Place

of Pride

To ensure its flagship ale is served in top condition, Fuller's looked to its hugecustomer base and the super highway ­ with a Proud of Your Pride website. Fuller'stells the MA about the innovative move

Over the last 10 years, Fuller's London Pride has grown to become a major national beer brand, now available in more than 10,000 outlets across the UK. But with a tied estate of just under 250, it is clear that the vast majority of London Pride is now sold in venues over which Fuller's has little control. So how do you ensure that the beer isof high quality no matter where you buy it?

To some extent, when a beeris this widely available it can become a victim of its own success. With such a long, and often convoluted, supply chain involved in getting the beer to the free trade, it is a major concern for brewers that the beer is not being served at its best. Apart from hiring thousands of cellar technicians to check every outlet, free trade or otherwise, it seems that this is a problem that will be difficult to overcome.

However, according to Fuller's beer and brands director, John Roberts, hiring thousands of people to check the beer is not too wild a suggestion.

"Real ale has a fantastic following and its consumers are very passionate about it," he says. "There are many occasions where I've been in a pub, often with Fuller's head brewer, John Keeling, and someone has had something to say about a pint they've had ­ good and bad, and not necessarily in that particular pub."

With the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) recently celebrating its 25th birthday, Fuller's believes the desire to further the cause of real ale is as strong, if not stronger, than at any point in the past. This prompted Fuller's to look deeper into the issue of monitoring beer quality, both inside and outside its estate.

One of the situations Fuller's, and every other real ale brewer, wants to avoid is the first-time consumer being put off real ale by a bad initial pint.

Roberts says: "During one of our joint away days involving both the Fuller's Beer Company and Fuller's Inns, the subject of how to monitor the quality of our beer in our entire customer base was raised. With such a huge number of pints being served each day it was clear that a traditional solution was not going to be sufficient. While we want to identify those instances where a less-than-perfect pint is served, we wanted to avoid negativity, so we decided to recognise those venues that serve London Pride in tip top condition. We know that if you make feedback easy, you will get the good, but any bad news comes in too, and this is very useful to us."

Solving the feedback problem

With such a vocal customer base the solution was simple, according to Fuller's: ask people for feedback on their last pint of London Pride.

Fuller's says it prides itself on the relationship it has with its customers, supported by activity such as guided brewery tours and head brewer roadshows, so felt comfortable asking them directly about their drinking experiences.

Working out how to get that information posed a bigger problem.

There are any number of ways to receive feedback, including face-to-face interviews, faxbacks, mailouts and, helplines. However, Fuller's noticed that it was receiving a large number of e-mails through its website, illustrating that, as well as being vocal, Fuller's fans are not averse to a bit of technology either.

So, the Proud of Your Pride website was born. Found at www.proudofyourpride.com, the site is not only a focal point for customers to comment on their last pint of London Pride, it is also an information resource for customers, publicans and fans alike who would like to know a little more about their favourite beer. The site features sections on how the beer is brewed, including information on the ingredients and the process, a tutored tasting session ­ describing how the professionals evaluate a beer ­ and information on Fuller's other award-winning beers. Proud of Your Pride also includes a section on the 10 golden rules for serving excellent beer, such as recommended temperature and the right way to prepare a cask.

Roberts says: "From the initial suggestion of having a central place where London Pride drinkers could go to provide feedback on our beer, the idea grew and grew to incorporate many of the questions that we regularly get asked about what we do."

Despite minimal advertising for the site, Fuller's has received hundreds of comments, and thousands of hits since it was launched late lastyear. True to form and in the spirit of cooperation, Camra has placed a link to the site on most of its London branch websites encouraging members to register their comments.

Fuller's says the site is simple and clear in its construction and is easy to navigate. Besides the feedback form, there is a section highlighting the pubs that receive the best ratings for their beer. As well as the accolade and free advertising, the "star performers" also receive a gift of Fuller's merchandise to help showcase their beer.

Red Lion is king of the Pride

The first batch of customer ratings has recently been reviewed and, pleasingly for the brewer, the venue with the best average rating for its London Pride is a Fuller's pub, the Red Lion Hotel in Hillingdon, west London.

"The fact that one of our own pubs received the best ratings is very encouraging," Roberts says. "With so many other pubs and bars out there serving Pride, this is a great award for Redmond Walsh, the Red Lion manager, and his team to win."

Negative feedback is just as important to Fuller's. In the first instance, an outlet that has been singled out for criticism will be visited by a Fuller's trade quality advisor wherever possible, to see if the complaint is justified. If there is an issue with the beer, they will offer advice and assistance to improve the beer quality. Fuller's says it always aims to work with licensees to get the beer perfect.

Requesting comments on your beer is not a new idea, but the way in which Fuller's is going about it is original and simple to co-ordinate, Roberts believes. He adds that there are future plans to promote the site with beer mats and in-pub material but currently, good old-fashioned word-of-mouth is generating sufficient interest.

Roberts concludes: "With Fuller's now celebrating our 160 years in the business, Proud of Your Pride is a great way of combining new technology with our very traditional product toprotect the value closest to our heart ­ quality."