By Andy Young
Heineken 3 is looking to follow last year’s successful launch by offering consumers a risk-free trial option with its new Money Back Guarantee scheme.
After launching in August the new mid-strength beer has performed well, capturing 21 per cent share of the International Premium mid-strength category and has grown to 53 per cent of the size of category leader Peroni Leggera.
Andrew Campbell, Managing Director of Heineken Lion Australia, told TheShout that the beer has already exceeded expectations, and that he was confident the money back scheme will increase trial and give the brand a consumer boost.
“This has been part of our strategy since we decided to launch the brand, so we have been working on this for a couple of years now,” Campbell said. “We wanted to be really disruptive in the market place, we wanted to be bold and we wanted to do something that hadn’t been done in the market place before.
“We know the taste of the product is fantastic and I am personally so confident that Australians are going to love the taste of the product once they trial it, that we decided to make it risk free for them.
“That’s the strategy, some people might wonder what we are doing, but we are convinced that once people try it they will love it.”
Campbell also told TheShout this is about really taking the brand forward after a successful first four months, which has seen over 250,000 Australians trial the product.
“This is about super-charging Heineken 3, saying we back ourselves and the beer so how do we get even more Australians trying it? So we’ve got the super-charged money back guarantee. It’s a pretty simple mechanic, there is absolutely no worries for people. They go into their liquor retailer and buy either a six-pack or a 12-pack of Heineken 3 and I am confident that they will enjoy it, but if they don’t for some reason, they log onto the haveitall.beer website, put in their details and tell us in 15 words or more why they don’t like it.”
For anyone who does decide they want their money back they can have the money paid into their bank account, or they can donate it to charity, with the McGrath Foundation being nominated by Heineken.
Speaking about the further plans for Heineken 3, Campbell said: “Our ambition is to be number one in the international premium mid-strength segment, but I’m not going to put a time frame on that. We are not going to grow this brand through price, we are going to grow it the right way over the longer term. The Money Back Guarantee is a big part of our plans and there will be more happening later in the year, coming out to amplify our messages.”
In terms of the support to go with this campaign, Campbell said there will be outdoor advertising, digital and in-store support.
He added that his key message to consumers and retailers is: “I don’t think anyone has done this so boldly before and I personally am so confident that Australians will love the taste of Heineken 3, that I am putting my money where my mouth is and saying ‘come and try it and if you don’t like it we’ll give you your money back’. We are prepared to take that risk, because we think it is quite low.
“We ask retailers to continue support us with promotions and stock-weight in-store and I don’t think there could be a bigger push behind the brand than saying how confident we are in the taste. The key message is ‘come and try it’.”
The Heineken 3 Money Back Guarantee scheme will run between January 23 and March 4 and covers consumers who buy either six-pack or 12-pack of Heineken 3.