What if I wish to build a brand focused on Beer? That aims to outgrow its direct competitor — Kingfisher, Carlsberg… and indirect competitor — Absolut, Bacardi…. A tale inspired by “22 immutable Laws of Marketing” by Al Ries and Jack Trout.
Let’s name our brand — “Xeez Beers”
To start with, the global beer market was estimated to be around USD 249.25 B in 2022.
If we manage to capture 1% of the market with Xeez within the initial years of operations — that would be USD — 24.93 B or INR 2 Lakh Cr., For perspective, that’s more than 5 times the GDP of Maldives as a country.
To achieve a market share as mentioned above, it’s important to enter the minds of consumers as the first choice of product when they think about beer.
What comes to your mind when you think about Beer? Kingfisher, Tuborg, Carlsberg…?
What comes to your mind when you think about Healthy Beer? ….Any?
History supports the claim, as the first product that reserves a use case in our mind retains it for the rest of our lives. Noodles — Maggi, Luxury Speakers — Bose, Toothpaste — Colgate and a lot more, and they all for the case own a majority stake in their respective markets.
Yet it doesn’t mean the market is no more penetrable,
Ramen Noodles — Top Ramen,
Affordable Speakers — BOAT,
Sensitivity Toothpaste — Sensodyne.
And for comparison, while Colgate owned 48.3% of the market share over the past 8 decades in India, Sensodyne has been able to penetrate nearly 4.3% of the market share in less than a decade.
We can observe that categories continuously break down:
- Cars — hatchback, SUV, Sedan…
- Toothpaste — Mouth Freshening, Sensitivity, Gum Health…
- Computers — Laptops, Desktops, Mainframes, Supercomputers…
Market Creators often become Market Owners as they venture into the untouched segments of the markets.
It is important to note that creating a category needs an opposing sentiment to withstand. Beer as a category contains yeast which is unhealthy, this in turn creates an opportunity for yeast-free beers which are slightly healthier, to grow.
At the same time if a brand aims to create quality beers it would be difficult as there is no opposing sentiment supported by a brand claiming their beer to be of lower quality.
While we have found a category to penetrate into the markets, we are still prone to larger brands like Kingfisher, Tuborg, Carlsberg and others overpowering us through their market presence.
This is still not the end…
Author (s):
Kanuj Jadwani
With inspiration from “22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.”
