Background & objective :
A leading international beer brand wanted to explore its business potential in Chinese restaurants on top of its leading position in other night life channels. Much has been done on the consumer insight front, however, trade’s perspective in promoting beer had been largely overlooked.
Key objectives are:
- How do Chinese restaurants perceive food pairing especially to their benefits?
- And how client’s current portfolio of beer or other LAD (Low Alcohol Drink) can fit in the drinking occasions with Chinese meals?
- Are there any unmet needs worth investigating?
How we did it :
We conducted IDIs with 8 owners/managers from 3 types of restaurants defined by client based on style, business volume & customer base plus a F&B critic covering Beijing, Shanghai & Guangzhou in China. Key angles of discussions were to focus on how restaurants could improve their business & create point of differentiation vs fierce competition on the dining scene.
Output :
We consolidated feedback from trade’s perspective & proposed a set of marketing strategies for client to gauge feasibility & timeline for action before launching. These recommendations include a creative recipe of the XXX (client’s beer brand name) Beer Crayfish to build consumer’s top of mind association that the must-order seasonal feast of crayfish has to go with client’s brand of beer. In addition, we suggested a campaign to develop the “pre-drink” culture especially among the millennials with a set of client’s Low Alcohol Drinks with younger look & feel plus providing some independent beer labels to chosen outlets on mutually exclusive basis to help create noises.