beer drinkers
Why would you f**k with that?? In my experience brand managers sometimes can’t help but tinker with a great brand the punters love just because it’s been around for a while, right? And surely the punters want something new, right? Geniuses.
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Mr Huxley used to say “no” all the time to young brand managers like me who used to come up with great and not so great ideas for iconic CUB beers. After he left, there was no one to say “no” anymore….and look what happened.
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I’VE GOT IT NOW!
BIGGER BIGHT, FOR A BITTER FIGHT!
BRIMMINGLY BREWED!!
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It was shit so we changed it, then it was shitter so we changed it back.
Now its just the same old shit so we want you to buy it again.
There’s you’re honest letter.
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Has anyone noticed the similarity to the NAB breakup letter?
Uncanny.
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The fact that it says 4.8 on the can is bullshit. I used to be able to drink no more than ten cans and that was it, end of session. Now I can drink fifteen without even feeling the slightest bit tippsy. Might as well had fifteen glasses of water. Where’s the alcoholic content at all? You are lying to sell your product. Simple!
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