comparing beer advertising in Czech Republic and America

Introduction
Beer is the world’s oldest and most popular alcoholic beverage. The world beer sales totalled 1,626 million hectolitres in 2006, an increase of 3,1% over the 2001. The beer market is growing every year. The more important is the fact that demand for the premium beers is growing faster than the beer market. This leads to increase in beer advertising.

Brewery industry
Czech and America brewery industry has in common some characteristics. The breweries are divided into large breweries, regional breweries and microbreweries. For purpose of this work I will focus on large breweries.
The advertising is focused on men because they are responsible for 80% of consumed amount of beer.
The both markets are leaded by almost the same international companies: Heineken international, Anhauser-Busch, SABMiller and InBev. Anhauser-Busch is not selling on both markets but it is only caused by the copyright issue it has with Czech company Budweiser Budvar is not selling in the USA.
The interesting thing is that none of the global company does have a global brand but they rely on local brands. This is probably caused by different favour of taste. Another reason is that most breweries have a long history and consumers are used to drink “their” brand, but on the other hand there is attempt by Heineken international to create a world well-known beer brand Heineken. They used to advertise on TV and etc. but on the small markets like a Czech Republic they do not advertise this brand at all. They rely on impact caused by their sport sponsorship of UEFA the champions league, ATP Heineken open in Auckland, New Zealand and Heineken cup, which is a rugby cup for best teams from the six nations. This particular brand is successful in Europe but not in the Czech Republic and does not belong to Americas favourite brand either. But in the future there will exist probably some global beer brand. This is the reason why advertising in this industry is so important.
The advertising of beer is very often connected with sport and music festivals. That is important to beer sales because it is well known fact that sport sells beer and music festivals can create a connection with a specific brand.

Czech situation
In the Czech Republic is beer pronounced as a national symbol. The per capita consumption is the biggest on the world about 163 a year. Even if beer is so popular only few kinds of beer are consumed. We can speak only about lager beer advertising, dark beer and non-alcoholic beer are another types of beer served in the Czech Republic but without a support of advertising.
The law does not regulate the advertising with one exception. The commercial cannot be focused on children or youth under 18.
The commercials are focused only on men in the Czech Republic, the woman appear in commercials very rarely. The animals did not appear in commercials either. People from marketing call this as a huge lack of creativity. The Czech beer commercial is using only stereotypes and they can be described as “sweated” on the other hand the situation is improving by using more humour in commercials. It is still not enough for brewery industry if it wants to keep the market share in alcoholic segment. It is getting only worse by using these “sweated” commercials because the young prefer drinks with modern image.
The outdoor activities are mostly connected with pubs. Because Breweries create a boards with the name of pub and costumer can easily recognized what beer is served there. The billboards are not use very often, breweries use buildings and so to promote their beer. Interesting fact is that breweries use new kind of mediums as a blimp to advertise beer.
The breweries are sponsoring many culture and sport events. They often use Czech history and the fact that beer is national symbol. The more interesting fact is that biggest breweries are setting up their own pubs. They are mostly based on franchise. Breweries used these pubs to promote their brands and create a stronger connection with consumer.
I will illustrate the situation on Czech beer market on couple of brands.
Pilsner Urquell (SABMiller)
It is a premium lager. Pilsner Urquell commercials are different than other beer commercials and can be easily recognized because they are using Czech history in commercials. The motto they are using is Inspiration taste. The commercials are quite popular. The best known are “let’s collect for another one” refers to the burn out of National theatre or “My country” refers to famous Czech composer Smetana, which was deaf. In printed and outdoor media is Pilsner Urquell advertised only in festival times like Christmas or Eastern. The Pilsner is a sponsor of national Olympic team.
Staropramen (InBev)
The commercials are very simple. The former commercials were using stereotypes. There were a well known commercial that show funny stories from beer camp. Even it was so simple the commercial was popular and quite successful because it has changed the view on this brand. Interesting fact is that in this campaign “soldiers” wear a special hut, that look like a bottle cap and this hut was very popular and became a symbol for this brand. These days Staropramen is using new commercials without stereotypes that are using motto “when did you do something different” interesting fact is that they focus on young generation of beer consumers that means they are changing the image of beer to look like a modern drink. Staropramen is a partner of Prague international marathon.
Gambrinus (SABMiller)
The most sell Czech beer. The commercials are full of stereotypes. Usually the commercial is story about men who go for a beer and some kind of humour appears there. This brand is a main sponsor of soccer league. The point is if Gambrinus continue with these commercials because industry is changing slowly but on the other hand Gambrinus supply the pubs more than other breweries. This is caused by Czech conservative habits. Czechs want the classic beer that is represented by Gambrinus.



American situation
The beer is popular in America. The beer is more often consume at home than in pub. The market is divided into more segments than in the Czech Republic. The speciality beer has 26,1% share of the market, this category do not exist in the Czech republic. The advertising is focused on men but the image of beer is different. The beer is showed as a modern drink for successful man. The commercials very often use women as a sexual symbol that is something what do not appear in Czech commercials very often. In the commercials now appears the text highlighting the responsible drinking. This auto regulation is added by the breweries, because they were afraid of government intervention. The restriction in beer advertising is voluntary based, but there are some rules. Alcohol advertising's creative messages should not be designed to appeal to people under the age of 21, for example, using cartoon characters as spokespeople is discouraged. Advertising cannot promote brands based on alcohol content or its effects. Advertising must not encourage irresponsible drinking.
The largest breweries in the USA are now focusing to advertise beer more local and this has impact on commercials, which are created on local purposes. Although the Coors´ and Miller following the strategy of Anheuser- Bush by sending humorous-based national massage. The breweries decentralize the structure. Anheuser-Bush in 2007 by decentralization significantly increase the local sales force. Here are some examples of American brands.
Budweiser (Anheuser-Busch)
Their commercials are using animals very often. The symbol for Budweiser is a carriage draw by Clydesdale horse and Dalmatian or other dog. The Budweiser is well known for its other commercial as “whatssup?”, “frogs” or “real man of genius”. These other commercials are very funny and probably served as addition to serious campaign. Some of these campaigns became a part of American pop culture. Budweiser is an official partner and sponsor of Major League Soccer and the Los Angeles Galaxy Major League Soccer franchise, and was the headline sponsor of the British Basketball League in the 1990s, taking over from rival company Carlsberg. Budweiser is also an official sponsor of the English Premier League.
Miller Lite (SABMiller)
Create a category of lite beer this was caused by a famous slogan great taste – less filling. The Miller is using humour in its commercials. In 2002 there were problems with Miller campaign Catsfight, where two girls start to fight and Pamela Anderson will join them. The campaign was denounced by critics as depicting women as sexual objective. The Miller fights against Budweiser. In its commercial by using Dalmatian, which jump off carriage (traditional symbol for Budweiser) to the Miller Lite van. Miller campaigns seem to be aggressive. The positioning for Miller is better taste. The Miller ride is sponsor of one driver from NASCAR.

Sum up
In the Czech Republic beer advertising is not as creative as in America. This is the biggest difference because the marketing of the biggest Czech breweries have still not accepted changes in consumer behaviour. The breweries rely on popularity of beer, but more and more people trying to live healthy and we can see vine boom that will affect the beer market. Opposed to this situation the American breweries are doing their best to keep or increase their market share although they are forcing to import beers that are becoming more and more popular in the USA.
The both market are very similar in presenting the taste of beer even the Czech beer market do not include the speciality beer. Interesting thing is that Czech commercials do not use women a lot opposing to America commercials. But still the Czech commercials are more stereotypical about its consumers.
The American beer commercials can easily speak to consumers because they respect the changes in industry. The commercials in the Czech Republic are called “sweated” because they do not show a move in men´s thinking.