Promotion Girls in Taiwan are now called
Promotion Representatives. Their outfit was
recently modernised.
14
From left to right: Faber Yu, regional sales
manager for Tail, Victor Weng, Assistant
Export Manager of Heineken Taiwan,
Ed Weggemans, who heads the Taiwan office,
and the Heineken wholesaler for the island
of Penghu, Jyu Luh Shang Harng
To see the developments in the right perspective we need
to take a step back in time. A ten-year step, to be exact.
Until 1987 the Taiwanese beer market was completely
dominated by a local beer brand that was brewed by
TTWMB, the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau.
Imported beers were not permitted and so the local brand
had a one hundred per cent share of the market.
But the position of Taiwan in the world slowly changed.
It opened its windows to the world and hesitantly liberali
sed its trade. The same also happened in the beer market.
Imported beers were allowed in, but the import duties were
extremely high. A situation that still exists to this very day,
as the import tariff for imported beers stands at 3,000 NT
(approx. 105 US dollars) per hectolitre.
These enormous import duties did not prevent the
breweries from rushing into Taiwan. Breweries from all
parts of the world wanted to grab a slice of the action on
the Taiwanese beer market (which has a volume of some 5.2
million hectolitres a year). One hundred and sixty beer
brands flooded into Taiwan in the late 1980s and battled for
a place in the stores and in the on premise sector. Heineken
was one of the pioneers in Taiwan.
Ed Weggemans, who now heads the Heineken Taiwan
office, lived in Taiwan for a brief period in 1987 and can still
clearly recall the abolition of the import ban. "At that
moment I was not yet working for Heineken, but I do
remember that I thought it reflected a good nose for busi
ness that Heineken was already present in the market so
soon after the abolition." Eight years later the conclusion is
that relationships on the Taiwanese beer market have nor
malised somewhat. Out of the one hundred and sixty
brands in the initial rush, ten important ones have been left
over. Together they hold a 29% share of the total beer mar
ket. That percentage is high because, at the same time as
the shake-out occurred, an enormous growth started to
occur in the import segment. Taiwan's favourable economic
development over the past ten years (bringing increased
prosperity and a growth in purchasing power) has been
accompanied by greater brand awareness and a growing
interest for new trends. The combination of these factors
had a substantial impact on the Taiwanese beer market in
the 1993-1995 period.
DARK BEER
Out of the blue came the sudden emergence of dark beer in
1993. Dark beers are a sort of lager beer which, as their
name indicates, are dark-coloured. This colour is created by
using barley which has been roasted to an even greater de
gree during the malting process than that used for the gol
den-coloured pilsener lagers. All of a sudden it seemed as if
the Taiwanese beer drinker had an eye for nothing else but
dark beer. In the Western pubs, the Chinese restaurants and
the beer houses: everywhere you saw dark beers, including
Heineken Special Dark, on the tables. "Based on the infor
mation that was then available, it was a good choice by
Heineken to put Special Dark on the market", says
Mr Weggemans.
But just as quickly as the interest of the Taiwanese beer
drinker had been aroused, so quickly did his love for dark
beer cool off again. In 1996 the dark beer segment collap
sed completely. Ed Weggemans has an explanation for the
rise and fall of dark beer. "It's clear that dark beer was a
short-lived trend. In Taiwan that means that a product can
suddenly catch on and become all the rage. But it also
