AmBev setting in candela

After decades of lending your brand to one of the most famous bars in the country, Bar Brahma, at the corner of the avenues Ipiranga São Paulo and São João, Ambev has decided to bet on their own houses, contrary to your usual working with franchises or partnerships. Since the end of last year, the company opened four bars of special beers in São Paulo, in a consolidation strategy.
In December, the company made the first inauguration: a bar of the Goose Island, American brewery bought by AB InBev (Ambev) in 2011. At the bar, guests can drink the beer brewed on site, following the model of existing units abroad – present in the United States, China and South Korea.
In the United States, the Goose Island began as a microbrewery in Chicago, and, here, Ambev has decided to run the project. "The goal is to build the brand through the consumer experience," says the Manager of Ambev''s expansion, Pablo Pedalino. For now, however, there are no plans to expand the network in the country.
Leaving this concept to offer trials, the company also opened this year three bars of Colorado, brewery of Ribeirão Preto (SP), which acquired in 2015. Named the bear Bar (in reference to the brand''s mascot), all units are in São Paulo (in the districts of Pines, Pacaembu, and Birmingham). Also there are no plans, for now, of expanding the network.
The opening of these establishments is part of a strategy of megacervejaria adequacy to the segment of craft beers. "This world is part of a closer relationship with the consumer. It is an area with a lot of innovation and, therefore, it is important to have a space to present the news and connect with the consumer, "adds Pedalino.
According to Adalberto Viviani, the consulting firm specializing in beverage Concept, the project of Ambev''s "correct and consistent". "The bars develop consumer culture about the product, the beers, and create the possibilities for fixing and growth." Viviani also highlights the aspect of dialogue that the bar creates between enterprise and market. "There is a big win with the exposure of the brand when it creates an experience that allows the consumer to experience the product".
Professor Marcelo Bridges, the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM), says that in addition to the direct contact with the consumer through the bars be a good marketing strategy, he ensures to Ambev a tool more than market research. "That relationship with the client, the company can see if a product is well received or not, and can use this feedback to its other brands, too."
Franchises. Despite being new to the Ambev in charge of operations, are not rare establishments that carry the name brewery brands. Beyond the Bar Brahma, there is in the country hundreds of Kiosk Beer Brahma, Skol, Brahma Chopp Pit Stop Express, our Bar and Your Pub. All these, however, are franchises – in total, the company has 1,742 franchises in the country.
Working with franchises came more to support the management of establishments than as a business unit of the company or as a point of promotion of brands, according to Ambev.
The Brazil Kirin, which was bought by Heineken in this year, also operates with franchises-are 19 in the country with the brand Devassa. For Viviani, the consultancy Concept, the purpose of the relief is quite different from own operations: "There, the idea is to drain and spray the production, and not dialogue with the market." Sought, the Kirin Brazil wouldn''t talk to the story, to be in quiet period.
Partnerships. Ambev has still strengthened their brands through partnerships, as it maintains for decades with the Bar Brahma. Last year, the company was contacted by the Cia, owner of Traditional bars Pirajá, Astor, Original, the diner in town, ICI''s Brasserie and the network of pizzerias Barıs. After talks, Wäls, artisanal mining brewery bought by Ambev in 2015, developed all labels served in the cold room, bar controlled by the Cia.