Business And Leadership, Ireland's Business News Service

The brand story

Arthur Guinness began brewing at the famous St James’s Gate in Dublin in 1759, signing a lease for 9,000 years at £45 per annum.

He began brewing ale but, by the 1770s, a new drink, a strong black brew called porter, was being exported from London. The beer got its name because of its popularity with the porters working in the markets of Covent Garden and Billingsgate. In 1799 the decision was made to focus solely on brewing stout porter.

The late 18th century marked a period of rapid growth, with the first major expansion of the brewery taking place. When Arthur Guinness died in 1803, his son Arthur Guinness II took over. Thirty years later, St James’s Gate Brewery had become the largest brewery in Ireland and, in 1862, the Guinness trademark was introduced.

Under Edward Cecil Guinness, in 1873, the brewery doubled in size. That same year, Guinness commissioned a fleet of barges and built a jetty at Victoria Quay so that brewery barges could travel to Dublin Port.

By 1886, Guinness had become the largest brewery in the world, with an annual production of 1.2 million barrels. It appointed international quality controllers in the 1890s to travel overseas to ensure the Guinness sold outside Ireland was of the same high quality as that found at home. This commitment to quality has been a cornerstone of the brewing process up to the present day.

The beginning of the 20th century saw further expansion and, at its peak, more than 4,000 people were directly employed at St James’s Gate. By 1914, output had reached almost three million barrels annually.

Guinness also grew stronger as a truly global brand. Foreign Extra Stout, fortified specifically for export, was shipped — and later brewed — in countries across the world. It now accounts for over 40pc of the Guinness sold worldwide.

Now owned by Diageo, Guinness continues to be the best-selling stout in the world and is a symbol of Ireland itself. The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin is one of the capital’s most-visited attractions.

Marketing and promotion

Guinness’s iconic stature is partly due to its advertising, and the brand has kept the momentum going in 2008.

'Music Machine' was the first TV ad in the new 'It's Alive Inside' campaign, with a dynamic and energetic core idea. The exciting ad depicts the magic that occurs within the surge of a pint of Guinness, as the iconic flow of Guinness is created by a magic musical machine alive inside the pint.

A second TV ad, entitled ‘Another Dimension’ was developed to promote a new three-a-side hurling game, Guinness Hurling Cubed. The ad commences in a dark setting. We see a man’s hand clenching a sliothar that instantaneously comes alight before he launches it into the dark abyss to begin a game of hurling.

In the Thirties and Forties, the artist John Gilroy primarily drew one of the most-recognisable series of ads. The posters included phrases such as ‘Guinness is good for you’ and a Toucan, which has become as much a symbol of Guinness as the harp.

The 1994-1995 ‘Anticipation’ campaign, featuring actor Joe McKinney dancing while his pint settled, became legendary here and put the soundtrack at No 1 in the charts.

In addition to advertising, Guinness has placed its stake firmly in the heart of Irish life, sponsoring events in the arts and sports arenas such as the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival and the Guinness All-Ireland Hurling Championships.

Innovation

Draught Guinness is served cool with the beer line run through a cooler to chill the liquid to the required temperature. Due to the foaming action of the nitrogen, it requires a ‘double pour’, where the pint is three-quarters filled, allowed to settle and then topped up to the full pint.

Guinness has made a virtue of this wait, through taglines in its advertising such as ‘Good things come to those who wait’. In fact, much of Guinness’s innovation lies in its advertising: in 2001 it won the Clio Award as the Advertiser of the Year, citing the work of five separate ad agencies around the world.

Over the years, many variants of the product have been introduced to keep apace with changing lifestyles, for example Bottled Guinness Draught, which includes a patented ‘rocket widget’ to simulate the nitrogenation in the draught variety, and Toucan Brew, which had a slightly sweet aftertaste due to its triple-hopped brewing process.