A Lesson In Black & White: Explore New Markets

Diageo is the drinks giant that owns that well known Irish stout called Guinness. It’s good for you - allegedly. It is fair to say though, in my past experience with this particular product, you can have too much of a good thing!

Anyway, Diageo makes about 10% of its profit from beer and the black stuff accounts for 50% of that. Can you guess which country generates the most sales? Ireland or UK? Well, it’s the UK that comes out on top for highest total sales (I do my bit to help of course, down at The Ship Inn).

But here’s the surprise. Ireland isn’t the second biggest market for Guinness. Neither is America. No, the second biggest geographical market for Guinness sales is …Nigeria. Now, I could well be showing my ignorance here but that’s a bit of a surprise to me - I just wouldn’t have guessed that Nigeria sinks more pints of Guinness than Ireland, regardless of population differences, etc.

I think it demonstrates that as affiliates / search marketers we shouldn’t have any preconceived ideas about what products will or won’t sell in a particular market place.