1. As an existing firm in the developing beer industry, Interbrew recognized significant opportunities to expand their local company into a global name. At the time of their early expansions in the 1990s, the world market was divided between developing growth markets, and pre-existing mature markets, with the top four companies only accounting for 22% of global volume. This meant that there were many smaller companies in a limited amount of regions, sharing the consumer demand. For this reason, it not only made sense, but was an extremely strategic move for Interbrew to develop a global brand. As the domestic Belgian market began to decline, Interbrew shifted their focus from these markets towards the expanding growth markets, such as the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Asia. In a drive to establish global name recognition, Interbrew began by acquiring and improving, not completely changing, a variety of already successful companies in growth markets rather than simply marketing their product. Focusing on improving pre-existing brands provided some security that the Belgian style beer wouldn’t see failure among countries and cultures that were familiar with certain beers and companies. As they grew, Interbrew paid close attention to trends in consumer price demands and global products, using them to direct company growth.
2. The choice to use Stella Artois as their flagship brand contributed to the success of Interbrew strongly because of the marketing strategy used to introduce it. Predicting increased global interest in beers with authentic and international foundations, Interbrew chose Stella Artois, over the less successful Labatt Blue, to present as a premium beer. The company introduced Stella Artois exclusively in key cities, focusing on popular places within these cities. The beer was advertised as a sophisticated European lager and was priced highly at a premium, thus appealing to a higher income audience, such as the United States. Ultimately the strategy to present Stella Artois as a high-end beer, although thought lowly of among similar Belgian brews, was successful, showing a 3.3% increase in volume during the first 7 years. Although Stella Artois has shown success for Interbrew in the past, the future presents a very real threat for failure as the world markets face an economic downturn. Because the strategy of Stella Artois was to present it as a luxury high-end beer, in the event of a major economic crisis, the market for this kind of beer will suffer greatly.
3. The advertising and presentation of Stella Artois focused on a very narrow city-by-city basis. Existing cities that showed success were a main focus of Interbrew’s efforts. In deciding which cities to approach, Interbrew evaluated the populations specifically, making sure they provided the most demographic potential for success. By analyzing each city, the company could benefit by specifying their advertising efforts to directly match the demand of the customers in that city. Interbrew was also able to use this approach to safely fix mistakes and less successful aspects of their strategy before applying them to another city, thus avoiding major country-wide failure. Although beneficial to improve and build as they distribute a product, focusing development on urban areas rather than countries negatively influences the speed at which a company grows. Using this method, Interbrew was forced to expand at a slower rate, an aspect of this strategy which could prevent success.