NAIROBI, KENYA: Some things are fast becoming a rarity such as finding a young man in his 20s alone in a poorly-lit tavern in downtown Nairobi, a half-poured bottle of Tusker Lager on a table in front of him.
No, this is not how young Kenyans get down, as they would put it in street parlance.
They have little love for Tusker Lager, Kenya’s oldest beer. This is for oldies.
And as long as a place is open, warm and spiced up with soothing music, it is good with them.
In fact, you can keep your stools and tables.
They are better off standing, a bottle of beer held by its long neck in one hand and a stick of lit cigarette in the other.
To East African Breweries Ltd (EABL), the country’s largest brewer, this is a reality they have come to appreciate. But they just can’t let the ‘Tusker’ brand go.
As a result, the brewer has for the last 30 years been busy churning out variants of Tusker, not only to save its flagship brand from sliding into oblivion, but also for them to piggy-ride on its popularity.
They have come up with Tusker Malt, Tusker Lite and Tusker Cider as the Diageo-owned brewer fights off stiff competition.
Of course, the taste of these Tusker variants is at times nowhere near that of the original Tusker Lager.
It all started with Tusker Malt which was unveiled 26 years ago.
It is 100 per cent malt beer. EABL segmented it for the people who have achieved, said Marketing Manager for Tusker Arianne Okong’o. “It is a status beer. It is quality beer for people who feel that they want to reward themselves for what they have achieved,” said Ms Okong’o, noting that it was for a very discerning man.
Then the brewer launched Tusker Lite in 2012. “At the point we launched it, there was the need in the market for a lighter beer,” said Ms Okong’o, noting that the lightness was in terms of low carbohydrates.
She says Tusker Lite’s launch was in keeping with the wellness fad. “Everyone at the time was talking about wellness and what you eat is what you become,” she said.
Yet at some point, one-and-half years into it, she remembers, EABL realised that the proposition of full-bodied beer with low carbohydrates was not growing the Tusker brand.
So, they decided to move away from the functional capabilities of low carbohydrates to ensure that the beer fits into the consumer’s lifestyle.
“We realised that there was a huge uprising of the generation Why-Not,” said Okong’o, noting this generation was predominantly millennials.
And that is why the firm decided to relaunch Tusker Lite, which now targets revellers of legal purchasing age-limit of 18 to about 24 years.
Okong’o says it is a portable beer that “you can just neck.”
“If you look at our advertisement, we don’t even have a glass there because these people just pick the product and they just neck it,” said Ms Okong’o, describing how young people simply drink straight from the bottle rather than from the glass.
Ready-to-drink
Tusker, with a 90-year heritage, decided to plunge into the cider market to re-invigorate its Tusker brand.
“Cider is something that tastes between a beer and ready-to-drink,” explains Ms Okong’o.
At the heart of this innovation is a power struggle as EABL continues to face stiff competition from new market entrants. Other innovations have seen the launch of canned beer that one can buy and carry to a picnic.
Ms Okong’o says the market is shifting towards spirits from beers, adding that brand loyalty is fading.
