Late Mover Advantage?

According to a recent report by Diageo (Guinness parent company), worldwide sales of Guinness are booming, particularly in the US, despite the fact that consumption of the world's leading stout beer has actually slowed in Ireland by nearly 4% last year.

Not that it's leaving Ireland behind. Guinness Stout has enjoyed market domination in its homeland ever since Arthur Guinness' brewery in Dublin began producing a stronger porter called "extra stout" in the 1820s. The consistent success of the brewer has belied the well-documented, disheveled economic standards that have at times haunted the Irish people; the company is well-known in Ireland for its efforts to build housing for the poor and other substantial charitable efforts both within and beyond Dublin's parameters. Indeed, Guinness isn't just "good for you," it's been good to the people who've have been good for it.

The news of Guinness' slump at home is not necessarily earth shattering; Guinness stout remains the best-selling alcoholic beverage in Ireland. However, globalization, it would seem, is a double-edged sword for Guinness. With the recent roll out of products in such countries as Nepal and Ethiopia (Guinness now has a market presence in more than 150 countries throughout the world), the Irish staple has very much been a beneficiary of the convergence of one big, happy global family. Conversely, Ireland's economy is flourishing at an unprecedented rate thanks in large part to that very worldwide convergence. The dank, depressed depictions of morbid country-sides and impoverished urban areas no longer apply to Ireland. Rather, the country's economy is more bullish than the streets of Pamplona during a springtime sprint. Consequently, the Irish, particularly Gen X'ers, now have plenty of money in pocket, plenty of exposure to worldwide brands (particularly from the States) and plenty of reason to celebrate.

But they're not doing it like their parents did. Downing a night's worth of warm stout in a poorly lit pub while affable countrymen discuss poetry and politics or warbling a few verses of "Irish Eyes Are Smiling" is not how the country's twenty-to-thirty somethings typically celebrate. After all, the inescapable MTV culture transmits all over the world these days. Like many of their generational counterparts around the world, the younger beer-drinking generation in Ireland has developed a growing fondness with clubbing and more fashionable, up-tempo forms of socializing. Those settings don't bode well for Guinness, a heavier drink that traditionally is best served warm. Moreover, Guinness stout, because of its unique combination of nitrogen and carbon dioxide, is best served in a pint. And you can't very well go hip hopping around a club with a pint of stout schlepping everywhere.

Blame it on the infusion of global brands (Budweiser is booming