Tjebbe van Tijen on Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:19:04 +0100 (CET)


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

<nettime> SWIFT NEWS TABLEAUS: YOLO Heineken beer goes GLOBAL with FACEBOOK crowds


YOLO Heineken beer goes GLOBAL with FACEBOOK crowds

the full size swift-news-tableau is available on My Flickr Page 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7141213@N04/8553406493/in/photostream/

with 240 other news-tbaleus organised in 24 categories)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7141213@N04/

------------------------------------------------

You Only Live Once tells CEO of Heineken Jean-FranÃois van Boxmeer as he presents his praised 'premiumisation strategy' to conquer the world... 

Facebook will be an important tool as spontaneous beer consuming Facebook-Crowd-Parties (1) could compensate for the loss in revenue on the traditional bars and cafÃs of Western Europe struck by a long economic crisis.

Van Boxmeer alludes to this in an answer of a question by the Asian CBNC journalist Christine Tan: "We are a very ordinary and popular product that is consumed every day. What you see is a shift in consumption which goes on trade. I mean when people go out to when they stay at home, and so they buy a little bit more in the supermarket. (2)

"Heineken anticipates continued volume and growth momentum in 2013" and, as an example, price fighters like the German Lidl and Aldi multinationals are seen by Heineken as a potential new outlet. Private and public space parties are the way to go. Social media are the tools for the dynamic linking party-goers that want to congregate and consume the socialising Heineken fluids. 

Since Heineken has acquired a major share of the North and South American beer market, it has  shifted its attention to the Asian market. In this strategic move from Western Europe to the rest of the world India is seen  as "the last growth market." CEO Van Boxmeer keeps pointing this out in his well attended speeches all over the world. 

The final growth market not on the public agenda of Heineken is of course the muslim world in Northern and West Africa, Middle East and Asia. CEO Van Boxmeer is tactical enough never to mention this black spot in his market strategy. Non-alcohol - so called 0% - beer is áarÄm (ØÙØÙØÙâ ), not only because the intend of such drinks is to simulate the effects of alcohol, but also in the production process minor traces of real alcohol can not be evaded, hence it is sinful and displeases Allah. Even CocaCola is deemed not áalÄl, (ÙØÙâ) as minor traces of alcohol have been found in this beverage.

All this is a  foreshadowing of a new world paradigm: not any more First, Second and Third World, not anymore a bipolar divide in North and South, but the dichotomy of a BEER and NO-BEER world.

----
(1) The Dutch suburban town of Haren saw recently such a Facebook crowd party  with youngsters flocking in from all over the place to one street to join a birthday party of a local teenage girl, carrying with them big supplies of Heineken beer. 
See my article "Project Heineken Helden in Haren 2012"
http://limpingmessenger.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/project-heineken-helden-in-haren-2012/"; rel="nofollow">limpingmessenger.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/project-heineke...

The by now world biggest beer trader immediately realised the huge market potential of this phenomenon. The fact that this particular Facebook party ended up in a hooligan riot with riot police being called in to suppress it, did not disturb the social research department of the beer-dealer too much. Football hooligans form a non-neglectable segment of any beer trader for decades now. With Facebook - a marketing tool of real-time  tracking of customers has arrived. As a recent study in the field by crowdscience.com formulates it: "Gather granular demographic, psychographic and non-endemic visitor profiles to enhance ad sales, content creation, and user satisfaction levels."

Heineken did experiment early on with 'flash mobs' like in a shopping mall in Las Vegas where a Heineken music award the 'Latin Grammy' was celebrated by having a group of dancers perform and calling up a crowd through social media.
http://www.remezcla.com/2011/latin/heinekens-latin-grammy-flash-mob-takes-over-las-vegas/"; rel="nofollow">www.remezcla.com/2011/latin/heinekens-latin-grammy-flash-...

(2) Transcript of television interview...
http://bringmynewstolife.com/EU04996/jean-francois-van-boxmeer-cnbcap-16-dec-11.pdf"; rel="nofollow">bringmynewstolife.com/EU04996/jean-francois-van-boxmeer-c...




#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org