| Heineken: Road to the Final |
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1. INTRODUCTION
Beer is world’s number one consumed alcoholic beverage suitable for different consumption areas such as home, restaurants, night clubs, bars, beaches etc. Beer’s worldwide popularity makes brewing industry one of the largest global industries in the world. More than 140 billion liters are sold per year generating revenues of more than $490 billion by 2013. Beer consumption differs for various countries. Czech Republic is leading the consumption with the average of 132 liters per capita. Germany, Austria, Ireland and Canada are the countries following the Czech Republic with the consumption over 100 liters per capita. Considering the global popularity of beer, there are countless brewery companies all around the world. 2. COMPANY PROFILE
Heineken is a Dutch brewing company which was founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken in Amsterdam. The company owns around 200 breweries in more than 70 countries. Heineken is the 3rd largest brewer in the world by producing almost 140 million hectoliters of beer yearly. The company holds more than 250 brands globally including Amstel, Birra Moretti, Cruzcampo, Deperados, Dos Equis, Foster’s, Newcastle Brown Ale, Ochota, Primus, Sagres, Sol, Star, Tecate, Zlaty Bazant and Zywiec. It also produces ciders under the brands Strongbow Gold and Bulmer’s. Operating all around the world, Heineken divides its operations into 5 global districts: Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, The Americas, Africa and the Middle East, and Asia Pacific (Reuters.com). This picture clearly displays Heineken’s global power. Heineken’s global power comes from its activities and sponsorships worldwide. The company organizes various sporting events such as The Heineken Cup (Rugby), The Heineken Open (Tennis); sponsors UEFA Champions League, and also takes place in some music events such as Heineken Open’er Festival and The Oxegen Music Festival. Heineken also has been running a project under the name of Heineken Africa Foundation since 2007 to support the improvement of health for people living in African countries.
Heineken’s success comes from the clear definition of its goals and company profile. Heineken defines the company profile under the headline “Four key factors make us unique” which aims differentiation of the brand from other brands. 1. Heineken was the first and remains the only truly global beer brand, enjoyed in 178 countries around the world 2. We have a unique, worldwide footprint with operations in over 70 countries, which means we have a broader reach for our brands than any other brewer 3. We have an internationally diverse, dynamic, committed and entrepreneurial team of over 85,000 employees 4. The passion of the Heineken family remains as strong today as it was in 1864 when we first started brewing beer. (Heinekencompany.com)
Creating the perception of uniqueness obviously brings the reputation of Heineken with it. Being a historical company which has been operating over 100 years creates a sense of trust on consumers. Also the global focus on the definition of the company refers to all beer lovers around the world which creates an international perception and sympathy towards the brand. 3. “ROAD TO THE FINAL” CAMPAIGN
The Champions League is the most watched annual sporting event. The total audience is estimated at 4.2 billion, with more than 1 billion people watching around four matches per season and half of that audience outside Europe (Reuters.com). Heineken has been a sponsor of UEFA Champions League since 2005. Road to the Final campaign is a continuous organization that has been going on for 7 years. Every year a new commercial video with a different plot is made connecting the Heineken beer with UEFA Champions League Final. For 2013, Heineken released a video which features a journey of a man crossing the globe to reach the UEFA Champions League Final 2013 taking place in London. At the beginning of the commercial, 2 tickets for final game are shown to him during a live music performance while he is playing drums with his band. He suddenly leaves the place, grabs 2 Heinekens and jumps into the water. On the way he meets new people, hitchhikes, flies from Rio to Lisbon, and then flies to London by a helicopter. Despite of the obstacles he encounters during his journey, he manages to reach the Wembley Stadium in London. The main idea of the commercial is to have a viral campaign and creating a perception of Heineken’s connection to football.

4. CONSUMER BEHAVIOR STRATEGIES AND TARGET GROUPS
Heineken is known for its accurate commercial decisions. By analyzing the potential customer, Heineken creates a worldwide awareness through its campaigns. The company defines its target group as young males between the ages of 22-35 who likes sports such as rugby and football. Being aware of its target customer, Heineken directly focuses on that certain group. Company’s international perspective towards customers is defined as;
Heineken is committed to being part of the conversation with consumers and being recognized as the preferred partner for its customers. We have more than 250 international, regional, local and specialty brands and other beverages meeting a diverse range of consumer tastes and preferences. In addition to our flagship Heineken brand we are investing in the expansion of our other global brands including Desperados, Strongbow Gold, Amstel Premium Pilsener and Sol and are increasing the rate of innovation to drive top-line growth. Strong customer management capabilities and world-class in-store execution enables us to create value for customers and drive long-term business success. (theheinekencompany.com)
The company mainly focuses on the global communication with customers. By applying different strategies in different countries and regions, Heineken creates an international awareness. The one aspect to focus on in the commercial is the football’s global power of bringing people together all around the world. Heineken's global activation manager, Hans-Erik Tuijt comments that "As Heineken is available in 220 countries in the world and so is the UEFA Champions League, this platform really is to build the Heineken brand worldwide". So for an international company as Heineken, investing in popular sports organizations that has global reach is crucial. Basing the advertisement strategies on “Road to the Final” campaign is a great idea to impress the customers. In terms of creating perception of the brand, Heineken uses sights and sounds as stimuli. The energetic music playing on the background excites people. Also the places shown in the video grabs attention. He starts his journey in a tropical island then passes through Brazil and Portugal. All along the movie, football is played by different people in different environments. By the time he enters the stadium and takes his seat, a nice view of stadium in a charming atmosphere covered with Heineken adverts, is shown. All these aspects perceived by the customer together. Unlike its rival companies such as Carlsberg, one aspect that Heineken takes into consideration is always sponsoring the events not the teams. UEFA Champions League, ATP Tennis Tournament, Rugby World cup 2013 are some of the international organizations that the company sponsored. By using “not taking any sides” strategy, Heineken aims to stay neutral which enables to reach a wider consumer base. In the “Road to the Final” commercial, being in the Final is reflected as “every man’s dream” which is the ideal situation. After he sees the tickets, he makes a quick decision by abandoning his band and going to a journey with lots of obstacles. It is interpreted that what Heineken offers is an irrefutable offer that no one can reject. In terms of learning behaviors, Heineken uses classical conditioning. Just like Pavlov’s Dog theory, Heineken presents its product with football. This approach aims to encourage Heineken consumption while watching a football game. What the audience perceives it involuntary and it is situated in subconscious. In this commercial unconditioned stimulus is excitement about Final game, conditional stimulus is Heineken itself, and the response is good feelings. By paying massive amount of money to such organizations, Heineken also aims to create “top of mind awareness” of the product. What the company wants people to think is that when there is a sports event; people should automatically relate it to not just any beer but Heineken. The reason for that is the belief that Heineken will provide you the best experience. The connection between movies and popcorn is the same concept with football and beer. But what the company wants is not having any popcorn but Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn while watching a movie. As brewery market is massive, Heineken has many competitors. There are some other companies such as Carlsberg, Tuborg, Budweiser, SAB Miller who relate their products to sports. In an article published about the sponsorships of beer companies, it is reported that “Carlsberg and Kingfisher shell out as much as $40 million annually for European sports teams and leagues. However the study found there was not a direct link between sponsorship and consumption.”(sportsbusinessnow.com).For a company to invest $40 million annually to advertisement via sports, there should be a very good reason. Although it doesn’t have direct link to consumption, the answer of this contradiction comes with the wide reach of football. In terms of evaluating different brands, the well-known brand will be preferred most of the time. “Road to the Final” campaign focuses on the main target group of Heineken. The perception of “Males that watch football should drink Heineken” is the main idea. As watching football and supporting a team is being part of a group, influence coming from this group is also sets the preference of people. In Heineken’s commercial, aspirational and informal group influence is targeted. The man in the commercial supports a team in final game showing that he is a part of the informal fan group which relates the aspirational values such as norms, behavior and personal or communal values. Heineken always prefers to use random people on its commercials. As they chose not a celebrity but a random person in “Road to the Final”, they want to create an influence via referent power which will lead to identification of ideal man. As social media usage is massive in today’s world, Heineken uses social media to promote its videos. “Road to the Final” video had 8.4 million views in such a short notice. When the video is shared by individuals, a personal influence comes up. The easy and fast reach of social media is the most important tool in today’s marketing trends and this is why many companies forms social media teams and advertise through these channels. Heineken also introduces an online pinball game featuring the elements of commercial. 5. CONCLUSION
Heineken recently extended its sponsorship of UEFA Champion’s League until 2018 by closing a deal of $70 million yearly. The company will be able to continue its Road to the Final series for 5 more years. But why does Heineken pays such a large amount of money for sponsorship and advertising campaigns? Were they able to reach their target audience and create a connection between football and Heineken beer? Was “Road to the Final” commercial successful? It is worth it? Yes it is.
Road to the Final: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9paI3n9-Q0#t=10

REFERENCES
Beer Industry: Market Research Reports, Statistics and Analysis http://www.reportlinker.com/ci02015/Beer.html Briefed Vancouver - Road to The Final http://briefed.ca/vancouver/2013/04/heineken-road-to-the-final/ Heineken Africa Foundation http://africafoundation.heineken.com/index.html SABMiller official page (2012) Global beer market trends http://www.sabmiller.com/index.asp?pageid=39 Sports Business Now (2013) Global beer brand sports sponsorship surpasses $1 billion mark http://sportsbusinessnow.com/global-beer-brand-sports-sponsorship-surpasses-1-billion-mark/ The Heineken Company official page http://www.theheinekencompany.com/ Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heineken