"Heineken is an expensive brand in Romania and so it's
always difficult to get started. But we are getting there. Our
experience has shown us that once a customer has included
Heineken Beer in his product range, he then wants to con
tinue selling the brand because of its success", says Sandu
Popescu.
SUPERMARKETS
In Bucharest, a city of more than two million people, Heinro
Distribution has a customer base of about a thousand
addresses. Four of these customers are supermarkets. All
the others are on premise outlets: restaurants, hotels, bars,
discos, nightclubs, etc. Supermarket chains such as Mega
Images, La Fourmi, Family Store and EDF represent an
important sales channel for Heineken. Those few chains
account for forty per cent of the sales of Heineken in
Bucharest. The clientele of the supermarkets consists of the
Westerners who work in Bucharest and the small group of
affluent Romanians.
Only very limited possibilities exist for displays in the
supermarkets. And not only for Heineken displays. The
store managers feel that displays occupy too much shop
floor space and so it is not easy to make them enthusiastic
about this form of commercial communication. Especially
the 64 cl bottle is doing well in the supermarkets. Sales
director Catalin Ignat explains: "The big bottle is relatively
cheaper and is bought for consumption at home. But the
store managers prefer to reserve more shelf space for the 33
cl rather than the 64 cl bottle. Mainly because they feel that
the 33 cl pack carries more prestige for the image of the
brand."
PERSEVERANCE
From its very early days Heinro has focused on the on pre
mise outlets. Restaurants, discos, hotels and bars are the
most important target group. According to Catalin Ignat,
putting Heineken into the market is a matter of persever
ance. "Disco Vox Maris is a good example. We spent three
whole years trying to convince its owner that it would be
in his best interests to include Heineken Beer in his
range. He always refused, saying that Heineken was too
expensive. In the end we succeeded in convincing him and
now Vox Maris is one of our biggest customers with sales of
fifty cases a week."
Restaurant Doina in Bucharest is another big customer.
The restaurant, which is housed in a superbly renovated
building dating from the last century, was established in
1993 and is known far and wide for its quality and ambi
ance. Several months ago the restaurant opened a separate
open-air bar. Heinro provided financial support for the con
struction of the bar and was given exclusive rights in
return. Thanks to the use of POS materials, the Heineken
signature can be clearly seen all around the bar.
Ignat: "Our allocation of POS materials is limited. So we
have to look carefully at where we use our materials. In the
summer months we clearly focus on the holiday resorts on
the Black Sea. A lot of people from Bucharest are there then.
They see Heineken Beer during their holidays and they
recognise it when they return to Bucharest. That in turn has
a positive effect on our sales. For the rest we concentrate
our use of POS materials on the outlets themselves and not
so much on the consumer. That is a choice we have to make
in view of the quantity of POS material that is available to
us."
FIZICO
Heinro is content with an outlet like Fizico. This bar, locat
ed on the edge of the Herastrau Lake in the centre of
Bucharest, is frequented by wealthy, mostly younger consu
mers aged between 18 and 30. This is the trend-setting
group of consumers who are important for Heineken at this
moment. The cars on Fizico's car park give some idea of
how prosperous this group is; the most expensive models
of BMWs and cabriolets. On the terrace of Fizico the bleep
of portable phones can regularly be heard.
The owner of Fizico is former sports instructor Doru
Cretu. He built his bar around a stand which Heineken had
decided to dispose of after it had given many years of faith
ful service at all sorts of trade fairs. The stand in exchange
for several years of exclusivity; Doru Cretu is happy with
the arrangement. His bar is something special and he also
sells the beer brand that fits in with his clientele.
Doru Cretu is proprietor
of Fizico, reputed to be
the 'hottest place in town1.
He's an enthusiastic
Heineken fan.
Andrei Becze is owner of
Italia Mia.
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