At an event in Amsterdam last week, Walter Drenth, senior global director international brands at Heineken, explained that craft brands require a fundamentally different approach compared to scaled brand building. This means starting its communications with consumers who are already passionate about the brand, which spreads to “adopters”, and then to those it is looking to get to try the brand. Only then would it launch a wide-scale marketing campaign.

In comparison, for more mainstream brands such as its namesake Heineken lager the strategy typically starts with a major campaign and then gets more personal..

“[Marketing for craft] is the reverse of what we normally do. Normally you start traditional with big campaigns creating awareness and then hopefully people try it but with craft you start very formal working with outlets and staying true to what the brand stands for — letting the beer speak for itself,” said Drench, speaking to Marketing Week.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.marketingweek.com