One World, One Beer?

No matter what place you visit in the world, there are always local beers, the are an essential part of any trip. And seeing people obsess why their beer brand is better than another even more so!

But even when you are in a far away place, there will always be some beer brands that you have heard of. It's all part of the World Domination Strategy from the big brewers.

What does that mean, a truly global beer brand?

Heineken is the number 1 brand around the world. They control 1.3% of the world market ( excluding sales in the Netherlands)

Budweiser has a 0.7% global market share (excluding U.S. sales)

Even though there are huge figures behind those percentages, the market shares aren't that impressive. And they will probably stay that way.

Nevertheless A-B Inbev continues its efforts to roll out Budweiser to different countries.

So while these global brands have cost advantages, the figures above show that the real games is played on a different level, the local one.

AdAge recently took a look at some local approaches by SABMiller:

External validation of Polish reasons to be proud of themselves turns out to be a big thing in Poland. That notion led SABMiller to launch a campaign for its Tyskie brand featuring Czechs lauding the Polish brew and Polish people.

Or check this ad that runs in Romania for Timisoreana beer focusing on the brewing tradition that going back centuries.

In Peru the bottle of the Cusqueña beer resembles stones of an Inca wall "to pay tribute to the elite standard of Inca craftsmanship that continues to this day in every bottle."

There are also some Brazilian companies (not beer but still interesting!) that have discovered the power of being local.