Strengthening Our Non-Financial Assets
Honkirin and our marketing reform

Strategies to break out of a downward spiral

Kirin Brewery introduced more than 10 malt-type new genre brands in the past decade. However, the company struggled to attract sales for every brand. As its market share started to shrink, Kirin Brewery turned to short-term fixes by releasing derivative products with impromptu promotions and without thought for building up the brand. The company was also worried about releasing products that would compete against its own brands. In short, the company was not providing products that customers really wanted. As a result, it was not building the brand from a long-term perspective of being a brand that customers would view as having high value.

A focused marketing strategy to stop the contraction

One of the key reform strategies Kirin Brewery implemented to break out of this downward spiral was to focus its marketing on fewer products. Before the reforms, Kirin Brewery thought that decreasing its brand offerings would reduce its sales volume. However, it took a new tact of investing in a small, select number of brands, which it would then continue to invest in with a focus on developing and strengthening them for the long term. With this approach, rather than aiming to create a hit product now, the marketing department would advance strategies for the medium and long term and conduct Consumer-centric marketing to build a brand with a large customer following ten years in the future. The first brand Kirin Brewery applied this approach to was its flagship brand Kirin Ichiban that it relaunched in 2017.

The new strategy scores a success with Honkirin

The first step Kirin Brewery took in the development of Honkirin was to analyze its past products. The company applied what it learned to product development, the marketing plan, and every aspect of its Honkirin plan. Because Kirin Brewery had so many products in its portfolio, it had become difficult to get all departments aligned behind the one brand strategy. With Honkirin, however, the marketing and sales departments were communicating from the very early stages of the product development, and over time all of the departments came to understand the central role of the strategy and brand value. This enabled Kirin Brewery to effectively coordinate the sales promotions and activities it needed for success. Kirin Brewery was able to put in place the organizational structure for an all-encompassing marketing effort covering the full range of customer contact points. Theresult was instant and sustaining sales momentum.

Honkirin sales volume in each quarter