Athenian Brewery ready with its response
Heineken Rocks the Opera House.
For 1990 the promotional activities of Heineken Australia are
targeted at consumers in the 23-30 age group. So, the first
promotion event held this year was a series of three pop con
certs entitled 'Heineken rocks the Opera House'. The three
concerts were to be staged along the waterfront next to Syd
ney's Opera House, world-famous for its architecture.
Beethoven
Greek beer market: big changes in past few years
'Times are a-changing' for Athenian Brewery. Though sales
results are still excellent, more intense marketing efforts are
being made to meet the targets.
Speciality beers
Trends
Challenge
HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NR. 26
PAGE 3
Heineken Australia
staged pop
concerts next to
Opera House
All concerts featured Australian
artists: Kate Seberano, Dragon and
Richard Clapton. Because of heavy
rainfall the Clapton concert had to
be staged in a nearby hall. The con
certs by Kate Seberano and Dragon
were the first to be held near the
Opera House in ten years.
Just as in so many countries,
Heineken beer has a select image in
Australia. To keep these rock con
certs in line with the image of
Heineken beer, only a limited num
ber of tickets were sold: 1,500 per
concert. Each concert was a com
plete sell-out.
In the run-up to the series of con
certs an advertising campaign was
developed in which composer Lud-
wig van Beethoven showed his lack
of amusement about the initiative.
Afterwards Beethoven's 'we-are-
not-amused' portrait frequently
featured on T-shirts and posters. fall.
Radio commercials were also pro
duced to back up the event. Three
of them later won awards in a com
petition.
The success of the concerts was
so gigantic that plans are currently
being drawn up for a new series.
Both Australian and international
bands have shown an interest in
performing next time.
The site where two of the three con
certs were staged. The organisers
had to transfer the final concert to a
nearby hall because of heavy rain-
Ludwig van Beethoven: the 'noise'
next to the Opera House didn't
amuse him.
As recently as the mid-1980s the
Greek beer market was still in its
infancy. But some segmentation
did exist: there were mainstream
beers and premium beers. In both
these segments Athenian Brewery
was (and is) market leader with the
Amstel and Heineken brands.
The close of the 1980s has
brought signs of a major change:
the consumer wants to try out other
beers as well. New segments are
emerging, including the non alco
hol segment. To ensure it is actively
involved in developing this seg
ment, Athenian Brewery recently
introduced Buckler.
The 'imported beers' segment is
also growing. Marketing manager
George Papadopoulos has an
nounced that Athenian Brewery in-
the Amstel and Heineken brands,
tends to play an active role on this
front, too. For reasons of competi
tion he's not yet willing to disclose
the exact form that these activities
will take.
Another segment is formed by
the 'speciality beers'. Last year
Athenian Brewery launched
Amstel Bock to meet the wishes of
consumers in this segment.
Group product manager Minas
Mavricakis explains what plans
Athenian Brewery has in store for
the next five years: 'The beer mar
ket as a whole will continue to grow
in the next few years, though no
longer at the rate we've been seeing
over the past few years. We expect
that the keener competition will
mean a slight loss of market share
for us. To limit that decline as
much as possible, we have to re
main very active in the market with
We aim to become market leader in
every segment.'
one-way bottles for locally pro
duced beers as well, Athenian
Brewery has a new trump card in
hand to help it meet consumer
wishes.
A look at the future of the beer Lastly, research has shown that
Minas Mavricakis,
group product manager
of Athenian Brewery: 'We
aim to become market
leader in every segment'.
market in Greece reveals even
more trends. Market research
points to a growing consumer de
mand for a wider choice of pack
forms. With the permission it now
has from the government to use
the beer market is also changing as
it becomes more mature. The
Greek beer drinker likes the com
bination of beer with food. But
from the way the Greek beer-drink
ing culture is developing, it's clear
that actual beer drinking is no lon
ger automatically linked to meal
times. Drinking beer at home is in
creasingly popular. Licensed out
lets still account for 65% of Athe
nian Brewery's sales, but slowly but
surely that percentage is falling.
All these changes on the Greek
beer market are making heavy de
mands on the brewery. Changing
wishes as regards pack forms and
the curiosity to sample the taste of
different types of beers mean a
heavy workload for the production
department, whilst marketing and
sales will also have to adopt a
changed approach. The period of
the two-brands policy is past. The
range is undergoing substantial ex
pansion. But George Papadopoulos
is optimistic about the future and
sees it as a challenge: 'We've got
good employees. And they've got
that extra energy and dedication
needed to consolidate the position
of Athenian Brewery'.
