Beyond the Brew: Rediscovering Beer’s Cultural Power to Reignite Market Growth

In today’s beverage landscape, beer finds itself paradoxically both omnipresent and undervalued. For many executives in the industry, the focus remains on branding agility, operational efficiency, or chasing flavor trends. But for veteran executive and former FMCG leader Wojciech Bauman, this overlooks beer’s most valuable asset: its cultural and social role as a symbol of connection, belonging, and identity.

“Beer has historically acted as a social lubricant”, Bauman explains. “But in chasing modern health trends or short-term campaigns, brands are forgetting that beer is not just a product; it’s a totem for community”.

The Decline of Cultural Positioning

Bauman points to the Polish market as a powerful example. Despite a growing middle class and greater access to global products, Poland’s beer market has shown signs of long-term erosion. “Top-line growth has stagnated,” he says, “because the emotional core, the beer moment, has faded”.

Drawing on four decades of cultural observation, Bauman identifies three clear phases in Poland’s beer evolution:

• The post-communist 1980s–90s, where beer re-emerged as a symbol of freedom and social ritual;
• The rise of modern brewers in the late 1990s–2000s, building strong brand centers through mass communication;
• And, post-2010, a shift away from center-stage positioning toward fragmented, niche messaging.

“In the past, scenes of workers gathering after a long shift symbolized more than just refreshment, they embodied camaraderie, shared experience, and a form of everyday identity”, Bauman notes. “Today, brands have moved away from that”.  

Germany, he adds, offers a different trajectory, longer, more meandering, shaped by deeply rooted cultural elements. But the underlying pattern is the same: when beer drifts too far from its cultural center, its power diminishes.

This trend, Bauman argues, is not limited to Poland or Europe. The 2023 Bud Light backlash in the U.S., where a brand lost substantial volume and market share following a campaign featuring a transgender influencer, is a striking example. “Many analysts claimed ‘U.S. society isn’t ready”, Bauman reflects, “but that misses the point. If you apply this cultural framework, it’s easier to understand. The brand moved outside the shared cultural definition of what beer represents for many people”.

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Beer as Archetype: Warriors Around the Fire

At the heart of Bauman’s logic is a powerful metaphor: beer as the modern equivalent of warriors gathering around the fire. It’s not just about drinking, it’s about ritual. A moment where status dissolves, ideas are exchanged, and a collective identity is reaffirmed.

This isn’t nostalgia, it’s psychology. Behavioral economists like Kahneman and Thaler have long emphasized the primacy of intuitive, emotional cues in decision-making. As Bauman puts it, “Beer evolved over generations to represent a specific kind of social moment. Strip away the ritual, and you strip away its value”.

In this context, product features are secondary. What defines beer is not low carbs, ABV levels, or hop count, it’s whether it can belong to the occasion. “Even alcohol-free beer isn’t in conflict with the beer moment”, Bauman insists. “If the ritual remains intact, the product still ‘counts’ as beer. In contrast, something like wine in a delicate glass doesn’t fit the same cultural role, even if it’s alcoholic”.

Learning from the Polish Case: A Map with an Empty Center

In his detailed study of the Polish market, Bauman offers a visual metaphor: three maps of brand positioning over time. On the first, multiple brands cluster around the cultural “center”, upholding the beer moment. In the latest version, the center is empty. All brands have moved toward edge-focused differentiators, abandoning the core.

The result? Fragmentation, price competition, and the commoditization of a product that once carried symbolic depth.

Counter-Positioning Against Health Trends

Rather than resisting health-conscious shifts or focusing purely on non-alcoholic variants, Bauman proposes a more effective strategy: reframe beer’s role as a vehicle for social and mental well-being. “The rise of non-alcoholic beer isn’t just about fitness”, he says. “It’s about inclusion. People want to be part of the ritual, even when they’re sober”.

This inclusive mindset highlights a broader truth: beer’s value lies in its ability to gather people, not just its formulation. “The beer moment”, Bauman adds, “remains sacred, regardless of what’s in the bottle”.

A Call to Re-Center the Category

For C-level leaders in beer and beverage companies, the takeaway is clear: growth will not be driven solely by efficiency gains or product innovation. It will come from reclaiming beer’s central narrative, as a drink that anchors community, not just quenches thirst.

Rebuilding this cultural center is neither quick nor cheap. But the long-term rewards, socially, commercially, and emotionally, are profound. As Bauman concludes, It’s not about adding pixels to the screen. It’s about turning the lights back on in the center”.

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