Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Not sure if that's a typo or not. They will down-grade to a cheaper brand, or they will not?

Sorry will down grade.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I'd imagine that it would be more difficult to downgrade to a cheaper brand if there were a perceived deterioration in quality, but I wouldn't have thought that would not be the case with Staropramen and Bitburger. I guess it all comes down to brand loyalty, marketing and brand association/sponsorship (Heineken Cup for example), and I wouldn't think that either Staropramen or Bitburger have any of those things in Ireland.

Its not a quality issue as the sales would include the cheaper East European lagers too. Brand loyalty maybe in the pubs, but there is a fair wack of perception of been seen drinking a pint of Hino . At home its only yourself, significant others and the TV that witness your brand devaluing

irish_goat wrote: »

It works up north for Wetherspoons.

A lot of things that work up North won't necessarily work down here, due to differences in disposable income etc., closer ties to Britain etc.

drumswan wrote: »

Irrelevant really. Wetherspoons will be busy regardless of whether "Heineken drinkers" go there or not.

They will be busy, hopefully. I'm not saying they won't, but to say that Heineken drinkers en masse will forget brand loyalty and drink something cheaper is naive.

Koptain Liverpool wrote: »

This is nonsense. How many dedicated Heineken drinkers do you think there are? The majority of people who drink Heineken do so as it is often the best of a bad range of choices available. Provide similar or indeed superior beers at half the price and 99% of 'Heineken drinkers' will be happy.

Have you any figures to back that up? Heineken is the #1 selling beer in Ireland, there are cheaper beers of similar or better quality so why isn't everyone switching (hint: brand loyalty)

BaZmO* wrote: »

(hint: monopoly)

Heineken don't have a monopoly on beer in Ireland.

My Xmas work night out was changed from TTT because of 2 girls complaining of no heino or bulmers, idiots.

the fact that this request was facilitated is laughable. In relation to Heineken and the mention of "inferior" drinks, I assume people are referring to the price the alternatives are being sold at, dont for one second try and tell me that Heineken is a "better" beer. I use to be a loyal Heineken drinker, started drinking lots of others over the past few years, my loyalty will be to my wallet well before it will be to Heineken because they have spend a fortune on marketing for god knows how long...

I have plenty of friends who are committed Heineken drinkers. These guys have been ordering Heineken pretty much exclusively in Irish pubs for 10+ years. However, put them in a pub with nice craft beer on offer, or with a special offer on another macro (ie Carlsberg/Miller/whatever for 4eur a pint or less) and they will instantly change their order. I have no doubt that 90% of the Irish population who drinks Heineken is similar.

Basically, they have a slight preference for Heineken over other macros. But when a more varied choice is offered, or there is a significant price difference amongst the macros, they'll drop it like its hot.

I can't wait until Wetherspoons hit a critical mass in Dublin (10 pubs? 20?) and other pubs start having to respond to their presence. The Dublin pub scene is about to get a nice shakeup...

I'm the average Heineken drinker, no interest whatsoever in experimenting with craft beers, I just drink Heineken because thats what I drink.

And I know full well that after 2 drinks all pints taste the fucking same anyway. Put me in a pub with €3 pints and as long as it isn't pure muck then I'll be drinking the €3 pints.

Brand loyalty? Don't make me laugh. If Heineken think they have any real brand loyalty they are deluding themselves.

petethebrick wrote: »

I think he was referring to macro lagers to be fair, which to be fair are often fairly indistinguishable from one another.

Yeah, three pints in and it doesn't really matter if its Heineken, Coors, Harp, Carlsberg, Peroni, whatever, you'll just drink it anyway.

I'm not talking about swapping between them, but whatever one you started with you'll be happy enough to stay with after 3/4 pints.

Mrs Sof. was up in Belfast a while back, with her Mammy, and they called into 'Spoons for a cheap bite and a drink. Saw £4 750ml bottle of wine, and though, "Fair enough, we'll give that a go."

When she went to the bar to order, yer man asked her "Do you want a straw with that?"

A ****ing straw, like.

Anyway. I used to be a Heineken drinker, but it wouldn't bother me that much if a place didn't have it. Switched a while ago to Tuborg, because it was cheaper and, well, nicer. If I went into a pub, and it didn't have my choice of fizzy yellow stuff, I'd pick something else. And if it's cheap, I'm winning.

But I find Bulmers drinkers tend to be a really picky bunch. If there's no Bulmers, or if there's cans instead of bottles, or long necks instead of pint bottles, they whinge all night.