The Vikings are back in France !

Have you heard about SКøll, this new beer that tries to overrun the shelves of our stores? Some say that it is a Viking's beer. Desperados, get ready for the invasion : the Vikings are back in France !

 

Kronenbourg has launched in early 2013, a new beer flavored with vodka and citrus fruits (grapefruit and lime). What an amazing combination ! Coming from Denmark, this beer is named SКøll, which means « Cheers » in the Northern countries. 

 

The brand plays on its Scandinavian origins : The bottle is adorned with the famous Viking helmet and the Nordic blue predominates in the colour codes which provides a sensation of intense cold, freshness and refreshment. Otherwise, the bottle is trapped in ice, what makes you want to grasp it and to drink until your desire is quenched. The universe developed by the brand is different, trendy and young !

 

 

The brand also plays on the specificities of the packaging  : No need for a bottle-opener, the 33 and 66 cl bottles are fitted with a capsule unpin for easy opening ! And finished the warm beers thanks to a freshness signal on the 50cl cans for an ideal drinking temperature. When the stick is gray, the beer is not fresh enough, when it is blue, you can enjoy your ice cold SКøll !

 

With this beer, Kronenbourg positions itself in the market of the specialty beers and come into direct competition with Heineken : North and South confront themselves. So, are you more North or South ? Skoll with Vodka or Desperados with Tequila ? Which one will you choose ?

 

J.G.

 

Leffe : 800 years of history

Leffe started in 1240 in Belgium. The name « Leffe » is the name of the river close-by the abbey where the beer was produced. For centuries, the production was exclusive to the monks. In 1954, they allowed for an industrial production of the beer. At the beginning, there was only lager, but there are now 9 different beers under the brand. Most of them have received special distinctions for their taste. But the lager still accounts for 80% of the volume sold.

The breweries were bought in 1977 by Stella Artois, which then became part of Interbrew in 1987 and is now under the control of InBev since 2004, which is the 1st brewer worldwide with more than 200 brands (including Stella Artois, Hoegaarden and Guinness), but the monks still to this day have control over the recipe of the beer, and the ingredients used are still as natural as 800 years ago (cereals, hop, yeast, etc.).

Leffe is the 4th brand of the group in terms of sales. It is sold mainly in Western Europe, especially in France and Belgium. Leffe was the 4th beer brand sold in supermarkets in France in 2012, with 7.5% market share.

The communication around the brand has been focused for almost 20 years on tradition, quality and authenticity (between 1985 and 2004). Hence the golden packaging which makes the bottle look very attractive, very noble, and even luxurious. The goal was to make it the reference of abbey beers. It succeeded because it is still today the number one beer in the specialty branch. However, this was a rather niche market. That’s why, in recent years, the brand has been focused on reaching a larger market through a new positioning… as a pre-dinner drink. The challenge was to keep its tradition of quality and authenticity and drive it more toward mass consumption. More on that on a following article…

Heineken: The recipe of a success-story !

Firstly, it is necessary to make the distinction between the brand Heineken and the group Heineken. Indeed, the group Heineken owns about 40 brands (Heineken, Desperados, Afligem, Pelforth…). For my part, I am going to analyze the strategy of the flagship brand of this group: Heineken.

From its origin, this local beer brewed in Amsterdam in the XIXth century became today a clear global leader in the international premium segment. It reaches this status thanks to its history and its know-how but does not slacken for all that. On the contrary, creativity, innovation, and madness are the key words of the marketing strategy of the brand in order to get always closer of its consumers.

It is true that regarding marketing, Heineken has more than one string in its bow: sponsoring, presence on the social medias, launch of innovative advertising campaigns, use of the top of the edge marketing techniques: street marketing, increased reality, challenge… On the side of our editorial staff, we say YES!

You discovered the very famous advertising " Walk in fridge " in a previous article. Today, I suggest you to discover a challenge which takes place in a famous furniture store.

The purpose: make win 2 tickets for the UEFA Champion’s League finale to the happy winner of the challenge.

How? : EASY! (Or not!): the man should manage to persuade his wife to buy an horrible “chair” at an exorbitant price for their lovely house… Without mentioning the tickets of course ..! Enjoy!

Today figure’s point : 13 000 HK beer bottles are sold each second around the world.

Desperados, the premium beer that makes the difference !

 

Desperados is a lager beer, brewed in France and flavored with tequila. It was established in 1995 by the Fisher Brewery, an old Alsatian brewery. Since 1996, the brand is part of the Heineken group.

It is said that its name comes from the fact that after being created, this beer was still unnamed and the company was desperate to found one ! Did you know it ?

Brand ID card

 

Today, Desperados is one of the four leading brands of the Heineken group (with Heineken, Pelforth and Affligem), and it is ranked 4^th in the French market with 8% market share in value, according to IRI panel data.

 

The brand belongs to the group of specialty beers, which include all the beers that tell a story due to their origin, composition or geography (abbey beers, brown ale, white or flavored beers). They are very successful in France, in a context where beer sales are declining. The other brands present on this segment are Corona (InBev) and Skoll (recently launched by Kronenbourg).

 

Beer has always been a symbol of conviviality and celebration. However, this market is encountering difficulties for years partly because of the image we often assign to beer: that of a poor quality drink consumed by men watching TV and lounging on the couch.

Another reason of this decline : We observe the same trend than in the wine market. Beer consumers drink less but better by focusing on quality or originality taste. As a result, most of the brands confront them with products more and more sophisticated and expensive, with also important investments in marketing.

 

Desperados benefits from this market trend. Today, one of its strategies is the premiumisation of its portfolio, by offering to the consumers, products that are more upscale and more expensive in order to improve its turnover. Did you know that Desperados was the most expensive beer in the French market ? It is two times more expensive than Heineken !

 

Innovation also remains a strategic focus area for Desperados. Since its launch, the brand has been continuously investing in order to offer beer drinkers, innovative and audacious recipes. The brand has reinvented the freshness with Desperados Lime, shaken the night life with Desperados Red (flavored with Tequila, Cachaça, Guarana and red fruits), provoked the consumers’ senses with Desperados Fuego and its lightly spiced notes, and recreated the Cuban atmosphere with Desperados Verde, which reveals the essence of the legendary Mojito cocktail with its blend of lime and mint.

 

 

J.G

Sharing a beer

Beer is more than just a drink ...

Yes, of course you drink it ... But more than quenching your thirsty, you probably use to share a beer with a friend, a colleague, or a relative. Moments of beer consumption are moments of conviviality: a social instant.

Talking about conviviality is talking about a group.

Talking about a group is talking about every kind of groups sharing one common interest: Nationality, sex, age range, socio-economic category, but also groups sharing the same activity like sport, music, party,  ... without forgetting typical group of people sharing a beer and watching a match on TV!

Beer brands have properly understood this notion of groups and marketing campaigns use them to specially address their products to social instants: Match on TV, party with friends,  ...

 Budweiser - Wasssup (What's up?)

Here is an example of young friends' community who are sharing lifestyle and of course the same beer. Bud shares instants of their life: watching a match, working on computer, ... 
 

Heineken - Fridge

In that video, Heineken addresses community of active workers, probably having dinner together during the week-end, introducing their new house/flat to their friends. 

Women are impressed by the new dressing, whereas men are amazed by this incredible enormous fridge ... full of beer !  

Higher range of social community (versus Budweiser), 30+ years old, and men are targeted here. Fashionable women like trendy shoes and clothes ... and their husbands like Heineken ! 

Foster - Pizza/Match

This picture can be seen as the typical men's beer consumption, at home, eating pizza, watching a match. I guess you do not invite a kangaroo everyday at home, however Foster  clearly affirms its origins here. 

On one side, the brand focuses its market target on its own country. What is better than drinking Australian, if you support the national rugby team - the Wallabies !? 

Moreover, on other side, drinking a beer of a foreign country is also a way of travelling from home, and Australia remains a wonderful country to visit for most people.  
Being Australian or dreaming of Australian lifestyle, and moreover if you are fan of sports on TV, Foster welcomes you in its community.

Today’s figures point:
If we have a look on beer production, according to http://www.brewersofeurope.org, we can observe that beer production is decreasing in Europe mainly due to the decreasing of consumption.
Germany is from far the biggest country producer of beer in Europe.

About Beer Market

Hi everybody !

Today is D-day: We are writing our first article on your favorite drink: BEER of course!

What we are going to talk about in this blog is the way the beer consumer is acting/reacting during his purchase and consumption processes. Thanks to this first analysis, we could study the various brand strategies in order to seduce the consumer. To manage your “beer-culture”, we will post a “figures point” at the end of each article.

And don’t worry, we’ll have fun enjoying the world-top beer advertisements for your great pleasure, so don’t hesitate to come and read us regularly!

Thousands of beer brands are present on the market worldwide, enough to satisfy everybody although tradition and innovation are key-points in this market.

There is not ONE profile of beer consumer, even if clichés tends to associate beer with men, women are more and more likely to drink a fresh beer from time to time.

 

Beer is an affordable product which is bought with low-involvement and from once a year to three times per week (Oh yes, I’m pretty sure that some of you will identify themselves, don’t be ashamed!). Actually, 60% of beer-consumption is at home and you well-imagine that the 40% remaining is when you drink one at the restaurant, the pub or the little bar around the corner. It is not the same price, but always the same pleasure.

To come back to the clichés, beer is also often associated with men watching football with their pizzas and their beers… YES, it happens! But not every time and not for every man dear ladies! Beer consumption goes from drinking a fresh beer alone when you come back home after work to Saturday evening with all your friends including this moment when you are so hot that you cannot resist, with your colleagues, with your father/son, at the edge of the swimming-pool on a sunny afternoon, etc., etc., etc., etc…  

(Actually, you could comment and tell us YOUR perfect moment to drink a beer)

We said above that tradition and innovation were key-factors. Indeed, some beer consumers love to taste traditional/handmade beers which are not commercialized in hypermarkets, in specialized pubs or even better at the brewer’s. But famous brands tend to innovate in order to touch new/different targets. Concerning the latest trends that we can observe on the market we have beers without alcohol, fruit-flavored beers, beer barrels, and soon the dehydrated beer! Believe this or not but this concept has been created by an American company. (For the scepticals, I let you enjoy the video below which explains the process...)

 

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/l-histoire-du-soir/20130820.OBS3747/belgique-la-biere-en-poudre-arrive-depuis-les-etats-unis.html

Today’s figures point: A little world tour of the annual consumption of beer per country and per capita. As you can see below, the big winners are the Czech with an average close to 160 liters/year/capita (only that!), followed by our Irish(2nd) and German(3rd) friends well-known for their « beer-drinking » abilities! Australian are not bad with 110 liters (4th). The United States are in the average with 80 liters and France is at the rear of the pack with hardly more than 30 liters/year.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_world_by_beer_consumption.png

The birth of a new blog talking about beer !

Welcome stranger !
You are just reading the first article of a new blog decicated to beer market.
Our team is composed of 4 members - Jessica, Franck, Stephane and Vincent - who will try to make you discover beer brands ... differently! Grab a beer, sit down and read ...

http://discoverexcursionsblog.com/the-worlds-largest-festival-oktoberfest/