1988 an important year
for Heineken
in the U.K.
G.C.C. Pels Rijcken follows in
great-grandfather's footsteps
Whitbread salesmen give extra
boost to Heineken sales
Heineken employee special guest at Japans Holland Village
I
The seven hundred sales representatives of our
licensing partner Whitbread will be giving the U.K.
sales of Heineken lager a substantial boost this year.
A large-scale gathering some months ago marked the
start of '1988 The Year of Heineken!'. During this
pep-talk meeting the salesmen were reminded again
of all the selling arguments that the Heineken brand
has to offer.
Shake-out
Early entry
Weigh anchors!
Mr. G.C.C. Pels Rijcken, of Corporate Personnel Affairs
in Holland, journeyed back into his distant family past
several months ago. His trip took him to Japan - the country
in which his great-grandfather had first set foot in 1854 as
lieutenant-commander of the sail-rigged steamship, the
'Soembing'. Mr. Pels Rijcken visited Japan at the invitation
of Heineken Japan as part of a Heineken public relations
programme centred on Holland Village, a theme park near
Nagasaki which consists entirely of replicas of typical Dutch
buildings. Holland Village had commissioned a Dutch
shipyard to build an authentic copy of the 19th century
'Soembing'.
History
HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NR. 15 PAGE3
The exact replica of the 'Soembing' arrives in Holland Village after an eight-
week voyage.
On the publicity front, too,
activities have been developed
to ensure that 1988 really does
become 'The Year of Heine
ken'. Together with its adver
tising agency, Whitbread has
again produced four new
versions of the world-famous
campaign "Heineken refresh
es the parts other beers cannot
reach." Extra media expendi
ture and newly designed post
ers will guarantee maximum
consumer exposure to Heine
ken publicity again this year.
In the United Kingdom the
remarkable situation has
arisen in which the total beer
market is declining because of
zero population growth, whilst
at the same time the lager
market is growing, not only as
a percentage but also in
hectolitres. And within that
lager market we can see an
expansion of the premium
segment. The 'mainstream'
brands are being forced to
concede ground.
Competition has meanwhile
become so fierce that a shake-
out is currently taking place
amongst the 150(!) different
brands of lager. Expectations
are that only the major brands,
including Heineken, will be
able to maintain their position.
Heineken and Whitbread aim
to strengthen that position
even more thanks to '1988 The
Year of Heineken!'.
Twenty years ago hardly any
lager was drunk in Great
Britain; by far the favourite
beer types were stouts and,
above all, bitters. Heineken
was one of the first brands to
appear on the U.K. lager
market and that early entry
has been rewarded with
success. Over the years Heine
ken has grown to become one
of the leading lager brands in
that country.
For reasons of excise duties
and also because of consumer
preferences, British Heineken
lager has a lower original
gravity than the regular brew.
Whitbread, Heineken's U.K.
licensing partner for many
years, brews this Heineken
lager specifically for the
British market.
However, in recent years the
taste of British drinkers has
been changing. Beers with a
higher original gravity in the
'premium segment' are
gaining in popularity. Heine
ken is responding to these
changes by shipping Heineken
Special Export from the
Netherlands for sale on the
British market. With this
Special Export quality (with
the same original gravity as
Continental Heineken lager)
Heineken offers British
consumers a choice: the
Heineken lager they are famil
iar with, or the more full-
bodied Heineken Special
Export.
in the Dutch Navy and was
instructed to sail the ship out to
Japan and officially hand it over to
the shogun on the king's behalf. As
the Japanese knew little about
sailing vessels of that kind, the
shogun asked my great-grandfather
to stay in Japan for two years to
train a crew for the ship", explains
Mr. Pels Rijcken.
Over one hundred and thirty
years later history repeated itself a
little. After being christened in
Amsterdam, the full-scale replica
of the Soembing weighed anchor
and set sail for the Land of the
Rising Sun. Eight weeks later the
vessel docked in the harbour of
Holland Village. But for Mr. Pels
Rijcken the trip did not last eight
weeks. He flew out to Nagasaki at
the end of April. There, together
with Mr. Enters, the director of
Heineken Japan, he was inter-
Asking the blessing of the gods for
the ship. This is known in Japan as
the 'shinto' ceremony.
viewed by the Japanese press media
and helped to promote Heineken's
position in Japan. At the 'shinto'
ceremony, in which the blessing of
the gods was asked for the ship's
safekeeping in the future, Mr. Pels
Rijcken was present as guest of
honour.
That one telephone call early in
January resulted in an unforgetta
ble experience for Mr. Pels
Rijcken. But it also enabled him to
learn about his family's history.
"Back in 1938 my father showed me
a model of the 'Soembing' in
Amsterdam's Maritime Museum.
And he told me a little about his
grandfather. For all those years I've
kept those papers from the olden
days, but never really looked at
them. Now, thanks to this event,
I've really studied them in much
more detail."
In both the Netherlands and
Japan we can currently witness a
new surge of interest for the
relations that existed between both
countries in former centuries. Mr.
Pels Rijcken is meanwhile in
contact with the University of
Leiden and in this way he is
contributing towards the research
work into those remarkable links
between Holland and Japan.
A Japanese camera crew at work
in Mr. Pels Rijcken's house filming
for a programme about Holland
Village and the 'Soembing'.
"At the beginning of January I
got a phone call from Japan Euro
Promotions, a public relations
bureau. They were trying to trace
the great-grandchildren of the crew
who sailed on the Soembing
between 1854 and 1856. My great
grandfather was master of that
ship. All the great-grandchildren
were invited to attend the ship's
christening at a yard in Amster
dam", recounts Mr. Pels Rijcken.
Also present at that naming
ceremony was Mr. Matsuda, the
chairman of Holland Village. It was
suggested that Mr. Pels Rijcken
might perhaps also like to attend
the 'shinto', the official ceremony
that was to be held to bless the ship
in Holland Village. Mr. Matsuda
warmly welcomed this initiative.
Meanwhile the Japanese press
flocked to interview Mr. Pels
Rijcken. He is in fact a descendant
of the man who gave the first
impulses for the establishment of
the Japanese Navy in the last
century. "I still have my great
grandfather's original letters and
snapshots in my possession. The
Japanese television people even
First meeting with Mr. and Mrs.
Matsuda of Holland Village.
called at my home to film the
documents."
"What made your great-grand
father go to Japan?", we asked Mr.
Pels Rijcken. "Holland had special
links with Japan, even as long ago
as the seventeenth century. The
small peninsula of Decima off the
coast of Nagasaki served as the
trading post via which the Dutch
were able to import their own
goods and then ship Japanese
products back to the Netherlands.
In the middle of last century
Holland's King William III offered
the 'Soembing' as a gift to the
Shogun of Japan. My great-grand
father was a lieutenant-commander