Occasion
The Dutch beer market has changed rapidly in recent years. Consumers have much more options to choose from. Alcohol-free beer, new brands, a broad range of special beers and of course IPA’s. For Heineken Netherlands, those developments asked for a consumer perspective. To use this as a starting point for thinking about their beer-portfolio, with specific attention for Brand beer. In close co-operation, with Senior Brand Manager Craft, Noor Wildenburg and her team, we helped building a new strategy for Brand beer.
Our approach
To develop a solid and shared foundation for the strategy of Brand beer, we developed an approach in three steps.
- We started the process with a BL*Campfire community and in-home visits to gain profound insights into the brand experience of the Heineken portfolio.
- The second step was facilitating micro-battles to make chances for Brand more concrete and elaborate further on these.
- Finally, we have executed communication research to explore some Big Ideas for Brand beer.
The project is now in the completion phase. The first results will become visible in the next months.
How did Heineken experience our approach?
We like to learn from the co-operation with our customers. Therefore we asked Noor how she experienced the project and this was her reaction:
“The co-operation with Beautiful Lives helped us to structure the various insights and points we had in a clear, inspiring and efficient way. This was really valuable for us. After the workshops, we had a shared and widely supported vision that brought us the foundation to build on for next steps in strategy and execution.
We really appreciated the co-operation. Gaby demonstrates the perfect balance in taking the lead and being a strong facilitator without becoming a ‘school teacher’. Also, she really contributes on a conceptual and substantial level. She has a strong feeling for our brands and target group.
Our most important learning was that in recent years we used to look at our brand from our own vision and portfolio view. We should have acted based on consumer needs and demands. That is how we work now and that feels really good. We now have to wait and see whether this new approach also pays off.”
