Our biggest challenge
is our capacity to meet
customer demand for
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of 2011, Newcastle Werewolf became
the number one seasonal beer in the
outlets where it was available. In its
first month of sales, Founders' Ale was
also the number two new brand in the
entire beer category of the California
grocery sector. And Winter IPA also won
a silver medal in the world-renowned
BTI contest. We've just kicked off the
new Newcastle Brown Ale campaign
and during the summer, 10 of our
British colleagues will act as brand
ambassadors in the US.
How is HEINEKEN in the USA
adapting to market evolution?
While the overall US beer industry is
not growing, the premium segment is
growing at about five per cent per year.
This is where HEINEKEN has typically
played and needs to start winning
again. In order to reach our ambition
of being the leader in the premium
segment, we have sharpened our
strategy, brought new people on board
and invested heavily in our brands and
our people.
Our priorities are to generate top-
line growth by reinventing beer
marketing, building our business in
the on-premise and enhancing our
category-management capability. We
are also focused on flawless execution
in the marketplace, which, with 650
distributors and over 500,000 outlets, is
a challenge in itself.
What do you mean by 'reinventing
beer marketing?
Many beer commercials in the US look
the same. Our goal is to break the
mould and get away from traditional
American beer advertising that uses
simple, unsophisticated humour. We
are reinventing beer marketing with
aspirational campaigns that place a
greater emphasis on digital activation.
The global 'Legends' campaign for
Heineken® is a great example of this. In
the US, we are also doing this with the
Dos Equis 'Most Interesting Man in the
World' campaign and the latest campaign
for Newcastle Brown Ale that pokes fun
at typical beer adverts with a refreshing
dose of English humour and honesty.
What's happening in the on-trade?
Our US business was built by Freddy
Heineken and Leo van Munching in
the fifties and sixties as an on-trade
business. They went bar-to-bar selling
the iconic green bottle. Today, draught
beer is just as important as bottled beer,
largely due to the explosion of craft beer
in the US. This is where the consumer
tries new brands, so at HEINEKEN,
we are investing heavily in this channel.
We have tripled the number of 'feet on
the street' in the on-premise and put
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crtnr. DOSEQU ISsom
The Most Interesting
Man' reflects the trend of
doing things differently
Quarter 2 2012 World of HEINEKEN 13
