Le Bièrelogue
partner Hervé Marziou - Dégustateur Expert or Bièrologue - were up to
already for years with their Bière a Table project, a forceful initiative that
set out to charm the media, win over opinion makers and form a pincer
maneuver along with the other Culture Bière components to switch
perceptions of beer from low to high. Goff-Lavielle and Marziou, with their
incredible passion for their product and mission, could be no better choice
for generals in the field. She, a physical speaker who grabs your attention
with her implacable enthusiasm; he, an epicurean with the flair for
theatricality with his signature bowtie and rimmed glasses. "We have both
sides, Bière a Table and Culture Bière, it's one philosophy but not the same
thing. Culture Bière is a marketing concept, a marketing tool and marketing
illustration. Bière a Table we created at the communication level, at the PR
level to have a tool to communicate as we want, when we want without any
marketing actuality. To drink beer with a meal is one of the ways we want to
relaunch the category," says Goff-Lavielle with pure conviction. So, rolling
up their sleeves and thumbing through their Rolodexs, the two set about a
strategy to bring beer back to the table, side by side with wine in
respectability in relation to food. In short, they wanted to create a new
occasion for beer, one that would lead to other occasions that would slowly
breathe new life into beer identity.
They first knew that the media was a key component in relaying the
message, a hard-to-get-to group but one that would prove to be essential
nonetheless. But what was the pull, what would be the carrot that would
bring journalists to the table to try beer with a meal? Goff-Lavielle and
Marziou came up with an answer: enlist the world's best sommelier to
promote beer, convince chefs with 1—2 Michelin stars to serve meals
around beer and mold Marziou - formerly of law and consumer
departments within Heineken - to form as a 'Bièrelogue', or an expert on
beer as gastronomy and invite 60 of the most difficult gastro French
journos and editors to those meals. Sound like a recipe for disaster? It
wasn't, it worked brilliantly. They got Olivier Poussier, the world's top rated
sommelier to be their spokesmen with Marziou as the professor in resident,
the journos lapped it up. "Actually, it wasn't so hard to convince Poussier,"
says Marziou, "His family is Belgian and they were used to beer with meals."
"All the journalists fell in love with Hervé, men and women alike!" proclaims
Goff-Lavielle with the pride of a talent agent. Once the experiment of 'try-it,
you'll-like-it' was won, the two set about a cooking campaign that drew
journalists in again. Picking up speed they then turned their focus onto
cooking schools and food associations like Eurotoques (now headed by a
Dutchman) to help put beer in the category of fine food, a European
delicacy that needs to be lobbied for and defended. Last but not least, they
have been wooing over opinion makers - parliament figures, Ministers and
other leaders - to make them aware that beer, although an alcoholic
beverage, is actually the most responsible drink there is. "Look, if you drink
beer in our glasses that are 15 cl and you consume a normal amount of
volume at a meal then your alcohol content is less than wine! Our beers are
3—6% which is lower than the typical 12—13% for wine. You can drink with
pleasure and responsibility at that level," says Goff-Lavielle. Joining them for
a meal I understand their point completely. With Marziou explaining in
gastronomic terms ("You can smell butter in this beer, Poussier says even
crème fraïche, it's scientifically proven") how beer works with the five senses;
it's clear that the beverage can reach this level. The Bière a Table certainly
will make a believer of any who doubt that beer can be part of fine meal.
Meanwhile, back on the Champs Elyseés, Culture Bière Concept Store is
enjoying its successful first weekend. "We had 2400 VIPs, 400 journalists
even," winks Jean-Yves Lahaye, President of the Café and Concept Store, on
the Saturday night after the opening. "The location on Champs Elyseés is
good because it attracts a varied crowd, more feminine." Lahaye pauses,
thinking of the task ahead, pondering the revolution that the Culture Bière
team has started. "If you present beer in the right way (in an environment
that has imagination and subtlety) the product can sell easily: 98 of
today's customers have had and enjoyed beer. We can see that if you put
the product in a condition of excellence it actually sells easily." Looking
around the café, judging the strategy of all aspects of Culture Bière, sales
will certainly come easily.
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