Sociedade Central de Cervejas e Bebidas

: entering in the craft beer trend with Affligem

Abstract

Sociedade Central de Cervejas e Bebidas (SCC) is one of biggest players in the Portuguese beer industry. In 2013, together with Unicer, its biggest competitor, both groups owned 94% of the market. Part of the Heineken International Company since 2007, SCC was invited to be part of the worldwide launch of Affligem, the new global brand from Heineken group. Aiming to be the beacon brand in the specialty beer category, Affligem is a Belgian abbey beer with almost one thousand years of history. Besides trying to conquer this segment and fighting against the growth of national craft beer brands’ popularity, Affligem intended to address meal occasions. From a vast and extensive market research, SCC discovered that meal occasions were not being associated with beer. And what was the challenge? While the specialty beer segment represented only 2% of the entire industry, mainstream brands led the market with a share of almost 90%. Consumers were changing their buying behavior, being more price sensitive and doing less out of home activities. Additionally, 70-80% of buying decisions were made inside the store. With a limited marketing budget, Diogo, one of SCC’s Premium Beer & Specialties brand managers knew how important it was to choose the right packaging: entering in off-trade with loose bottle or 3-pack.

Date of Award	24 Oct 2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Paulo Alexandre Gonçalves Marcos (Supervisor) & João Borges Assunção (Supervisor)