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Manager Cheng Yeren: Let "Budweiser" become the preferred brand of high-end beer

In 2004, Unconsciously, Budweiser has shifted the theme of its annual marketing campaign from sports to concerts. "Our goal is to make consumers use Budweiser as the first choice for high-end beer." said Cheng Yeren, head of Budweiser Beer China and managing director of Anheuser-Busch Asia Co., Ltd. Greater China. "From last year's consumer survey, we confirmed that concerts have a greater impact on China's high-end beer consumers, especially those in southern cities, than sports events. Therefore, we set out to switch the focus of our market offensive." Cheng Yeren said, Baidu The change in the focus of the Wei market offensive also means a change in the direction of huge marketing expenses. Budweiser has always been the company that invests the most in marketing expenses in China's beer industry, investing more than hundreds of millions of yuan in advertising (including TV advertising and outdoor advertising), distribution and promotion every year. "In the 'post-enclosure era', how to cultivate the market intensively is the key to a company's success; and for Budweiser, the planning process of Anheuser-Busch's beer industry with more than 100 years of experience is our core advantage. . Every TV commercial, concert promotion, and various marketing activities reflect this core advantage of ours," Cheng Yeren said. Cheng Yeren also said that to achieve this, we must first understand the definition of high-end beer and what consumers at this level like, which requires a large amount of consumer research. "Budweiser conducts too many market surveys every year. Although the proportion of research expenses in our market expenses is not very large, we invest the most energy." Cheng Yeren said with emotion. (

Cheng Yeren-Budweiser CEO talks about how to market

Host Abo, editor-in-chief of the "Brand" column of Yangcheng Evening News

Guest guest Cheng Yeren, Managing Director of Budweiser Greater China Manager

Being the Lexus of Toyota

Apo: Unlike Coca-Cola, Budweiser has always deliberately created its own high-end brand image. For beer drinkers, Budweiser is like a car. Mercedes-Benz. How does Budweiser create this brand image?

Cheng Yeren: Our philosophy has always been not to be the biggest, but to be the best. So we don’t make Coca-Cola. When it comes to McDonald's, the best is the most vital, and consumers must feel from the bottom of their hearts that you are doing the best. For beer, only by establishing a high-end image can it become a national brand and a world-wide brand. Since high-end brands are affordable, our profits are high and we don’t need to return bottles. However, the same cannot be said for low-priced beer brands. Once they are bottled, they have a limited sales radius and can only be made into a brand for one city or region. But at the same time, we hope that more people can consume our beer. Therefore, our positioning is the Lexus among Toyotas, which is a high-end car among Toyotas and has the image of Mercedes-Benz. Cars are durable goods, and beer is a daily consumer product. , we hope he can drink one bottle this year and two or three bottles next year, the more, the better

Apo: In order to achieve the best brand image, what means does Budweiser use to make consumers feel better. At this point?

Cheng Yeren: The first thing is the quality and taste of beer. As a professional beer manufacturer, we have put a lot of effort into quality, including considering the temperature and freshness when drinking. At the end of the day, it’s all about whether it feels particularly refreshing when you take a sip. To ensure freshness, we strictly limit the shelf life of beer to 6 months. For 117 days, we require dealers to only maintain inventory for one to two weeks. At the dealer level, we require dealers not to engage in secondary distributors until retail, and to visit retail locations once a week to maintain inventory for one week. Two weeks, one week at most in the factory. Three days in the shortest time. In this way, the inventory in these places only lasts for one to half a month. What I want to emphasize here is that if a product is said to be of good quality, this is the only one. The answer is 50%, and the other 50% is consistency. You have to ensure that the quality of Budweiser is consistent everywhere in the world.

Apo: McDonald’s also requires it. Hamburgers taste the same everywhere in the world.

Cheng Yeren: In terms of taste, domestic beers at that time were very strong in taste and had a European taste, while ours was lighter. We have always believed that in the future the beer market will develop towards a “lighter” taste with finer foam. The results proved that our persistence was correct. Later, around 1997, many beers began to change their recipes and became lighter.

Apo: One of the difficulties in building a high-end brand image in China is that the price war in the Chinese market is fierce. It’s hard for you not to lower prices when others do so, but price cuts will do great harm to high-end brands.

Cheng Yeren: China is now a market in the Warring States Period, but when others engage in price wars, Budweiser will not participate in the buy-two-get-one-free promotion. We have never engaged in a price war. But we also often do promotions. During the World Cup, we sent many promotional girls and designed many methods. We also face a big challenge, which is how to make Budweiser available to more consumers without affecting high-end brands. We can enter household consumption in different forms. As our output slowly reaches an economic scale, the cost advantage will become apparent. The income and consumption power of consumers in coastal big cities are constantly increasing. When the consumption power of these consumers increases, we can increase the cost without affecting profits. Under such circumstances, they can enter households through different forms of promotions. But in this process, we must carefully maintain the image of a high-end brand. We have done this in Wenzhou now. The consumption power there is high, and Budweiser has entered the household. Expand high-end beer and include mid-range beer. Note that here we want to attract the group whose consumption power is growing. We need to attract this group to become consumers of Budweiser instead of continuing to do it ourselves. I always believe that consumers can buy other brands for temporary discounts. But in the long run, people who like Budweiser will definitely recognize this brand. Therefore, in addition to the quality of the beer itself, we also want to give consumers what they think of when they pick up Budweiser.

Let others think of what you think of when they see your brand

Apo: This is to give the brand connotation. When you see Nike, you will think of "just do it". The brand image of beverages is often associated with words such as sports, health, and improvement. Budweiser’s ant advertisement is very unique. Why did you think of using ants as the protagonists of advertisements? This is a bit incredible.

Cheng Yeren: Yes, this is a good question. Have you ever thought about what ants represent? In order to choose Ant, we also did a lot of market research. In the end, we came to the conclusion that when it comes to the image of ants, everyone thinks it is funny, small and busy. In modern industrial and commercial society, everyone is very nervous and busy, and Budweiser culture is a relaxed culture. It’s not a big deal, just smile and it will be fine tomorrow. Ants are a very friendly image. Secondly, in everyone’s impression, ants work very seriously and are very united. Isn’t there an allusion to ants moving house? So we thought, what are we going to say through the ants? In the advertisement, ants fight against all odds from humans just to get a bottle of Budweiser beer. We just want to talk about this spirit. It doesn’t matter what animal you use, the most important thing is to embody this spirit.

Actually, there are many versions of Budweiser’s ant advertisement around the world, and we picked the one that is the least regional. Some Ant commercials have American bar scenes, and some even have people appearing. But the version we originally picked, no one was completely in the desert. I tried it initially and it was very successful. The United States also uses frogs to make it. We took it to China and tested it. If the response was not good, it is useless. American advertisements also include lizards, woodchucks, etc. We are Ant, and we do all our advertising in China. The ant became our symbol. Ant Advertising has been used for 8 years now. We sometimes wonder if it is too long and we can change it. However, after testing every year, Ant Advertising is still better. 92% of consumers think of Budweiser when they think of Ant, because this is a quantitative survey and the sample is relatively wide. Guangzhou consumers are picky and picky about the new, but they don’t find it annoying, so we continue to do it. Of course, we will also consider using some auxiliary images. For example, Qi Hong was used in the World Cup last year.

Apo: I also noticed that even an ant seems to have different advertising content in each period, as if it is telling a story.

Cheng Yeren: Yes, we at Ant Advertising have designed different stages. The first step is to find a way to steal the beer bottle from someone's hand; the second phase is to open the bottle. In 1998, we made four advertisements, which told how ants tried to open the bottle cap and finally did it.

The next step is to show how the ants drink beer, and to show the feeling of drinking beer, the kind of enjoyment. But it was difficult to do that, so we started having people show up, a couple came and replaced the ants with people drinking beer. In addition, since 2001, in order to integrate ants more closely with local life in China, we have also used advertisements such as "Ants Celebrate the New Year" and "Climbing the Great Wall", which have received very good responses.

Apo: It’s a bit like Coca-Cola sending Spring Festival couplets. This is an international brand building a localized brand image.

Cheng Yeren: Budweiser attaches great importance to localization. We have two brands in the United States, one is Budweiser and the other is low-calorie Budweiser BUT LIGHT. The appeals of the two products are different. The latter is hilarious, while the former is a knowing smile. Low-calorie is aimed at young people and is more relaxed and fashionable; while Budweiser is relatively traditional, smiley and steady. Budweiser has many good traditions. The United States was founded 200 years ago, and Budweiser has a history of 150 years. It is a family business. We promote products based on the actual situation of the Chinese market. For example, low-calorie products are mainly because there are many fat people in the United States and need low-calorie products, but China does not seem to have this market yet. We didn’t push it either. Ant advertising has also been localized, but to be honest, our advertising company now has a headache. They said, well, what do we need Ant for next year?

Continuously invest in brands

Apo: It is not easy to maintain the number one brand. What activities has Budweiser used to maintain its brand image in recent years?

Cheng Yeren: In the market, among high-end goods, only the boss is recognized, not the second. Therefore, we must be the first brand. We didn't make a profit in China until 1999, and we have always insisted on investing in brands as soon as we make money. Like the Ant advertising mentioned earlier, it also sponsors various sports, cultural and entertainment activities. Because beer is closest to sports culture, we sponsored the World Cup, League A, and the 2003 Shanghai Women’s World Cup. In 2002, I started doing some music again, and not long ago I was working on Kenji. Recently I was doing Louis Koo in Guangzhou. The main axis uses music and sports to communicate with Budweiser consumers on their lifestyle. As I just said, what else will consumers think of when they drink this can of Budweiser beer?

Apo: Sponsoring sports events such as the Olympic Games and the World Cup is the most common method used by beverage brands. During the last World Cup, many Chinese brands also played sports cards, and there was a phenomenon of competing for Milu. , but some effects are not good. Some brands and Milula feel far-fetched and do not form a brand association. Once the World Cup is over, it is quickly forgotten.

Cheng Yeren: There is a lot of knowledge in this. Like sponsoring football matches, many people are sponsoring. But Budweiser has a whole set of methods: we use them at different levels and levels. For example, we sponsor the World Cup in the world, we sponsor the League A in China, and in some regions, such as East China, it is the third year that we have sponsored the football matches of East China universities. Last year, in conjunction with the World Cup, we also organized 6 football teams in 6 cities across the country, from more than 500 communities. We brought the best two teams to South Korea to hold a World Cup competition for small community teams. You see, we provide sponsorship at multiple levels and in depth. The purpose is to create a connection between sponsorship behavior and local consumers.

Apo: This is indeed very important. Some domestic brands simply brought Milu here without going further. With so many people sponsoring the World Cup, who will remember you?

Cheng Yeren: Sponsorship can take many forms, but the brand concept conveyed is the same, and it must be linked to sales. Why should we sponsor music? Because now Budweiser beer's "night stall" is selling very well. In places like Guangzhou, the night stall is the best. If you go to a bar in Guangzhou, they rarely come here to watch football, they mainly listen to music and relax. Since consumers drink beer while listening to music, we started to make music to make consumers buzz. It's the same as sponsoring the World Cup. When you are watching the fierce matches of the World Cup, I hope you drink Budweiser with your family. He must be very excited at this time, and this excitement will remain in his mind. After the World Cup, as long as there are happy thing, he also drinks Budweiser. Although these are not immediate results, they are brand work in the long run.

Music and sports are both forms of life. We need to relax. It’s also music. Why Budweiser sponsors this kind of music but not that kind of music? This is also based on our target consumer group.

For example, we will not sponsor golf tournaments because Budweiser wants to make high-end beer, but we don’t want to be the Rolls-Royce of beer, which only one in 10,000 people drink. Budweiser Premium is a top brand in the world because of its good taste and quality. However, it is also relevant to the lives of ordinary people and everyone can drink it. Let all our friends around us drink. Of course, just because we’re doing this this year doesn’t mean we’re going to do it next year. We have to find ways to suit consumers anytime and anywhere.

Apo: We do all kinds of brand maintenance work in a targeted manner. But how do you know the consumer experience?

Cheng Yeren: We often do a lot of surveys, such as surveys on quality and taste. We will list many indicators for consumers to fill in, whether it is lighter or thicker; we will also include in the questionnaire Design the following questions:

Please list which of the following beers are related to the NBA and the World Cup; which beer brands do you think are the most fashionable and modern; what do you most want to be seen by others? What kind of beer are you drinking? What kind of beer do you usually drink with your meals?

Through these surveys, we obtain first-hand data. Therefore, we must not become a self-admiring brand. We must make everyone feel that there is no distance between this beer brand and consumption, but it is not a low-grade, mass-market product. Like Coca-Cola. Therefore, in terms of future sponsorship, we will also choose some methods that are closer to consumers.

Apo: It seems that sponsorship does play a big role in improving the brand. But domestic brands will be more dependent on advertising.

Cheng Yeren: The effects of sponsorship and advertising are complementary to each other. However, it is difficult for advertising to have a face-to-face connection with consumers, but sponsorship can. Starting in 2001, our publicity and promotion funds for the first five years were focused on sponsorship. From 2001, we began to allocate part of the funds to make some advertisements specifically focusing on the quality of Budweiser beer.

Apo: Big international brands like Budweiser and Coca-Cola often do a lot of brand image advertising. Isn’t doing quality advertising a bit like promoting the efficacy of health products?

Cheng Yeren: This is also the result of our investigation. Nowadays, the domestic beer market is full of confusion. We feel that we have spent a lot of money and effort on the manufacturing process and quality, but consumers don’t know much about it. The survey found that in major markets and in other indices, such as sports and fashion, our brands are rising, but in terms of "quality", we are not rising. For example, in terms of craftsmanship, the wholesale price of the brewing rice we buy is higher than the retail price of some brands. So we let consumers know this through advertising.

Apo: It is the most difficult to do this kind of advertisement where Wang Po sells melons.

Cheng Yeren: Yes, everyone in advertising knows that the most difficult thing to do is to say how good you are, which will be very boring. We have also done a lot of consumer research for this purpose, and we found that in terms of attitudes towards advertising. People in Guangdong are different from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang are different from Beijing. Beijing is willing to accept quality advertising. Guangzhou is relatively more fashionable. In Jiangsu and Zhejiang, your advertising must be very careful.

How do you say the quality of our beer is good? We can’t just say my barley is better than yours, we say the ingredients for Budweiser are carefully selected on 2,500 farms. To talk about good water, let’s talk about Budweiser’s water being pumped from deep wells through a 90-step filtration process. Therefore, when advertising, you must have good creativity and make people feel that you are special. Here's a trick. We started running these ads in September 2001, and we found that the effect was quite obvious. According to the survey, if we do more advertisements about good water quality in the past three months, consumers' awareness of Budweiser water will be ahead of the curve. In the past three months of doing DaMai, DaMai's cognitive indicators have improved significantly. At the same time, we also need to educate consumers about the culture of beer drinking, freshness, constant-temperature transportation chains, etc. We have also filmed many TV commercials, such as those in constant-temperature warehouses in Guangzhou and Beijing. Don’t tell me, ordinary consumers I didn't know this was important.

How to be a good distributor

Apo: In China, many multinational companies often encounter problems of one kind or another in their channels. China is such a big place, and the situation varies greatly from place to place, and multinational companies There is a process of adapting to the environment. How does Budweiser do channel work well?

Cheng Yeren: Budweiser attaches great importance to the establishment of a dealer system. You are right, this is very important in China.

Through our nationwide dealer system, we not only ensure customer service, product flow, marketing efforts, but most importantly, price control. Brand image is the vitality of products, but profit is the most important maintainer in the production system. If your prices are messed up and dealers cannot make money, your brand will also suffer.

Budweiser has always required dealers to sell directly and not find secondary dealers. At the same time, we strictly control to avoid low-priced goods. There is a code on the bottom of the bottle and a code on the box. Doing barcodes is only a negative control, indicating that cross-selling has occurred. To prevent cross-selling, dealers must truly benefit from direct sales. Our fines for cross-selling goods are also very strict. Goods from Guangxi are transferred to Guangdong, and goods from Guangxi are punished by Guangdong. The second penalty was heavier than the first, and he wouldn't do it the third time.

Apo: But if a dealer engages in direct sales, the tasks of the personnel will be greatly increased, and the loan period will also be longer.

Cheng Yeren: But its profits are far higher than wholesale. In fact, dealers are definitely willing to do direct sales. Of course, as a manufacturer, you need to coach dealers and teach them how to do direct sales. In particular, don't interfere with the goods, making them think why they should lose their distribution rights for an extra three to five hundred boxes of goods. To do a good job as a dealer, you must do three things:

First, let the dealer feel that you are sincere and determined to maintain the price system;

Second, let him He feels that as long as he works hard, there will be profits;

The third is to tie the company and dealers together. He feels that there is no need to lose the dealer rights for this profit.

Apo: How to coach dealers?

Cheng Yeren: We have regular training for dealers. In 2002, more than 70 dealers were trained. At present, the training is mainly for business personnel. In 2003, we plan to train bosses. Now that our dealers are getting bigger and bigger, they also need training.

Apo: What if your dealer also sells other brands?

Cheng Yeren: We do not force dealers to make Budweiser, but in fact, more than 90% of our dealers only make Budweiser. This is the law of economics. My marketing concept is that you don't force people, but you can force them to do so in both positive and negative ways. As long as he can make money, he will naturally build your brand. Many of the previous dealers worked on other brands. I came to mainland China in 1995 and it was quite difficult at first. To put it bluntly, do it step by step. I will take a small step and you will follow a small step. In the future, I will take a big step and you will follow a big step. In recent years, many dealers have become Budweiser, and his own strength has also grown greatly. After many dealers became Budweiser, it was much easier to get loans from banks.

Apo: There are more and more dealers. How to monitor them?

Cheng Yeren: Through information technology. Budweiser's informatization began in 1995. It used to be a dealer, but now it can be a retail point. This year, more than 100 dealers across the country have implemented informatization and have them go directly to retail points. He delivers the number of bottles to the Garden Hotel every day and enters them into the computer after returning home. Sent directly to the headquarters on the same day. In this way, we have achieved real control over every retail point in 36 markets across the country. In addition to tracking the flow of beer, it is clear which ones entered the hotel and which ones entered the bar. Then conduct data analysis on the market. The market is changing so fast now, so we have to look at it basically every day, down to the details of which type of beer is being sold and how much it is selling. How many stores have a monthly sales volume of 500 in Guangzhou, how many bars sell, and how many hotels sell.

Apo: Budweiser implements exclusive agency in small areas. What are the benefits of doing so?

Cheng Yeren: This way the dealer network will be more stable. This is the case in mature markets, with more than 90% being exclusive agents in small areas. Reviewed every two years. Of course, it needs to be adjusted according to the situation. For example, we found in some places that the sales of Chinese restaurants and night stalls are very different, so we separated them and set up two agents. Taking Guangzhou as an example, Budweiser has three or four dealers divided into regions. Distributors need to be very detailed, and the salespeople you use to sell bars should be different from the salespeople you use to sell Chinese food. Budweiser has established a supermarket group, a night spot group, and a bar group. How to create displays and piles in supermarkets. The way of running points is also different. Ultimately, I want to do it one area at a time.