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Introduction Launched in 1932,??Tiger beer??(Tiger) is Asian Pacific Breweries’ (APB) flagship brand. Over the years,??Tiger??has seen beer drinkers globally acclaim Tiger??as one of the finest in the world. It has consistently come out on top in world tastings, winning gold medals for its crisp, smooth, refreshing, well-balanced and flavourful taste. Tiger Beer has evolved from a local beer to become one of Singapore’s most recognised icons globally. In its 75-year history, the brew has picked up over 40 international accolades and awards.
The most notable include the Gold Medal at the Brewing Industry International Awards, UK, 1998 – the equivalent of the Oscar Awards for the brewing industry – and more recently, the gold medal at the European-style Pilsner category of the 2004 World Beer Cup, considered ‘the Olympics’ of beer competitions by the industry. Tiger Beer has become a recognisable and sought-after premium beer and was named UK CoolBrand in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Through its close involvement in sports, dynamic brand campaigns and innovative sponsorships, Tiger has positioned itself as a leading contemporary beer brand across the world.
Company Target Tiger Beer seeks to make connection with the new-age young adult, (early 20s ??? 35 year olds) who have individual and unique lifestyles, and have a strong passion for winning. Tiger Beer wants to connect with trendsetters within this segment first, so that other consumers who aspire to be like them will follow suit. Yet, reaching out to a group that is known for its fickleness involves quite a bit of work. And communicating with them becomes even trickier when a brand has cultivated a faithful following among their fathers’ and uncles’ generation.
Tiger Beer aims to remain relevant among its young target audience of early 20 to 30 year-olds, to strengthen brand positioning and increase loyalty, and ultimately increase share of the market. Tiger Beer has been positioning itself as a unique, cool and contemporary beer that young people would want to associate with. Tiger Beer also targets international football fans. Tiger Beer has for many years been a major sponsor of sports, in particular, the broadcasting of the English Premier League in Asia.
The brand is also the title sponsor of ASEAN’s most prestigious international football tournament, the Tiger Cup. Tiger Beer employs different activities to appeal to the football-loving mass. Needs and Wants To determine customer needs and wants, Tiger beer must first understand and then assess what products or services it can profitably provide. Tiger Beer started by using Intermarket segmentation (young adults aged 20s to mid 30s). Now that the target market has been set, Tiger Beer began to research what the common needs and characteristics these people share.
Most young adults have an international outlook on life, are adventurous, confident, and aim to succeed on their own terms. Most of these young adults have the spending power and are more ready to spend on leisure, then the older generations. To the majority of young adults, the Internet is essential and they use it almost every day. Tiger Beer foresees that, and used viral videos, e-mail messages and surveys to link with the targeted customers. Tiger Beer has been holding Tiger Beer promotions associated with fashion, film and music and sports.
Nowadays the young adults can enjoy a greater variety of alcohol choices. The prevalence of repertoire drinking – where young people consume Erdinger one day, Tiger the next and Heineken the following – means Tiger Beer have to strive to build brand loyalty among them. As a brand, Tiger must have the pull factor of being cool enough to be the drink of choice for the trendy. Product features, benefits and goals for customer satisfaction Tiger beer uses only the finest natural ingredients and no artificial additives are added.
The beer is brewed solely in Asia and goes through rigorous quality control checks, supposedly 50 more than most other beers, to help ensure the beer has the brand’s unique taste, just how the manufacturers want it. Tiger Beer is constantly exploring innovative ways of drinking to give the customer unique and exclusive experiences. The latest innovation that had recently launched is the ‘Ice Freeze’. This system allows the beer to be chilled to below -2??C to ensure every glass contains 100% pure, undiluted Tiger Beer.
Ice Freeze even allowed the customization on the amount of liquid and crystallized beer in each glass. Hence, it result to a smooth pour of liquid beer, topped with crystallized beer which creates a freezing-cold, light and fluffy head, keeping the beer cold for a longer period of time. Therefore it is best suitable for customers who prefer their beer to be chilly. Another creation from tiger beer is the Tiger Crystal. This is a new lager that is brewed for selected markets.
This technique filters Tiger Crystal at a crystal ??? cold temperature of -1??C, the result is a refreshing crisp and easy ??? drinking beer with full ??? flavoured taste. Benefits Tiger Beer and all beers in general is beneficial for the working young adults who often work long hours. Beers have antioxidants that fight harmful, free-radical compounds called metabolites and reduce the risk for eye aliments as proven by different studies. Beer contains vitamins and minerals such as vitamin b-6 and iron that reduce the risk for heart diseases and iron deficiencies.
Customer Goal Satisfaction Tiger Beer will need to ensure that there is sufficient research and development done that will improve sales figures to make up for the increasing inflation rate At the same time, there will be a need to constantly create new products and services to enhance the brand’s equity. Consumers will be more prices sensitive, so Tiger Beer needs to differentiate their products from other competitors. Tiger Beer achieves customer goal satisfaction by improving and meeting their demand and improving its facilities (brewery).
While the average craft brewer increased sales by 42 % in 2002, Tiger Beer grew by only 15% due to its capacity constraint, suggesting there’s an unmet customer demand, which usually results in customer dissatisfaction. Through the new brewery, Tiger Beer will be able to provide more capacity, design planned tours, improve product quality management and enable the firm to service customers better. Tiger Beer believes the new facility will improve production efficiency and make it easier to produce consistent brews.
Furthermore, as the company grows, the importance for efficient process flow will increase, forcing the company to adopt better inventory control and supply chain management. Pricing Strategies Tiger Beer strives to obtain price increases that are slightly less than increases in the Singapore’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) over time. On a constant dollar basis, beer is more affordable today than it was 10 years ago, and the company believes this long-term pricing strategy allows for continuing future moderate price increases.
The company also believes that significant excise tax increases, although not expected, could disrupt the current industry-pricing environment because tax increases could trigger retail beer price increases significantly in excess of the CPI. The cost of such increases would be borne directly by consumers. Tiger Beer reports domestic beer sales volume based on beer sales to the company’s network of independent wholesalers. Higher beer sales-to-wholesalers volume will increase gross profit dollars and potentially increase gross profit margin.
Wholesaler sales-to-retailers volume is a leading indicator of demand for the company’s products at the retail level. Higher wholesaler sales-to-retailers require increased beer sales-to-wholesalers to meet on-going demand. Discounts Tiger Beer does give quantity discounts. For example, buying in bulk would be much cheaper compared to buying a single can of beer. Likewise at nightspots, it would be cheaper to buying a bucket of bottles instead of a single bottle. Promotion Strategies which emphasize Product Positioning
A key element of Tiger Beer’s promotional strategy is its association with international soccer ??? the most popular sport in the world ??? and in particular with the broadcasts of the English Premier League (EPL) and European football teams. Tiger Beer has been the official sponsor of Arsenal in Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam since August 2004, has hosted tours of the region by the Premiership Trophy and the FA Cup, and has brought the game to life for millions of Asian fans. Happy hour promotions at nightspots (example, Bars and Clubs) offer and attract customers to continuously support them.
Moreover, during local festive seasons such as Chinese New Year, Tiger offers festive promotions. This comes in forms of freebies with every six-pack purchase, lucky draws, bottle caps redemptions and cash prices. Advertising offers a reason to buy accompanied with sales incentive promotions offering an incentive to buy. Positioning Tiger Beer positions itself as a beer for people who aren’t interested in showing off, who just want a premium quality beer for their personal enjoyment, at a good value price.
Tiger conducted research and found that most consumers are not loyal to the beer brand and are fence sitters, most of the time mainly reasoned being “a beer is just a beer” to them. A proprietary research tool illustrated that the younger target audience wants to consume and be associated with cool and trendy brands, brands and products that offer them a differentiator image. In order to position itself as a unique, cool and contemporary beer that young people would want to associate with, Tiger Beer targets international football fans.
Tiger Beer has for many years been a major sponsor of sports, in particular, the broadcasting of the English Premier League in Asia. Tiger Beer also holds events and campaigns that associate its product with fashion, entertainment, design, music and international soccer. (for e. g. ; Tiger Translate events, Tiger Beer Lucky 8 event, Project goal and the introduction of three designer bottles based on artistic and music themes. ) Product Distribution Other than dominating the domestic market, Tiger Beer has also established itself in the Asia-Pacific region and the European markets, at the same time winning over many discerning drinkers.
Tiger Beers uses intensive distribution to seek maximum market penetration. Tiger Beer adopts intensive distribution because it’ll be more available to the target market. You can find Tiger beer everywhere, in supermarkets, convenience stores, pubs and coffee shops. Beer Breweries Distributors Premise Locations Consumers The distribution strategy for Tiger Beer will be the integration of three primary actors ??? brewers and importers, wholesalers and retailers. The beer importers will enter markets segments identified through import companies.
They will serve as the main wholesalers in the local market to which the identified segment belong. These are the markets of the Asian, English and American nations as well as Australia/ New Zealand and Middle East. The wholesaler will serve as the middlemen. They are going to purchase beers from suppliers and importers and sell beers to retailers. Beer retailers will comprise of liquor store and authorised distributors, supermarkets, drug stores and retail chains. Problems
Tiger is challenged to adapt to new markets and consumer behaviours while dealing with pressure on prices and risk of declining brand awareness. Some governments of countries that Tiger has breweries require more flexibility and transparency into what’s going on in the brewery. As a result, Tiger Beer is challenged to standardize systems and procedures in order to run their breweries in such countries, which enables focusing on low costs operations and economies of scale. Marketing Planning To market Tiger Beer requires very specific decisions.
First, a market research must be done. The target market should be then defined in detailed, which is the young adult segment. The prices must be established, whether it is affordable by young adults. Next, actual dealers identified and there should be a good plan for effective promotion. Tiger beer’s marketers are involved in product development from initial concepts to final quality maintenance in production. Campaign They develop a marketing campaign that positions the brand as a fashionable beer that is cutting edge, with a style that is distinctly East-West ‘fusion’.
This campaign is specifically in support of Tiger Crystal Lite, a light-flavoured extension of the Tiger Beer range created specially for the new market, and launched in October 2004. The purpose of this extension was to make Tiger Beer acceptable to large groups of consumers who generally demand a lighter taste that is acceptable to all. Sponsorship They include their association with international soccer ??? the most popular sport in the world ??? and in particular with the broadcasts of the English Premier League (EPL) and Arsenal FC.
Tiger Beer has been the official sponsor of Arsenal in Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam since August 2004, has hosted tours of the region by the Premiership Trophy and the FA Cup, and has brought the game to life for millions of Asian fans. Tiger Beer is also the title sponsor of ASEAN’s most prestigious international football tournament, the Tiger Cup, which in 2005 saw Singapore defeat Indonesia to win the country’s first international trophy on home soil. This was the culmination of 10 years of involvement in ASEAN soccer and has established Tiger Beer as a top-of-mind brand within ASEAN.
The strategic link to football will continue, with huge opportunities in 2006 ??? a World Cup year. In Europe, where Tiger Beer has maintained a close association with cutting-edge Asian culture, it has sponsored a Bruce Lee film festival in UK, as well as Tiger Eye, a celebration of Asian Film. In Ireland, 350,000 people attended the Tiger sponsored 2005 Dublin Electronic Arts Festival. In the United States, the Tiger Beer Chilli Crab Festival was held in New York and Orlando, sponsored jointly with the Singapore Tourism Board. Advertising
Tiger Beer rely extensively on published materials to reach and influence target markets, including annual reports, brochures, articles, printed and on-line newsletters and magazines, and audio-visual materials. Tiger Beer also advertises through mass media advertising, television, radio, and posters including the press. Social Responsibility Tiger Beer takes huge effort to be involved in today’s social responsibility. Tiger Beer’s breweries are committed to the preservation of the environment for the benefit of both today and the future generation.
Tiger Beer produces products which are consistent with environmental responsibility. It continues to look for ways to reduce waste, promote recycling, and increase efficiency of their energy and water usage in our facilities. Energy efficiency Their breweries are involved in two core program ??? the ‘Aware of Energy’ and ‘Energy Savings Program’. They are designed to continuously improve and achieve the targets for the use of thermal energy and electricity. Water Efficiency Tiger Beer focuses on managing, treating and recycling water in all their breweries by participating in the program ‘Aware of Water’.
This program focuses on the management and treatment of water. Scorecards are in place to ensure that water consumption by all operations is in check. Tiger Beer also has its pulse on the best industry practices to continuously enhance its efficiency of water use. Responsible Alcohol Consumption Tiger Beer is mindful of the various cultures and social norms in the respective markets where they operate, thus they encourage responsible drinking. Tiger Beer position to exclude the underage in their marketing plans for their beer.
Their employees conduct themselves responsibly and demonstrate a positive attitude towards alcohol consumption. To promote responsible consumption and combat alcohol misuse, Tiger Beer is actively engaged in causes in partnership with various authorities and associations to see their recent efforts in promoting responsible consumption such as Traffic Police and Drink Savvy Campaign. Summary On a whole, Tiger has indeed done well. From a home brand, Tiger has grown to become one of the most acclaimed beer in the world. Using various marketing strategies as mentioned above, Tiger has successfully won the hearts many.
Understanding market mechanisms, the marketing team of Tiger has effectively garnered the support of its fans. Through constant improvement via continual research and development, Tiger has managed to retain price competitiveness by keeping prices low and affordable. Beer as a commodity has very low price elasticity since they are many alternatives. Tiger has recognized this fact and understands that keeping prices low is just one of many factors if it wants to maintain its market share. Tiger promotes its beer as a celebratory product, as the drink to have at gatherings, merriment, etc.
As the world becomes more aware of how urbanization and industrialization has taken a toll on our environment, more and more people are becoming supporters of being environmentally friendly and using environmental friendly products. Tiger Beer has extensively covered all areas of marketing, ensuring its triumph. List of references Asia Pacific Breweries Limited, (2010) http://www. apb. com. sg/tiger-beer. html Tiger Beer International, (2010) http://www. tigerbeer. com. sg/ Tiger Beer Singapore, (2010) http://www. tigerbeer. com. sg/