THE WORLD OF HEINEKEN
are all legal brands. Half of all the vodka that is drunk in Russia
has been produced illegally and is a lot cheaper. That illegal
vodka used to be a competitor for beer," explains Commercial
Director Dimitri Sitnikov. But slowly the tide started to turn.
Illegally distilled vodka was of a poor quality and its consumers
started to worry about the health risks. "Illegal beer does not exist
and people realised that beer always has a good quality. Besides,
the image of vodka has become negative. These days vodka is an
occasional drink.
we have opted for a consumer approach that each region can
interpret in its own way. Our slogan for Botchkarov is 'the right
beer'. The word 'right' recurs in all sorts of forms. For instance,
we talk about the right place to drink beer. For the cities in the
far north, for example, relaxing after the sauna is regarded as
'the right moment', for people in the south of Russia, along the
Black Sea, the river bank is seen as the 'right place' to enjoy a
bottle of Botchkarov. We gear our advertising to those different
perceptions."
Cities like St. Petersburg and (in particular) Moscow have many
bars and these represent an attractive sales market for Bravo.
But in many other cities the beer market reveals a totally different
picture. "The various regions in Russia each have their own sub
culture with their own eating and drinking habits. Via Botchkarov
Botchkarov is the flagship of Bravo International and has a market
share of 3.7%. At first sight that may perhaps seem low, but in a
market of more than 2,400 beer brands, of which as many as 54
have sufficient financial resources to advertise on TV, such a
position is enviable. Certainly when you bear in mind that the
