HEINEKEN INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE NO. 36 PAGE 5
Left, Ivonir Amorin., sales manager of Blitz in Belo Horizonte. Right, Joao
Caniato, who is employed by Kaiser and acts as supervisor for the Heineken
sales reps in Northern and Central Brazil.
ket for imported beers, there has
been a great influx of beers from all
parts of the world. According to
Ricardo Canela Dias, Paul
Nitschmann's right-hand man,
brands come and go all the time. 'We
regularly see people buying just a
single can of one of the different
brands. We were told that they are
collectors.'
Belo Horizonte
For the sale and distribution of the
Heineken beer brewed in Rio de
quality products and are willing to
pay the prices charged for them. In
these stores - which are unique for
Brazil - fifty per cent of the Heineken
sales are achieved. But in Belo
Horizonte, too, the recession has
started to bite; over the past half year
the delicatessen stores have suffered
a sizable drop in turnover of as much
as 30%.
Advertising
The introduction of Heineken
beer in Rio was supported by a spe-
With its 5 million inhabitants, Belo Horizonte is a medium sized city by Brazilian standards.
The beer market is still growing
spectacularly and by the year 2000
the annual volume is expected to
have climbed to 100 million hectolit
res!
Beer in Brazil has always been a
very ordinary product. There was no
clear market segmentation; simply
light beer and dark beer. So it was
(and still is) Heineken's task not only
to position its own beer but also to
develop the premium segment at the
same time. A tough job, but certainly
not impossible. 'Branded products
are very important for Brazilians,
and that offers us an ideal basis for
developing the premium segment',
explains Nitschmann.
The premium segment, currently
0.7% of the Brazilian beer market,
has therefore hardly been developed
as yet. But marketing experts fore
cast that this figure will have risen to
2% in the year 2000. This may not
seem very much but, with a total beer
market of 100 million hectolitres, we
are still talking in terms of two mil
lion highly profitable hectolitres for
the premium segment.
Heineken is rightly perceived by
the Brazilian as a local beer of pre
mium quality. A small bottle of
Heineken commands a price which
is many times higher than that of a
local brand. The price difference
between Heineken and the imported
beers is negligible.
Imports are 'in'. The gigantic
supermarkets (120 check-out desks)
all have a separate department speci
fically for imported foodstuffs. Since
the opening up of the Brazilian mar-
auctions.' These bloodstock auctions
enjoy great popularity amongst weal
thy Brazilians, the most attractive
consumer group for Heineken beer.
Delay
The real breakthrough of
Heineken beer in Brazil will still take
a little while longer, but it would be
wrong to claim that Heineken got off
to a false start. The Brazilian gover
nment's unexpected decision to per
mit the entry of imported beers,
compounded by the economic down
turn that followed, have slowed
down Heineken's development in
Brazil. But that delay, says distribu
tor Eberhart Aichinger, is of a tem
porary nature; 'I'm convinced that
this period of recession will last
another year but then it will surely
come to an end. It's not the first time
that something like that has happe
ned in Brazil.' Pull in your belt one
notch tighter and stick with it is the
motto. Kaiser and Heineken have
every faith in the future of the brand,
because they regard Brazil - despite
the current recession - as the country
of the future.
Heineken is doing well in the deli
catessen stores. Nowhere in Brazil
are there as many delicatessens as in
Belo Horizonte. The inhabitants of
this city are clearly very keen on
Ricardo Canela Dias, right-hand
man of marketing manager Paul
Nitschmann.
vinced viewers that the brewing of
Heineken is something special. The
commercial was intended for the
launch phase and so it was only on
Brazilian TV for a short period.
Several months ago the new com
mercial was broadcast on TV. 'For
this film, which contains a dash of
humour, we wanted a beery environ
ment. The decor had to be a little bit
up-market but, then again, not too
elegant. Public response has been
favourable; they get the message.'
The commercials are broadcast in
between the 'premium' programmes
and films later in the evening. TV
ratings show that these programmes
score high amongst the target group.
In addition to TV advertising,
Selling and distribution in the city
of Belo Horizonte (five million inha
bitants) is not handled by a Coca
Cola bottler but by the firm of Blitz.
Its owner is Eberhart Aichinger, born
and bred in Brazil but with Austrian
parents. Naturally he speaks fluent
Portuguese, but his parents never
renounced their roots and always
spoke German at home. In the 1950s
Eberhart Aichinger's mother started
a restaurant in Belo Horizonte. After
some time her son took over the
business and started to expand it.
Today Aichinger has twelve restau
rants in Belo Horizonte, each with
their own character and atmosphere.
'You must never do the same thing
twice. If a self-service restaurant is
successful, for example, you mustn't
open a second one but keep looking
out for a new formula.'
As the years passed and his res
taurants grew in number, Aichinger
increasingly felt the need to import
drinks (especially wines) himself.
Blitz was established and a customer
base was built up which extended far
beyond supplying the restaurants he
owned. Aichinger gained more and
more expertise in the sale of alcoho
lic drinks and Heineken is now grate
fully making use of that expertise.
Eberhart Aichinger, owner of twelve restaurants and a drinks wholesaling
business, also sells Heineken beer in 'hiscity of Belo Horizonte.
Janeiro use is made of the Coca Cola
distributors. Four sales managers of
Kaiser are responsible for sales of
Heineken and act as supervisors for
the Coca Cola sales reps.
During the launch of Heineken beer in the capital city of Brasilia, the presen
tation of a Heineken bag plus contents to Brazil's President Collor generated
a lot of publicity.
cial advertising message. Johan de
Deijn, the HTS consultant whose job
is to watch over the quality of
Heineken beer, was briefly a well-
known personality in Rio when he
starred in the commercial which con-
Paul Nitschmann also handles the
sponsoring of small-scale events.
'We do a little in the cultural field,
notably in theatre productions. We
also sponsor golf and tennis tourna
ments and we're present at horse
