Heineken cracks down on Swiss ‘Keineken’
Dutch beer giant complained its brand was being infringed
Unit 4.3 - Product (Branding)
Business and Management by Paul Hoang.
This article discusses the Dutch beer company's tolerance of branding of its competitor, the Swiss brand, Keineken. Dutch beer company, Heineken, seized 1,000 bottles and accused a local Swiss brand of beer named Keineken of infringement.
This article is an excellent example of the significance of branding to companies. Keineken, as the article mentioned, is German for “No Heineken”. By naming their beer a spoof of one of the most popular beers in Western Europe, which accounts for approximately 57% of Western Europe’s market share1, Keineken gives themselves an opportunity to gain sales targeting those who enjoy “spoof-humour” and those against Heineken.
However, for Heineken, this sort of publicity is insulting and intolerable. This would be because of the deep impact it has on the brand name. For Heineken, to have a competitor, as small as they are, that names their beer a spoof of their popular brand, is an insult and can have huge impacts on Heineken’s success in the Swiss sales. Therefore, their solution to managing this conflict was to have their products seized and sued for infringement.
NOTE: Suing for infringement could have been a part of the Legal threats that Keineken would have considered when analysing their company using the STEEPLE analysis in Unit 1.5 of the Business and Management textbook by Paul Hoang. In addition, this sort of conflict can also be considered an external stakeholder conflict since both parties in this example are companies in the same (beer) market. This information can be found in Unit 1.4 of the Business and Management textbook by Paul Hoang.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32645722/ns/business-world_business/
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1 "Western Europe - Regional review - Report of the Executive Board - Heineken Annual Report 2008." Home - Heineken Annual Report 2008. Heineken. Web. 15 Sept. 2009.
http://www.annualreport.heineken.com/report_of_the_executive_board/regional_review/western_europe/index.html
5 ςоммзитѕ:
Hey Sam,
I like your analysis of the ramifications of this move on Heineken. This situation also relates to the topic of creative accounting, which we just studied in class. A company's brand is an example of an intangible asset that is often left out of financial accounts because it is so difficult to calculate. However, from this case, one can really see just how significant a brand can be to a company and its sales.
Hey Sam! :)
Cool Article! I agree with you that a spoof like that can be a threat to Heineken's success in Swiss. However, brands like Heineken must have established brand loyalty in their customers even before Keineken was introduced to the market. The quality of Heineken and the brand loyalty that they have established will definitely aid them in being successful in Swiss.
:)
Hey Sam!
I really like the article you chose since it relates to a lot of topics we have studied in class. Beer is a big topic in Europe and part of some cultures, especially in Western European countries, such as Belgium, Netherlands and Germany. It is clear that such an abuse of a brand name can have huge impacts on sales of Heineken. However, I agree with Emily that the brand loyalty of their customers will not allow a significant decrease in sales. In addition, the quality of the product will make customers soon return to their prefered product, which is hopefully Heineken and not Keineken. This article can be related to cultural studies, since in this case the consum habits of different nationalities are questioned.
Juls =)
Hey Sam,
I think your article's actually really interesting since it relates to a brand that has global recognition and it is a brand that all of us know. I agree with the pervious comments. The fact that there is a spoof of Heineken will not have a significant effect on their sales in the long term. They have already been around for a while; it is very unlikely that customers will suddenly switch to this new brand. In fact, this new brand Keineken, will probably not do very well in the long term because very many people would probably prefer Heineken due to the presence it has had over the years. Heineken, the company has already established itself very well in the market and does not have to worry.
Hey Samantha,
This is quite an interesting article. I think this incident will definitely help Keineken attract the attention of all sorts of consumers, effectively raising their sales, given that they aren’t found guilty that is. Despite being just a small spoof, Heineken’s reputation will certainly be tarnished somehow.
In my opinion, the way Heineken handled this problem was wrong. Since the objective of Keineken is to keep local Swiss beer industry from being swallowed by Heineken, the legal action taken may backfire, and gain the support of many local Swiss beer lovers and breweries. Even if Heineken effectively halted the production of Keineken beer, Keineken may still comeback but in the form of pressure groups to gather support and boycott Heineken.
This incident will also cause both the Swiss government and consumers to gain awareness of the fact that the local beer companies may be on the verge of collapsing. This will help local beer companies as they may gain more support from consumers and receive subsidies from governments. This is because if local beer companies were to shut down it will cause unemployment in the country and a leakage in the economy due to money lost to imports.
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