WINNING WITH CONSUMERS
Champions League, affect buying habits.
It's also interesting to know what other
products they buy together with ours," she
explains. "This gives us insight into the
occasions when consumers are enjoying
our products, for example at a barbecue,
and ultimately allows us to put together
initiatives like co-merchandising, or spot
advertising alongside related products.
"Of course, beer consumers are different the
world over and it is important to understand
and respect local beer traditions and tastes.
At the same time, there is an opportunity
to leverage local assets to offer consumers
something new and exciting. The success of
the Heineken® brand also proves that there
are universal consumer needs that can
be met with an inspirational global brand,
so we are working to build more of these
special brands."
Powerful Insight
Powerful consumer insights are the pre
requisite to becoming part of consumers'
conversations. An insight is a compelling
statement that captures consumers'
motivation to maintain or change
behaviour, and can reveal opportunities
to drive a category or a brand. "Take
innovation as just one example. We
start with an umbrella topic such as
premiumisation, convenience, or health,
which we know from our initial research
interests our consumers," explains Florence.
"Imagine that the research and market
analysis shows that an important and
Discovering and leveraging
what excites and motivates
consumers is at the heart of
CMI in HEINEKEN
growing group of consumers are very
interested in more sophisticated offerings,
and that they are prepared to pay a
premium for special qualities and tastes.
To determine the insight, we talk with them
about how beer could play to this interest,
and what they would want to see from the
beer category and beer brands as a result."
Once insights are generated, they are
tested with scores of consumers around
the world to see if they are relevant, how
well they are understood, how different
and exciting they are perceived to be. "We
have established a standard technique
to quantify the power of our insights.
Because they are the starting point for our
innovation ideas, we want to make sure
that they are relevant and exciting for
as many consumers around the globe as
possible," says Florence.
Once HEINEKEN is confident that a strong
and unique insight has been identified,
it's used to drive business decisions. The
next step is for us to determine how best
to address the consumer insight, posing
questions such as which flavours appeal
to them, which bottles or glasses add to
their experience, do they want to know
about matching beer with food and much
more. All of this can guide development
Quarter 2 2012 World of HEINEKEN
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