ken expands
ibution in Germany
10
The initial, exploratory phase has been completed.
The growth curve is increasingly moving towards
the vertical. The sales objectives for the coming
years are ambitious, but Lutz Meyer Reissenweber
of Heineken Deutschland has confidence in the
future of Heineken.
In February 1993 the first shipment
of Heineken Beer was transported
to Germany. Heineken Deutsch
land concentrated in its first year spe
cifically on the ten big cities and nota
bly on the outlets much frequented by
the target group, internationally
oriented young adults. This implies
that Berlin is the most important sales
area for Heineken. Of the 550 outlets
in which Heineken is available, more
than a quarter are located in Berlin.
"Berlin is a city with 3.9 million
inhabitants and a total of some 5,000
outlets. It is a metropolis with a
round-the-clock social life."
University cities
Last year the distribution was
strongly expanded so that Heineken
Beer is also available in former East
Germany in cities like Leipzig,
Dresden and Chemnitz. Distribution
has meanwhile also been extended to
cover famous university cities such as
Freiburg, Regensburg, Aachen, Mini
ster, Mannheim and Göttingen.
"We have noticed a remarkably
high level of demand for Heineken in
these cities. Younger consumers who
got to know Heineken in the big cities
and then moved to the university
cities to study also ask for Heineken
in the outlets there", says Lutz Meyer
Reissenweber.
Top Ten
For Heineken Deutschland the
spring is THE season for promotions
and publicity around the brand. For
example, via the Heineken Top Ten,
which is being organised for the third
time in succession. In Germany's ten
most important cities consumers who
fit within the Heineken target group
are asked which outlets they feel are
the best in their city.
Those outlets need not necessarily
stock Heineken. According to Lutz
Meyer Reissenweber, that is no prob
lem: "Over the past two years we have
seen that the Heineken Top Ten is
gaining in prestige and is becoming
increasingly important for the outlet
owners. Incidentally, we have found
that the owners of those outlets come
knocking at our door at a certain
moment and ask to be allowed to
include Heineken in their range."
Response
The principle of the Heineken Top
Ten works as follows: in several
magazines a Heineken advertisement
is published. A reply card is attached
to that advertisement which the
respondent fills in and returns to
Heineken Deutschland. From that
stack of cards five hundred prize
winners are selected. They receive
a Scall, a tremendously popular wrist-
watch in Germany. This watch has a
screen which displays messages from
people telephoning the wearer of the
watch.
The Heineken Top Ten is also
brought to the attention of consumers
in the outlets. Nine Heineken Promo
Teams hand out a total of around
20,000 reply cards. Last year's re
sponse was 10,500 cards. Mr Meyer
Reissenweber expects that around
55,000 cards will be sent back this
year.
Heineken Deutschland also conti
nues to be active in the field of adver
tising (see opposite page). The cine
ma commercial which has been
screened since 1993 will be main
tained and a second commercial - a
slightly modified version of the
Heineken commercial that was devel
oped for Italy - is now also being
screened. Mr Meyer Reissenweber:
"The tests clearly showed that both
commercials convey the same mes
sage: acceptance and integration of
people. We have now also incorporat
ed that key message in a print cam
paign."
WORLD OF
HEINEKEN
In the middle:
Lutz Meyer-Reissenweber
