Heineken Caribbean Local Branding of an international brand and commercial excellence though strategies

April 24^th, 2008

Heineken, national partner of AIESEC Puerto Rico, shared with us some facts about the company and how they do the branding in the Caribbean market. They also discussed with AIESEC some strategies they have developed in order to get the expected results.

What does Heineken’s international marketing department do??

1. Regional marketing programs

2. Coordinate marketing between Heineken international and Heineken Caribbean

3. Support marketing implementation in the islands

4. Maintain the brand’s consistency.

The challenge to do so is the diversity in the Caribbean: as we said, different languages, different races, different religious background, different customs... completely different cultures.

The deal with religion, for example, is they cannot launch a Christmas! nor Hanukah or something religiously connoted marketing strategy because the Caribbean does not have a clear religious majority. They have to be general and say: HOLYDAY! So nobody feels left out.

And what about the people? If you sell an image of a Jamaican guy for advertisement, Puerto Ricans won’t get familiarized. Regional strategies are very important for this company. Europe, for example, has too a different strategy from the one used in Asia. The cultural differences have to be attended. Also, every country has its own internal branding and advertisement campaigns while each of them has a regional department that coordinates and supports other Heineken offices.

Here some videos that can put an image on your head about adapting the brand to a country.

• Jamaica:

• Ireland:

Question: In your countries, do you see Heineken beer freezers??? In Puerto Rico you do, but this an international “cooling campaign”?… Let us know in your comments

Well… what about strategies? This is regional run by “Commercial Excellence” and they do a lot of market analysis so they target all their activities right and have objectives to aim so the can be more efficient and rentable (in terms of money).

How do they do this? With lots of Matrix and endless excels sheets. For instants:

First they classify the selling points: is it just a selling point? Or do you consume there?

How much do they sell, is it big, small? What is the motive to buy at this place? So this way, they create different profiles of selling points: chic bars, gas stations, big supermarkets, small stores, etc.

For each profile they take decisions regarding:

*Availability: Does Heineken want to have big bottles? Small ones? Just cans?

*Visibility: Does Heineken want to have a big poster on the chic bar? And in the gas station?

*Advertisement: Would it be efficient to have banners on a supermarket? Posters?

*Price: Do I want the beer to be so cheap in a disco? Do I want people to see the price in a poster at the bar? And at the supermarket? How does Heineken control de price on restaurants?

*Quantity: Retail or in packages?

*Payment: Does your client just take cash?

Everything depends on where you are selling and who is buying… and the department creates the selling portfolio to all the clients so they can sell according to their necessities.

One last thing, Heineken calls itself a responsible corporation. They mentioned two things:

1) recycling the bottles

2) being responsible with the youth: not having influence on minors drinking and of course on anybody drinking and driving; that is why, if you pay attention, you won’t see in the marketing campaigns a person who looks less that 25 years old, people driving cars or car races.

I’m sorry for this long blog post! It’s just there is so much information to share! Thank your for staying tuned. Let us hear your voice through your comments!

Interns working on Heineken... so far, how is the experience?