Heineken: Beer brands have missed an opportunity to innovate around flavour
Heineken’s beer director talks to Marketing Week about the trends the industry needs to pay closer attention to if it is to drive future growth, as he reflects on the launch of Birra Moretti’s first global campaign.
The beer sector has missed an opportunity to innovate around flavour, according to Heineken’s beer brand unit director Matt Saltzstein.
While cider, spirits and latterly seltzers are rising in popularity, growth in beer is stalling. Stats from the Wine and Spirit Association’s 2020 annual report shows beer sales fell by 10%.
“I think the beer industry in general has been guilty of not innovating enough in flavour for the past four to five years,” he tells Marketing Week.
“Because if you look at the flavour trends, which drive a lot of the cider penetration, seltzers and spirits, that’s a big contributor to their growth. Whereas in beer, most of the innovation, at least recently in the UK, has been more around package and pack type.”
