Tendency
THE WORLD OF HEINEKEN
recent years. In fact, from the first day that Botchkarov appeared
on the market, the brand expanded at terrific speed to become
Russia's fourth biggest beer brand. The technical tours de force,
required to keep the capacity in line with growing demand, followed
each other in rapid succession and the rest of the organisation
also had to develop at the same pace as the growth of Botchkarov.
"We introduced Botchkarov in March 1999," recalls Senior Brand
Manager Olga Shurupova. "The 'birthday party' we gave for
Botchkarov was a party for ten thousand invited guests in the city
centre. A party with numerous attractions and a lot of music.
Two weeks before that party we displayed posters everywhere in
the city to make people curious. In that way we generated
enormous publicity." During the 1999 edition of the annual
St. Petersburg Beer Festival in June the eyes of all consumers
were focused on that new Botchkarov brand.
Botchkarov is the personalised form of Botchka, the Russian word
for barrel. The addition of the 'rov' suffix changes the word into a
family name. The 'Barrel Family' consists of a standard lager with
5% alcohol, a white beer, a heavy, dark beer with 8% alcohol and
a non-alcohol beer. All types are marketed under the same name,
and the difference can only be seen on the label. Botchkarov has
been positioned as a local premium beer; this is a segment that
has shown very strong growth over the past few years.
Mid-way through the 1990s the future did not look rosy for the
Russian beer market. Gorbatchov's anti-alcohol policy, chiefly
