Animus Strategic Design – Shopper Marketing specialists – was hired by Brahma’s VP Marketing in order to “create a sustainable and competitive strategy for the client’s products, especially at the points of purchase”. Brahma’s problem solving focus was on bars and establishments where beer was consumed on the premises. It didn’t include supermarkets or retail liquor stores.
Challenge
In 1997, Brahma (now AmBev) had the leadership at the Brazilian beer market. The company had enough reasons to be concerned regarding the performance of its main brand, Brahma Chopp. Skol, Brahma’s second brand, had been growing in the market sales, and would soon reach the national leadership.
At the time, Brahma Chopp positioning was “The Number One”. Skol didn’t have a strong positioning yet. Since the beer brand “Brahma” was also the company’s name, it needed to be restructured – Brahma Chopp was about to lose it’s number one positioning for Skol.
On the brief presented to Animus, there was the request for a temporary action to attract consumers, without using the “Number One” tag line, until a new positioning was created to temporarily remove the attention from Brahma at the points of sale
Research
In order to reach a diagnosis, Animus immerged in the production, distribution, sales and all operations related to the product. Upon understanding how the operations ran in five regions of Brazil and eight states, the research started by visiting the diverse premises where the beer was sold, interviewing bar and restaurant owners, working personnel and costumers. At the end of this process a diagnosis containing 36 facts about the POP was presented to the client.
First diagnosis
One of the suggestions analysed two facts under an anthropologic view:
- When it comes to beer, Brazilians choose the coldest one, forgetting brand loyalty towards the coldest beer available.
- The fridges used by all bars were adapted from the ones used to refrigerate ice cream. Those horizontal fridges can not provide the proper conditions to refrigerate beer bottles with quality and efficiency.
The client requested a deeper research in the suggestion to invest in refrigeration.
Second diagnosis
What’s the difference between refrigerating Coca-Cola and beer?
Beer temperature can go down to -5° Celsius. Coca-Cola recommends not to go below +5ºC, or it loses its taste. Doing our basic math, 10°C make all the difference when you want to offer a drink at its optimum performance.
However, master German brewers do not recommend any beer to go below +8ºC, due to the fact the drinker will not be able to taste it properly. The local market didn’t take into consideration this German heritage and sold the beer as cold as possible.
In parallel with the historical research, a project to develop the first national vertical beer fridge was created. The project development included the search for an international supplier able to produce many different prototypes under confidentiality, and to provide large scale production.
Solution
The first vertical fridge targeting exclusively beer was created, with technological features to optimize the beer drinking experience. Along with the fridge, retail and trade campaigns were created.
A temporary positioning was created using the tag line “Gelada no ponto certo” (chilled to the point) until a new concept was created to replace “The Number One”. The first fridges were launched almost without the support of merchandising. The client wanted to measure the acceptance in the market using only the fridge.
Results
- A disruptive innovation on Brazilian retail market.
- Sales doubled where the new equipment was used.
- A temporary positioning was created for Brahma.
- Its launch in the market was followed by a television campaign.
- The competition followed Brahma.
- The project was launched in Venezuela and Argentina with the same results.
Rique is the design thinker, brand strategist and director of Animus Strategy, Design & Innovation. He majors in Shopper Marketing and is a member of the Retail Design Institute.