How did Heineken Beer become a marketing success story in the US market?

Answer 1

The Dutch beer, Heineken had a head start over other European beers by becoming the first major one to be imported to the US after World War Two. There was virtually no competition. Other European beer makers soon saw the prospects and wealth to be garnered in the huge US beer market. Lowenbrau of Munich saw a chance to cut into Heineken's market share. They used a great advertising campaign and attractive packaging. Lowenbrau also tried to exploit the one clear weakness of Heineken, which was its country of origin, the Netherlands. Everyone knew that Germany brewed the best beers, and that Holland's reputation was windmills and cheese. It seemed like a winning approach.

That all ended as Miller Brewing bought the rights from Lowenbrau and changed course. It began to brew Lowenbrau in the US and targeted not Heineken, but Anheuser Busch. They sought to dismantle Anheuser's premium beer Michelob.

Miller, by default, lost any momentum it had versus Heineken by targeting Michelob, and lost there as well when Anheuser debunked Lowenbrau as a fake German beer as it was owned and brewed by a US company, Miller.

Beck's became the next challenger to Heineken. Beck's problem was a two fold challenge. The first problem was that Heineken had by now built a strong US market and Beck's, a German beer was late into the battle. Also, there were name recognition problems. In the US were American beers that had more "German sounding" names, of which many are now gone. For example:

1. Blatz 2. Schlitz 3. Budweiser 4. Meister-Brau 5. Schaefer, and others.

As an import, Heineken still outsells other European imports.