As mentioned in a previous article, the consumption of beer
has been declining steadily for the past decades. People have been focusing
more on quality and less on quantity. In this context, in the early 80s, Leffe
chose to focus its advertising on tradition, quality and authenticity. The
brand was launched in France in the early 70s, and an advertising campaign was
started in 1983 to make it the reference of abbey beers.
Leffe's most recent advertisement
As a result of that campaign Leffe became the number one
beer in the specialty section, but its consumption was still occasional.
Therefore, another positioning was researched for the brand.
After a few months, a new market opportunity was found. It
was discovered that the aperitif (before lunch or dinner) represented 32% of
the consumption of alcoholic drinks, and that this market was still open and potentially
very lucrative. Consequently, the brand decided to focus on this segment.
As a result, the packaging of the beer was changed and an emphasis
on the aperitif was put on every ad : the beer was always associated with
cheese and « charcuterie ».
In addition, the Leffe 9°, a stronger ale than usual, was
launched specifically as a pre-dinner drink and to appeal to whisky drinkers.
The challenge in operating this change was to keep the image
of tradition and quality of the brand and at the same time make it reach a
larger market.
The campaign was a success because today Leffe is considered
the number one beer associated with the aperitif.
Besides, the brand has grown by 50% between 2005 and 2007 in
terms of sales, it has been growing by 15% a year on average ever since, and
the brand attitude was 85% in 2007 which gives it the best reputation on the
market.
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