Popular beer brand Innis & Gunn conducted an experiment at a pub in Edinburgh, disguising their own lager with a Spanish label – and it showed how beer labels influence consumers. The latest survey showed 90% of Brits have been duped by the marketing of brews such as Madri Excepcional, with only a mere 8% realising that the supposed “Madrid’s Modern Lager” was actually invented in Burton-on-Trent a few years back and is produced by Molson Coors Brewing Company in the UK.
The study revealed a mere 27% of Brits feel the nation excels in brewing beer, dipping to 20% among those under 34. This skepticism ranks British beer lower than the nation’s cheese (46%), whisky (42%), film and TV (41%), and even fashion (28%). Shockingly, 15% believe the UK doesn’t excel in any domain.
Conducted by Opinion Matters with 2,019 UK adults participating, the research was commissioned by Scottish brewing giants Innis & Gunn, motivated by curiosity around the triumph of beers like Madri. Despite Madri’s Mediterranean-style beer launch being one of UK’s brewing milestones, Innis & Gunn’s founder, Dougal Sharp, insists that conjuring up the “spirit of Madrid” with a chulapo-adorned bottle and a Madrid-themed logo is merely an illusion.
Dougal, who began working in breweries as a teenager, and who then went on to found Innis & Gunn in 2003, said: “Look, the beers we are talking about here are all great beers from great companies. But consumers are drawn in by the image and the promise of continental beer. They end up paying a premium price for them because of that marketing and the image. To me, it feels like a scandal.
“There’s no need to look to the continent for great beer when we’re producing award-winning homegrown lagers across the UK. And there’s no surely no need to be duped by supposedly continental lager. Our flagship lager recently won gold at the World Beer Awards, and British beers are among the best in the world; there’s so much quality here and consumers should wake up to that.”
While half of surveyed millennials say they’d happily pay more for continental beer – compared to 38% of all Brits – only 12% of this age group know that Madri is brewed in the UK with 34% saying they prefer continental beers due to their “unique and exotic flavours”. The survey shows a generational divide with 37% of Millennials considering a beer’s country of origin when buying it compared to 29% of the general population and 21% of baby boomers.
To test these opinions, Innis & Gunn conducted an experiment at a pub in Edinburgh, disguising their own lager with a Spanish label. Customers readily purchased the beer, assuming it was a continental brew, and were surprised to discover it was actually an Innis & Gunn lager proving how branding influences consumer choices.
Madri’s popularity can be attributed to its launch in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, when British consumers stuck at home wanted to have a taste of Spain. The outcome has sparked a jump in the popularity of “continental” beers, with Madri now climbing the ranks to become one of the UK’s favourite beer brands.
Dougal concluded: “When I read the survey results, it did make me feel like I’ve been shouting into an empty keg for the last 20 years – but I won’t stop. Homegrown lager is a movement worth getting behind and It’s time to give the incredible beer being proudly produced right here on our doorstep its time in the sun, as it were.”