Delft Blue, the world-famous Dutch pottery, is
often used for our advertising articles.
A corner of the showroom of the Advertising
Buying department.
new glasses will be delivered shortly; a
special mailing will announce their
availability.
The magic word nowadays is nostalgia. So
the items used by our grandparents are
naturally very much in demand. With the
modern techniques now available to us,
surely it ought to be simple to make such
items again today? As we have discovered
from experience, however, the craftsmen
who used to make those old-fashioned
articles for our grandparents have long
since retired. without passing on the
skills of the trade to their sons. The
coppersmith is one example. The few
coppersmiths still active in their
workshops simply could not turn out the
thousands of articles needed by Heineken
each time it launches a sales promotion.
Obviously, in attempts to counter
problems like this, Peter Ylstra and his
buyers roam the world in search of sources
of such products. And yet they often
encounter serious obstacles in the form of
differences in culture and in the raw
materials used. There are thousands of
coppersmiths in India. But the copper
they work with is quite unlike the type
Heineken would want to use. The
department must,of course, also keep well
abreast of all new fashion trends, so that
shirts and jackets used to promote
Heineken all have that up-to-the-minute
look.
Printing
Another responsibility of Advertising
Buying relates to the considerable amount
of printed matter used by Heineken to
promote its products. The volume of
posters, showcards and similar items
handled by the department makes it one
of Holland's biggest purchasers in the
trade. Needless to say, the checking of
proofs - not only for exact colour
matchings, but also for mistake-free texts
in many, many languages - is another
vitally important aspect of the
department's work.
Trade use agreements
Though many an article in the world bears
the Heineken trademark, not all of them
were produced at Heineken's request:
some were manufactured by third parties
for their own risk. And, however pleased
we are when our name is given maximum
display, we would never want to see it
misprinted or our emblem misused. We
therefore make sure that any
manufacturer who wishes to use our brand
for his own articles signs what is known as
a trade use agreement. This is issued by
the Advertising Buying department,
which also checks to ensure that the rules
of the agreement are being complied with.
Misuse
Sometimes it happens that a manufacturer
"forgets" to ask our permission before
turning out an article bearing the
Heineken name. As this almost invariably
results in the misuse of our logo or brand-
name, we immediately have to take legal
action. Misuse is something Heineken
cannot permit under any circumstances.
In shops and retail outlets all over the
world, T-shirts, packs of playing cards,
glasses, Delft blue beer mugs and bath-
towels bearing the Heineken logo are
sold, as are cigarette lighters mounted in
Heineken cans. We are always grateful to
receive any indication that the Heineken
brand-name is being misused on any item,
no matter how small. So, if any of our
readers happen to come across examples
of misuse, please write to Peter Ylstra and
let him know (Heineken Nederland BV.
P.O. Box 500, 2380 BA Zoeterwoude),
especially since our name might be used
on products of poor quality without our
consent or permission.
Minor faults
In all, some 500 different articles are used
to promote our company's various brands
All of them were ordered by Advertising
Buying and were subjected to its scrutiny.
But, obviously, not each and every single
article can be checked all the time.
Perhaps a manufacturer may have slipped
up somewhere along the line, unnoticed
by Zoeterwoude's watchdogs. If you ever
spot such a minor fault in any item, please
bear in mind that, despite the exhaustive
tests made before the order was placed,
many an article will have been designed
from scratch, or a raw material new to that
particular process may have been used, or
lUrilltkl-