The tennis stars playing at the Queen's Club this last week might have been forgiven for thinking they had come to the wrong tournament. The eve-of-Wimbledon men's competition has, for as long as most fans can remember, been known simply as 'The Stella'. This year, however, they have been battling it out for the Artois Championship.

In fact, this is the same tournament and same sponsor. What has changed is the brand name by which the Belgian lager company would like to be known. These are difficult times in the beer industry. The repositioning by InBev, Stella's parent firm, reflects that.

This rebranding is surprising since Stella was one of the marketing success stories of the Nineties. A sponsorship deal with Channel 4 film broadcasts and outdoor screenings gave the beer brand an unprecedented association with upmarket and cutting-edge cinema. Their ads, with the Jean de Florette theme tune, had an arthouse feel too. Perhaps most innovative was its 'reassuringly expensive' strapline, which turned a potential drawback - its high sale price - into an asset.

With a market share of more than a third, Stella remains the biggest player within the UK's premium lager sector. But recent sales patterns are not encouraging. According to figures released in March, sales volume fell by over 10 per cent in the previous year. The company's announcement in April that it would be raising the price of a pint by a further 12p provoked a reaction among parts of the tabloid press that must have led it to wonder whether 'reassuringly expensive' might soon become 'prohibitively expensive'.

While distribution is not directly responsible for this drop in sales, it may be part of the problem. 'It's no secret that supermarkets use Stella as a footfall driver,' said Steve Kitching, commercial and field operations managing director at InBev. 'We are talking about crates of cans aggressively marketed at discount prices, most notably in the summer and around sporting events.'

That might be good for sales in the short-term, but is damaging for a brand trying to project itself towards the higher end of the market. One consequence is that Stella has become closely tied into the binge drinking culture. Although, with an alcohol volume of 5 per cent, it is no stronger than many of its rivals, it is the Belgian lager that has become associated with drunken fights in town centres. Perhaps most worrying for InBev is the moniker that Stella has picked up - 'wife-beater'.

The response from InBev is the creation of a 'brasserie' of beers under the softer umbrella Artois brand. In addition to Stella, it is marketing Peeterman, a wheat beer of 4 per cent strength, and Bock, a 6 per cent lager. This mirrors the actions of competitor Kronenbourg which has also introduced Premier Cru and Blanc to go with its '1664' marque.

Naresh Ramchandani, an advertising consultant, underlines the problem. 'I think what they were doing with their advertising is now completely at odds with how Stella is perceived, which is as a bit chavvy. They create something very nice, display it and say now go out and buy our product. You can't kid people like that if that's not what tallies with their perception of your brand.'

Artois' rivals have not been slow to react. Heineken has launched a campaign promoting a continental style of thinking and drinking. Then there's the Magners' effect: take-home sales of cider last year were greater than bitter for the first time. But the huge rise in cider consumption has been as much, if not more, at the expense of lager's sales. If that weren't bad enough, the British balti and lager could soon be replaced by masala and Merlot as wine is promoted as the perfect accompaniment to an Indian meal.