Inspired by Heineken

Heineken is a company that has drawn my attention lately due to its excellent execution of an expansion strategy, while protecting the base business. This is possible behind the new campaign and continuous engagement with the consumers via digital.
The initial steps were made with the launch of the new campaign "Open your world" at the end of 2010.
The campaign objectives as I understand it are:
1) Reposition Heineken beer from a commodity drink that targets men fans of football into a fashionable drink for responsible drinkers (both men and women)
2) Expand into new channels: night clubs and new consumer segments: women
3) Convert drinkers of spirits and cocktails to beer
4) Reposition Heineken brand from a distant brand to an approachable, close to consumers brand

The campaign was launched via TV, with a pre-seeding on youtube and facebook. While the first channel ensures high reach, the latter channels drive 1:1 conversation with consumers and thus brings the brand closer to its consumers.

Teaser video on youtube before actual campaign launch:


Each of the TV copies and initiatives is executed as launch and leverage and addresses one of the objectives stated above:
- first TV "the Entrance" - with the objective to reposition Heineken beer as a drink for fashionable/trendy consumers


- social responsibility campaign that addresses objective 2 and 3 above

The social responsibility initiative was coupled with engagement of consumers into developing night club concepts.


- TVC "the date" aimed to help positioning Heineken as a drink for trendy people.

The TVC has been extraordinarily leveraged also digitally via "behind the scenes" video distributed via youtube and facebook.



- commercial initiative to leverage a TV copy "The Date" further by leveraging seasonal events (Valentine's day in this case).
This is also a best in class example of bringing to life a social media strategy via always on conversation calendar. This time, the initiative is called "Serenade" and it is a leverage of the TVC "the date".
- TV copy "the date" (see above)
the Serenade social engagement was executed in phases:
1) create buzz:

2) launch invitation:

3) Italian amplification:

4) closing:

5) wrap up package to continue engagement:

- commercial initiative to develop a limited edition bottle by leveraging open innovation and engaging with consumers. Main phases:
- launch - invitation to consumers to start designing the heineken bottle via facebook.

- phase 2- sharing the progress on the design competition

- phase 3 - selection of the finalists


At the same time, Heineken is protecting its base business (targets football fans) via sponsorship of UEFA Champions League.

Also here, digital is leveraged via 1:1 conversation.


More to come on the impact of the campaign on sales and equity.

Looking for a mentor...

Let's skip today's celebration of either "the working day" (in the more socialist market countries) or "dance into the May" (in the countries without a socialist history), and get down to business. Lately, I have been struggling with the idea of taking advantage of this crisis time when jobs are rather scarce and uninteresting, to consider building my own business.
There are four driving factors towards this entrepreneurial path:

1) Awareness that there are so many market opportunities in Romania and that I know where some of the opportunities lie

2) I know at least 4 other high potential people around me who are in the same situation: fresh graduates from leading European universities, with a lot of potential, who are in need for a navigation point.

3) The acknowledgment that the sooner you make a start-up business, the better because you don't have so much to lose and are rather used to the simple standard of living as a student.

4) I already have potential clients who are in need of my strategy & consulting skills and would trust to give me my first projects.

At the same time, however, I am aware of the risks and probability of failure that an entrepreneurial start-up encompasses. In line with this, for better or for worse, I have several potential alternative jobs, even in this crisis time. So, what I am missing now is a mentor with an entrepreneurial spirit. Until I find one, I am leveraging other people's mentors.
Check out the video below, which is the evidence that if you graduate from a world top university, it hardly ever means that you should pursue "standard" career paths.

Enjoy!




Some ideas from the presentation - on how to choose the focus area for the startup:
- Find what you are really passionate about
- Develop a product / service that solves one / some of people's problems/concerns
- Gather people around you who are at least as passionate about that thing as you are
- Keep your solution fast and simple
- Develop a corporate culture
- Know when to step down

Integrating open innovation in the strategic planning process

Here is some piece of work to which I have dedicated my last three months. It's an academic paper which serves as a master thesis and represents the final step in finalizing the master program in Strategy and International Management from the University of St. Gallen. Before taking a look at it, I just want to warn you that for the non-specialists it may be very resource intensive to read as it contains many specialized terms.
Integrating open innovation in the strategic planning process

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Theses Academic Work strategy formulation strategic planning p

Leveraging nature beauty

It is widely acknowledged by Romanian citizens that our country has been blessed with extraordinary, breath-taking nature landscapes. Given this assumption, why don't we learn from the alpine lands to leverage this beauty into touristic attractions?

There seems to be a virtuous cycle that starts with the low quality of infrastructure / lack of infrastructure in some cases, which prevents tourists from reaching the sites. Apart from this, many possible touristic attractions do no offer any accommodation possibilities except for camping. This excludes, on its turn, some categories of tourists. The low number of tourists leads to limited income, which prevents the development of infrastructure and the preservation of the nature attractions.

Furthermore, let's consider how these touristic attractions could be leveraged by defining the consumer needs that they appeal to.
1. First, there are those tourists who are very active, they go hiking every week and they are willing to pay only a small amount of money in order to visit a certain touristic attraction. This category is the oldest segment, comprised primarily of retired, active people, with relative limited financial resources.

2. The second segment are the families with children. They will usually spend more than one day to visit a site and are willing to spend a significant amount of money. They are looking for family-friendly accommodations (chalets, agritouristic hotels, pensions) and they will only visit those site which have offer a good transportation infrastructure.

3. There are the professional hikers, geologists, other scientists, who don't care about the quality of the access to the sites, nor about the accommodation offered at the sites. This segment is the only one currently targeted.
4. There are the people in their 20-ies to mid 30-ies, married or unmarried, without children, who choose a natural touristic attraction as an escaping place from their daily businesses. They are looking for a good quality of access infrastructure, various types of accommodations, coupled with spas or wellness centers. They are the main revenue source in addition to the family segment.

At this point, I see only these four main consumer segments based on the needs reached and financial power.
A next step would involve the investments and construction of facilities and a targeted marketing.

How do you see the potential of nature beauty?

See below a best practice example from the Rhein waterfalls in Switzerland.

Regional Development

For those of you who are interesed in regional development, check out this presentation that I made on this topic.

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