To alcohol: the cause of --- and solution to --- all of life's problems.
- Homer J. Simpson from The Simpsons
For the field trip, i had chosen to visit Beerfest Asia 2009.
MARKETING
Beerfest Asia is Singapore's answer to other popular beer festivals such as the German Oktoberfest, or London's Great British Beer Festival.
- PRODUCT
Just like these other beer festivals, one of the most important key to success for beerfest asia has to be the variety and amount of beer and alcohol the festival provides. Using the promise of exotic and cheap beers as the core product is not just Beerfest Asia's primary marketing strategy, but all its foreign competitors.
2. PLACE
As per tradition of all great beer festivals, Beerfest Asia is held at an iconic location unique to Singapore, the Singapore Flyer. For example the Great British Beer festival, was held at such historical British locations such as Alexandra Palace and the world famous Earls Court in london, Beerfest Asia took full advantage of their location as a marketing strategy as well. The location not only has all the necessity for an event as large as this, (accessiblity, parking spaces, utilities, etc) but a great scenery and a, though short, colorful history making the flyer the ideal choice for hosting beerfest asia.
Unlike most foreign festivals Beerfest Asia employed a relatively different marketing strategy, which was to attract a different demographic other then beer lovers, and that is music lovers. Inviting several well-known local and foreign talents to perform, turning the festival into a unique fusion where beer lovers can enjoy a good tune with their beers while fans can enjoy an ale while listening to their idols perform. This is extremely different from other beer festivals as even though music is an integral part of each festival, few take advantage of using music as a selling point for their festivals that mostly focus solely on the beers.
However, because of such different marketing strategy, beerfest asia has to be careful not to neglect its core product, which would be the beers. It can be argued that the variety of beers, though plentiful by its own standards, seems inferior in comparison to foreign beer festivals
4. PARTNERSHIP
The absolute first step in creating Beerfest Asia, and its cousin's beer festivals, is to collect the resources needed to make such an event happen. One way of doing so would be partnership to create joint marketing, this basically means the organizers working together with interested parties and companies to collect resources and at the same time help promote their company or provide them with some sort of incentive.
For beerfest asia, over 19 different organization agree to partner with the festival, from Singapore Flyer to FHM magazine. Thus creating a solid foundation for the festival to run on.
5. PACKAGING AND DISTRIBUTION
Tickets for Beerfest Asia are honesty, are of some degree difficult to obtain. Firstly, early bird tickets can only be purchased by hand at four outlets only, 3 of these outlets are infact, restaurants which opens only during dinner hours while the fourth is difficult to locate. This would cause foreign visitors interested in the event much hassle to gain tickets. Through the internet, it can only be purchase through credit card and from experience, the system which uses the credit card is extremely flawed and only after much fustration could the my tickets be obtained. Lastly although ticket can be bought Just before entering the compound, prices then far more higher compared to the earlybird tickets. Therefore i feel that the distribution of their tickets were poorly done.
- The next few points which i will mention are infact, practices which i believe Beerfest Asia has performed remarkbily well in comparism with other foreign festivals
a) PRICE
With our economy now facing its worst in decades, one of the most important issue is money. Granted, even facing hard times, people still wishes to indulge in luxury and pamper themselves. However organizers must be weary of not creating prices that might scare off customers. Beerfest asia has done a remarkable job of using price to their advantage, firstly by boasting themselves as servers of cheap booze (beers as cheap as $3!), and as childish as it might seem ($3!!) , it is an extremely effective marketing device. Not to mention the pentiful discounts and rewards for everyone planning to attend, it takes advantage of people's eagerness to enjoy, while convincing them it is money well spent.
b)PROMOTION
Promotion for beerfest asia came in many forms. Firstly and most simpliy promotion through mass media. Although beerfest asia did not make use of televise advertising, they promoted extensively through magazines, radio and even several websites. However i was most impressed when one of their marketing strategy employed included contacting members of certain mailing groups that fitted their demographics. For example regular patrons of pubs and restaurants, fan groups and so forth. This is most effective affective as their reached out to these people as they were the most likely to attend such an event.
c) PEOPLE
For "hip" events such as beerfest asia, a lot of planning may go into it, but one of the most important factor is something organizers have very little control of, and that is the people. Because interaction with other people is inevitable, the way the crowd response to the bartenders, the barmaids, and even to other members of the crowd can make or break the image of such a festival. Adding factors such as large number of people, each with different personalities, the needs and goals of companies and their employees and the most unpredictable factor of all, alcohol, this is when organizers will be tested on their human knowledge to satisfy needs, dissolve conflicts and overall created the most optimal outcome of any situation.
STAKEHOLDERS
The first group of stakeholders involved with the festival is the host organization. As for beerfest asia, that would be the Singapore Tourism Board. They are the main organization hosting, preparing and organizing this entire event.
The next is participants and spectators. This group is basically the crowd looking to have a good time at the festival, and groups participating as the main part of the festival or smaller events for the festival. These include companies such as 6 drunk men, Calsberg Singapore, who sets up stalls for the beers and other products. Other participants are the bands, Djs and MCs invited to host the event. These participants are important to the festival as they bring in the core product of the festivial. Without them Beerfest Asia would never succeed.
Another group of stakeholders is the host community, and in beerfest asia that community would have to be Singapore itself. Beerfest Asia is an extremely large project and therefore would require the help and support of many keyplayers. that includes the locals, government, local and foreign companies, thus almost the host community would be Singapore herself.
Co-workers are another group of stakeholders, they are the people that help man the stores, serve the drinks and collect the cash. An important part of the entire festival as though small in nature, they are the ones who make the most contact with the crowds and would determine the guest's impression of the festival the most.
The media for beerfest asia is plentiful, from their official website to other third party ticket booking sites, from advertising over the radio to their official men's magazine FHM, the media which beerfest asia makes use of is plentiful and strategic.
Finally we have the sponsors who not only provide the festival with financial help, but also various product, media exposure, and other aid to further improve the festivial. They include Absout Vodka (the offical spirit), Singapore Flyer (the offical venue) and CSP productions (offical technical partner). Sponsors are important to such events and festivals as they help relieve resource related burden organizations planing such activities may face, and at the same time, companies who choose to sponsor such organizations would in return gain favorable gains such as product or company exposure, or better public relations.
PURPOSE
I believe there a many purpose of this event. Firstly it could be a way many beer companies could penetrate Singapore's beer market, by introducing their product to Singapore with a large scale festival and then create a demand of that product in the market, therefore the supply, which the company would provide, can be establish and profits can be made.
The second purpose would be to create a better impression of Singapore as a "unique" nation, focusing on the Play Hard of Singapore's work hard, play hard image she is trying to create for herself.
However i believe that main purpose of beerfest asia is to attract foreign visitors to Singapore. This is evident most strongly as the main organizators of the festival is basically Singapore tourism board. However there are other evidence through advertising in travel agencies, travel sites and other tourist markets.
TOURIST BENEFITS
I do not believe that the event succeed in its main purpose of attracting foreign visitors. The festival as a whole was a spectacular success, however most of the patrons were locals or residents already living in Singapore, not so much of tourist spending a holiday here in Singapore.
However this is not to say that there was no favorable outcome for tourism in Singapore. It did showcase singapore in a different light, the creation of such an event puts out the image that Singapore isn't the boring island city it was notoriously known for being so.
In summary, I had quite enjoyed my time at Beerfest Asia as we do not really have this kind of festivals too often in Singapore. I believe the festival was a huge success and i look forward to attending next year's Beerfest Asia.
Done by, Boo GuanZhi (the guy with the cap)
0801836H
