Beers, as refreshing as they can possibly
be, do not have the same legal status as sodas, juices, or any other
non-alcoholic beverages. Indeed, since beer contains alcohol, they are
submitted to a special legislation. In France, the “Loi Evin” is regulating the
selling, the use of alcohol but also the advertising. For example, any kind of
advertising related to alcoholic beverages are forbidden on French TV. This
makes it harder for brands such as Heineken, which is famous for its TV
commercials.
Nevertheless, this constraint may also
represent a big opportunity for brands. They can respect the law, improve their
image and have a big impact on their sales, and all of that at the same time.
This “miracle” only requires creativity. This was the case of the Antartica
beer during the 2013 Rio Carnaval. In order to avoid drive accidents due to an
overconsumption of alcohol, Antartica and the organisational board of the
Carnaval had a brilliant idea: transform your empty beer can in a metro ticket!
This “beer turnstle “ idea allied advertising and prevention. And it has
succeeded since more than 1,000 people an hour took the metro during the
festival thanks to their beer can. Amazing, isn’t it?
As we have seen previously, in 2013
Heineken has become the 1st beer group in France, overcoming its big
rival Kronenbourg. This happened in a market where sales are slowly but surely
going down. So we have seen that in order to boost their figures and conquer
new customers, Heineken and Kronenbourg have embraced strategies aiming at
young adults. With the launching of these products (Skoll, K by Kronenbourg, limited
edition of Heineken bottles…), the 2 conglomerates have given to the consumers
a refreshing image, especially Kronenbourg which had the image of an
old-fashioned beer brand.
Nevertheless, they seem to choose 2
different ways in terms of marketing strategy. Indeed, in 2015, Heineken will
be more than ever the sports beer. They are an official partner of the 2015 Rugby
World Cup and they will also become official partner of the Major Soccer
League, the US football league. They are betting on these events for their
worldwide exposition but also because they have acquired a major experience
when it comes to produce high quality promoting videos. What’s more, Heineken
will still be partner of the Champion’s League and of the Rugby H-Cup. They
seem to focus a lot on customers that are fond of sports events.
Concerning Kronenbourg, they are betting on
2 ways of conquering new market shares. Firstly, they will keep on advertising
a lot their new products (Skoll and K by Kronenbourg) to give the brand a new
impulse, some fresh air. This strategy is paying since Skoll has been very
successfully launched and installed in the trendy beer market (5.6% of market
shares 1 year after the launching). The other strategy will consist in
promoting their high quality beer 1664. Since the volume of sales is
decreasing, Kronenbourg wants to increase their margin by selling more trendy
beers and quality beers.
All in all, we can say that the “war” Heineken
and Kronenbourg are fighting in France has just become. All indicates that they
will keep on launching innovative, funny and aggressive advertising campaign.
Heineken has been building
a global communication strategy for the past recent years. The brand no longer relies on product
advertising only but it has diversified its communication tools, and
particularly its digital marketing tools, to build its identity, give the brand
a unique voice and try to reach the status of icon brand.
In order to do so,
Heineken has been designing new consistent video contents around creative and
even fun subjects, addressing its special target. This target is mostly
composed of young men from 20 to 35 years who have the characteristics of a generation
Y that is more and more connected, active on social networks, and critics about
his world and environment.
Heineken now develops
content to enhance recognition and feeling of belonging to its identity,
content mainly revolving around its recent (2013) slogan “open your world”. For
instance, the brand developed webseries such as “Dropped” illustrating values
such as courage, adventure spirit, surpassing oneself which are also values that
young people share today whether it be about their travels or their need for fulfilment
in their job and personal life. Often distrustful about advertising and
suspicious about what brands can tell them, Heineken target’s generation is
even more difficult to reach. The brand’s presence on special events that this
target assists – which are mainly sports and technology events- also seems to
be a good strategy. Heineken has been sponsoring until 2014 the European rugby
cup which name was the H Cup (Heineken Cup).
Heineken, as its
competitors, also challenges its imagination creating humoristic content, aimed
at creating buzz among its target customers so they can spread the brand’s
speech and raise durable awareness around the brand’s name. This is the case
for its webserie “The Candidate” presented above.
In terms of product
communication, we could reproach the brand not to orient their communication
strategy more on their products so they could have a call-to-action that would
be more important but we can find this initiative on their product packs, that
is to say, directly in store. Whether it be their basic permanent product range
or their products for more segmented markets, the brand keeps up with its
positioning which is offering a premium beer for premium customers. In order to
always offer its customer a variety a product but with the same quality of
beer, the brand plays on the bottle design, collaborating with talented artists
and graphic designers. Some examples are below.
The 360°
communication strategy of Heineken seems to pay dividends. Selected as Brand of
the Year by the MIPTV in 2012, the brand’s leadership & commitment to
creating content to develop a strong unique voice and to build a recognisable
identity are now well known.
First of all; nothing more
annoying for a woman to be well dressed to take out and finally to handle a
bottle of beer which does not get married to her dress. That’s why, the brewer
Carlsberg would like to convince the consumers with its beer Copenhagen.
Through his new beer, Carlsberg
speaks directly to the “modern” consumer that’s to say people who like to be
fashion. Indeed, according to Jeanette Elgaard Carlsson, spokeswoman of the
brewer: “We noticed that consumers ‘large number, especially women, pay
attention on the design of products when they choose drinks. It can arrive they
are in a bar and they want that their drinks get married to their styles. In
this case, they may not choose a beer if its design does not suit to them.” This
beer is brewed with natural ingredient as malt. It is considered like light and
fresh beer with only 4, 5% of alcohol. Moreover, in 2010, Carlsberg also launched
fruity and low-fat Jacqueline, named Eve, who targets the women. This beer was
developed in different tastes such as: litchi, grapefruit or passion. In the
same way, Molson Coors has already developed a range of beers for women, as
Kasteel Cru and Kasteel Cru Rosé.
However, according to the “Les Echos”, in Great Britain, Miller
did not try to feminize the communication around Peroni, brand of Italian beer
re launched in 2005; they positioned it as “top of the range” by playing completely
the seduction of the made in Italy. It was a real failure as the Guiness Red or
Carlsberg beer.
Finally, some feminist people are
against this new way of marketing the beers. Indeed, according to the
“happybeertime blog”, some women do not understand these new ads which only
target the women people. It created a kind of stereotypes where there are so
called special beers for women with a fruity taste and for men with a malt and
bitter taste.
dimanche 16 novembre 2014
This infographic allows to understand
the use of social media by the consumption of beer.