Will four per cent Stella Artois actually work?

What's it all about, InBev? A question that was on many people's lips last week. After all, it's not often you take your flagship brand, one of the most successful products in the history of pubs and brewing, and say you are going to produce a lower-ABV version.

And yet now we have Stella Artois four per cent. There have been some fairly ferocious and ill-judged responses to it in the off-trade and marketing press - suggesting it is a way of deflecting attention from the oft-quoted 'wife-beater' associations.

Is it naïve to simply deduce that InBev has looked at the remarkable success of its Beck's Vier innovation and felt that it could achieve similar success with its Stella brand? There is only one thing that motivates the senior executives in any company: the bottom line.

And anecdotally there are many I have spoken to who welcome an easier drinking Stella. Bored of the standard lagers on offer, drinkers are looking for a pint of lager under five per cent ABV that offers something a bit different.

Amstel is an excellent example of this, but it does not have the distribution level to make any serious impact. This is not the case with Stella four per cent, and as a result it could do well.

I tend to view brand extensions with great suspicion - an unnecessary step that undermines the equity of a brand.

But frankly I thought that about the launch of Beck's Vier and look what happened there.