the younger visitors in the 18 to 25 age
group.
Advertising
Any firm which plans to advertise
in Hong Kong and takes a look around
the media industry will soon find itself
unable to see the forest for the trees.
The media scene is highly complex,
particularly as regards advertising on
radio and television. There are four
big radio stations in Hong Kong, but
two of them in turn have their own
'subsidiary stations', which brings the
total to eight.
For television - the medium with
the biggest reach - the situation is
even more complicated. Three big TV
stations (Star TV, ATV and TVB)
together broadcast on 9 separate
channels. Star TV, which will start to
operate at the end of this year, has as
many as five different ones: for music,
sport, family entertainment, news and
Mandarin (one of the Chinese lan
guages). ATV and TVB limit them
selves to two channels each: one
English-language and one Chinese
channel. TVB's Chinese channel is the
absolute market leader, attracting
75% of all viewers during prime time.
In previous years Heineken adver
tising was principally aired via the
English-language channels. That's
now changed with the advent of com
mercials on Jade, the Chinese-lan
guage channel of TVB.
Over the past ten years advertising
has been used to achieve a careful
build-up of the Heineken image. The
first phase (1980-1982) was character
ised by three basic messages which
had to be conveyed to the consumer:
Heineken is an imported beer from
Holland, it has a family tradition, and
it has a big reputation world-wide.
Footage for the commercial, which
included some words from Mr A.H.
Heineken and an explanation of the
brewing process, was shot in Holland.
In the second phase (1985-1986)
the pictures of Amsterdam were alter
nated by shots of Chinese enjoying a
glass of Heineken beer in an up-
scaled setting. Identification with the
local population had thus been
achieved, and so the third phase
(1987-1990) was set in motion. The
aim of the message in phase three was
to convince the consumer of the prod
uct's premium quality and taste and
its high-class image. The tagline used
was: 'After all, it's not that much more
expensive'. This commercial was also
used as a basis for advertisements
which appeared in up-market maga
zines.
Phase four (1991) brought a fur
ther refinement of the existing com
mercial. The film was left unchanged,
but the tagline was slightly modified:
'After all, there's Heineken'.
In the space of ten years, there
fore, the advertising message has be
come more crystallised, increasingly
more focused on the target group. The
'brain drain' described earlier on and
also the growing proportion of older
people in the population will not make
it any easier for Heineken to maintain
its positioning in the future. Over the
long term extra marketing effort will
be needed to prevent erosion of the
target group.
Macao
About five hundred thousand in
habitants and covering an area of 17
square kilometres. Macao, a small
port on the mouth of the Pearl River
about 145 kilometres south of the
Chinese city of Canton, has been a
Portuguese colony since the middle of
the sixteenth century and - just like
Hong Kong - it is due to be handed
over to China. The transfer will take
place in December 1999.
Macao's economy is based on its
casinos. Each year some 5 million
people take the jetfoil from Hong
Kong to Macao to spend a few hours
in the one of the casinos there. The
biggest casino, in the Lisboa Hotel, is
a round-the-clock operation that
would make many a factory manager
green with envy. Regardless of public
holidays, the casino is open 565 days a
year, 24 hours a day and always has a
full house, whatever the time of day
(or night).
Guinness Hong Kong is responsi
ble for sales of Heineken beer on
Macao, but John Fan hastens to add
that the sales volume on Macao is very
modest: 'Approximately 1% of the
Heineken beer we sell goes out to
Macao.'
That beer is shipped to the whole
sale business Chip Seng Coffee Ltd.
Managing director Wong Ping Ming
started out fifty years ago as an
importer of coffee and over the years
he's expanded his activities strongly.
A stroll through his warehouse makes
it clear that he trades in all sorts of
products, not just alcoholic beverages.
For the past fifteen years he's also had
Heineken in his product range. Mr
Wong has seen some growth for
Heineken in recent years but he notes
at the same time that the growth is not
as fast as in Hong Kong.
Managing director H ong Ping Ming
of Chip Seng Coffee Ltd., the wholesale
business in Macao.
Chip Seng Coffee Ltd. has eight
representatives whose combined
working area covers 1,200 outlets.
Twice a week the sales rep visits the
customer and notes down the order
straight away. As Macao is so small,
Chip Seng is able to promise cus
tomers who have an urgent order that
an order placed in the morning can be
supplied the same afternoon.
China
Heineken beer in the People's
Republic of China is a story all of its
own. The distributor for Heineken in 25
Hong Kong, Jardine Riche Monde,
also acts as Heineken's agent in China
for both the duty paid and the duty
free markets.
The job of Jardine Riche Monde is
to negotiate with the central Chinese
government buying organisations on
prices and delivery terms. There are
two such buying organisations:
Ceroils (China National Cereal Oils
Foodstuff Imports and Exports
Company), CNDFMC (China National
Duty Free Merchandise Corporation)
and a host of other customers, the
most notable belonging to the Special
Economic Zone (SEZ) governments in
the South. They are referred to as the
border shops. These organisations not
only handle purchasing but are also
responsible for distribution.
Jardine Riche Monde processes
the orders for Heineken beer and tries
to increase the number of outlets sell
ing Heineken beer. In the existing
outlets attention is paid to consumer
promotions.
Those promotions are really
necessary to create consumer aware-
T II I W O II I. II O I II E I N I K I N
