Oettinger – not pouring money into all Ps
By Alex on Jan 13, 2009 in 4Ps
It’s not often a brand succeeds in outpacing others without advertising, but German cut price beer Oettinger seems to have cracked it.
Source: company website screenshot
P for Promotion? Nothing (unless you know otherwise…). P for Product? Nothing beyond brewing a simple Bavarian beer in a small town in a Bavarian backwater town.
P for place: push push push. Oettinger has established amazing distribution for a former regional Bavarian brand. P for price: pile it high, sell it cheap.
Let’s look at the results (source: de.statista.org):
No1 in Germany in 2007, 2008 shares awaited…
Ok this looks like a promotion price strategy, but considering some of the other brands on this list pour millions of euros into above the line support, they’re probably kicking themselves. All those long meetings discussing target market, positioning statements, advertising strategies and key selling points. Then a cheap beer sees off major breweries and creeps up to No1 without advertising…
The magic formula: pull in the masses.
Which is where the only down side to this brand bubbles up through the froth. The Oettinger image is not good in everyone’s eyes. Oettinger drinkers are often laughed at by others. People don’t walk out of supermarkets carrying a crate of Oettinger with a proud smile on their face.
But the owner of this traditional family brewery probably doesn’t care about that, he’s laughing all the way to the bank.
It seems to me that it works the same way like the cigarette brand Gouloises Reds in the beginning of the century. Altough Gauloises didn´t have a special commercial or marketing strategy all the young smokers started to smoke Gauloises. It was the young people theirselfs that created the hippnes of the brand. Same happened to Oettinger. Formerly known as the “beer of the bummer” it developed an image of an cultic beer over the time.
In my opinion the secret behind the success of Oettinger simply is that you´re seeing this brand so often in public or in stores that it automatically became such an cultic beer.
Oliver Kapffenstein | Jan 14, 2009 | Reply
I wonder what this chart would look like in revenue terms… My guess is that the likes of Krombacher or InBev Group (the owners of Beck’s, Hasseröder a.o.) would clearly distance Oettinger. Actually you could call them more efficient then, generating more revenues with less volume. And not to forget much more fun for the guys in their respective marketing departments…
Jörg | Jan 22, 2009 | Reply