Market Analysis - Beer Market în România

Thousands of years ago, people discovered that by means of cereal fermentation they obtain a nourishing and tasteful drink, namely the beer. The mass beer production on the Romanian territory goes back to the beginning of the 19th century, when Johann de Gotha inaugurated a beer factory, in 1809, just outside of Bucharest. Very soon, the beer house became an institution and most of all, a meeting point for journalists, politicians or theatre people.

Over the past 10 years the brewing industry had a positive trend in terms of quality, diversity of brands and production. This evolution was possible thanks to the ambitious policies of foreign investors that led to an increased competition on the domestic market

Romanian beer is known in Central and Eastern Europe for its taste and very low price. Romanian law considers beer and wine to be foodstuffs and therefore they are not subject to the usual tariffs and restrictions imposed upon alcoholic beverages. As a result, there are over 65 major beer brands in Romania, and many small, local producers.

1. Market Area

Of the 125 small brewers that existed ten years ago in Romania, only 26 have left and the experts say the market is already settled, and the emergence of a new competitor is very unlikely. Only a global manufacturer can succeed, and only if he is willing to invest a large amount of money. One can say that the Romanian beer market is already consolidated, mature, highly competitive, a market where four of the top five global brewers are present.

However, when we speak about market area, we speak about the geographic zone containing the people who are likely to purchase a firm's goods or services. As a result, the consumption of that specific product or service differs.

In what concerns Romania, the beer market is shared between Heineken, Carlsberg Breweries A/S, through United Breweries Bereprod SRL (URBB) subsidiary, InBev and SAB Miller Plc, through Ursus Breweries SA, dominant players controlling about 80% of the total market, estimated at a volume of about 20 million hectoliters. Obviously, the four breweries cover all the eight development regions of Romania, regional divisions whose purpose was to assure a coordinate regional development as the country progressed towards accession to the European Union :

- The North-East Development Region: Iaşi, Botoşani, Neamţ, Suceava, Bacău, Vaslui

- The West Development Region: Arad, Caraş-Severin, Hunedoara, Timiş

- The North-West Development Region: Bihor, Bistriţa-Năsăud, Cluj, Maramureş, Satu-Mare, Sălaj

- The Central Development Region: Alba, Sibiu, Mureş, Harghita, Covasna, Braşov

- The South-East Development Region: Vrancea, Galaţi, Brăila, Tulcea, Buzău, Constanţa

- The South Development Region: Argeş, Dâmboviţa, Prahova, Ialomiţa, Călăraşi, Giurgiu, Teleorman

- Bucharest – Ilfov

- The South-West Development Region: Mehedinţi, Gorj, Vâlcea, Olt, Dolj

2. Market Structure

If you ask an experienced marketer what will determine the success or failure of a specific product ,they’ll often quote an age old industry rule: 70% audience, 20 % offer, 10% creativity. Regarding the beer industry, by correctly targeting, and segmenting the customer database to ensure that the right offer reaches the right people, the product have a 90% chance of success before they even start work on the creative. The target market must be defined in terms of size, structure, growth prospects, trends, and sales potential.

Along with the process of targeting, market segmentation is actually dividing the market into groups of buyers, where each group sees the product differently. These groups are based on variables such as age, gender family size, income, occupation, education, religion, race and nationality and as you may expect, demographic segmentation variables are amongst the most popular bases for segmenting customer groups.