Interview on CHCH TV with Stephen Beaumont and the Lakeport lady.

I was watching Hamilton's CHCH TV with Mark Habsher last night and caught an interview with Stephen Beaumont from Beer Bistro and the woman from Lakeport (I can't remember her name).

It was essentially about Labatt's marketing tactics used to promote their new Genuine Honey offering to compete with the cheaper beers like Lakeport Honey. Apparently Labatt had hired some women to parade around downtown Toronto in short shorts and tight tops holding big yellow picket signs handing out little bottles of 100% pure Canadian honey to motorists as they drove past. Would tactics like that make you buy their beer?

Lakeport's stance on this was that Labatt's new offering has not slowed down their sales at all but are eager for Labatt to try whatever they can to try to hurt their popularity. The Lakeport lady was holding up, tapping and rattling her 12 pack so much that Mark had to tell her to stop with the product placement. It was actually quite funny.

Stephen's comments centered more around how the cheaper priced beers have created a more segmented market. People are starting to realize that the Canadian/Blue beer tastes very similar to beers like the Lakeport, so why pay a higher price for it. This has caused others to trade up to the premium/craft beers searching for something better.