The England and Scotland divide extends to the drinks market

Scotland and England have always had many differences and the drinks market is no exception. Ben McFarland reports

Nearly every politician, and the majority of governments, make silly remarks now and again. But Home Secretary Jack Straw's recent suggestion that there should be a British football team was dafter than most.

While the idea was met with murmurs of uncertainty in England, the idea went down like a pork chop at a bar mitzvah north of the border. The Scottish cries of abhorrence and dissent can still be heard as far south as Penzance.

Putting the respective abilities of the various squads to one side, it is simply inconceivable to imagine a Glaswegian cheering on the likes of David Beckham or Michael Owen, or a Cockney singing Flower of Scotland.

Starting in 1314 with the party that followed the battle of Bannockburn, Scotland has always revelled in the knowledge that it is separate from its English neighbours.

As well as its own national football team and league, Scotland has a separate devolved Parliament, an individual legal and banking system and is steeped in a completely separate set of traditions such as Hogmanay and Burns Night.

Throw in some bagpipes, haggis and a couple of black puddings and all of a sudden the North-South divide makes the relationship between icebergs and the Titanic look positively harmonious.

The regional disparity is further epitomised when you examine the key brands in the Scottish market. The list of Scotland's top 50 on-trade brands is worth a staggering £1.5billion and boasts a number of major brands that are relatively unknown south of the border. It is in the spirits market where the dissimilarity between Scottish and English drinking trends is most apparent.

The five million people who live in Scotland - only eight per cent of the UK's entire population - are responsible for a staggering 20 per cent of all UK spirits volumes compared with only nine per cent of all beer.

Thirty-two per cent of all vodka, a quarter of all dark rum and malt whisky, and a fifth of all blended whisky sold in the UK is drunk in Scotland.

David Longmuir, UDV director of trade relations, said: "Scots drink more spirits, more often than either the Welsh or the English.

"The Scottish consumer regards spirits as an every day tipple while malts and liqueurs are reserved for special occasions and the average weekly household spend is double the UK average on spirits, but slightly lower on beer, wine and cider."

In terms of beer, only Budweiser and Guinness have managed to establish themselves in the top 10 list of brands in both the Scottish and English markets. The Scottish beer category is dominated by home-grown talent, with Scottish Courage (ScotCo) and Tennent Caledonian Breweries holding centre stage.

Scotland's reputation as a lager, rather than an ale-loving nation is confirmed by the fact that Tennent's lager is far and away the most valuable brand in the Scottish on-trade.

Other beers in the top flight include ScotCo's lagers - McEwans and Miller Pilsner - and a solitary ale in the shape of Younger's Tartan.

Other brands such as Whyte and Mackay, Black Bottle and Belhaven Best have benefited from the Scottish tendency to remain faithful to regional favourites.

While Coca-Cola and Pepsi enjoy a vice-like stranglehold on the global soft drinks market, England included, Scotland remains resolute in its allegiance to its native Irn Bru, manufactured by Scotland's AG Barr, the Scottish soft-drink sector is one of very few not dominated by the big two cola giants.

Longmuir added that the strong Scottish sense of national identity spreads to brand loyalty. Bell's whisky is a case in point.

Having taken a heavy fall in the blended scotch whisky market last year, Bell's has turned the corner by investing £2million in a sponsorship deal with the Scottish football league - widely regarded as the "grass roots" of the national game and an important part of Scottish life, especially in rural areas.

Similarly, The Famous Grouse has maintained its position as one of the top five brands in the country through its high-profile sponsorship of the Scotland rugby team.

Although expanding high street retail brands are beginning to gain a foothold in the Scottish market, 85 per cent of pubs remain free of all ties, and this relatively unregimented structure has handicapped any attempts to anglicise or globalise the Scottish brand offering.

Longmuir added: "The licensed trade is trying to keep the right balance between out and out resistance to high street pub companies and the more traditional community pubs. The larger nationwide chains are slowly starting to appear, but the bulk of the outlets are independent."

In addition to the huge amount of freetrade outlets, which have clearer access channels and less bureaucracy than their tied counterparts, the on-trade framework helps to promote Scotland as an attractive destination for companies looking to test new brands before national roll-out.

One such company is Coors, which has been trialing its Coors Light brand in Scotland since 1999, and is currently finalising plans for a national roll-out into the UK market.

Ian McLernon, UK marketing manager, said: "As we are trialing a totally new product to the UK market and a very important one for Coors Brewing, it's vital that we are able to focus all of our marketing and sales activity on a concentrated area."

Forty per cent of the entire Scottish population reside in the big university cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow which both boast a huge bar and club culture.

This provides companies with a tailor-made arena to target the 18 to 24-year-old target audience with relatively straightforward distribution and media links.

The far-reaching STV region allows companies to experiment with TV campaigns and almost all of the UK's national papers now print Scottish editions, which in turn have their own editorial and promotional teams who are always on the look out for selfishly Scottish activity.

Coors ensured that the one vital thing that it focused on in all its activity is that the Scots are first and foremost proud to be Scottish and it was important to make sure the brand didn't lose sight of this.

McLernon added: "There is no harder market in the world to successfully test a brand than Scotland. The Scottish consumer is less pretentious and much more challenging of marketing activities.

"It would have been a lot easier to test the brand in other markets where competition is less. However, we couldn't have learnt much from these tests and we wouldn't have been in any position to take on the competitive UK market as a result."