Program Book - Master Brewers Association of the Americas

I-3
ERAB engaging in putting knowledge on alcohol and health a
step forward
PHILLIPE DE WITTE (1)
(1) Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain la Neuve, Belgium
The European Research Advisory Board (ERAB) was officially
launched in 2003 thanks to the financial support of the brewers of
Europe. Large and small European breweries directly allocate each
year a half-million euro (US$770,000) to support alcohol research;
90% is distributed to research and 10% to administrative costs. This
partnership has succeeded in promoting collaboration between the
brewing industry and academia. Furthermore this collaboration has
accomplished the preservation of the independence and integrity
of ERAB by maintaining a strict separation between the source of
support and the decision to finance the most meritorious projects.
ERAB supports projects in the fields of genetics, liver, cardiology,
epidemiology and neuroscience, as well as in the psychosocial
field. The results from research studies granted by ERAB illustrate
the profit of such collaboration between industry and academia in
enhancing health and quality of life.
Professor Phillipe de Witte heads the Laboratory of Behavioural
Biology at the Université Catholique de Louvain. In 1987 he
received a Fulbright Grant to complete a specialization in brain
research at the NIH. He has also worked as an invited professor
at Washington State University and the University of Colorado.
He is the editor-in-chief of Alcohol and Alcoholism and is on the
editorial advisory board of a number of leading journals, including
Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, Addiction
Biology, Alcoologie, Alcohol, and Amino Acids. He was president
of the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism
(ESBRA) for two terms (1993–2001) and was the president of
the International Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism
(ISBRA, 1998–2002). He joined the ERAB Advisory Board in
2003 and was succeeded by Professor Oliver James as chair on
January 1, 2007. His research interests include pharmacology and
neurobiology of addiction, including therapeutics and treatments. He
is a member of a number of professional bodies, including ESBRA,
ISBRA, Société Belge d’Alcoologie (SBA), The Belgian College of
Neuropsychoparmacology and Biological Psychiatry (BCNBP), and
the Société Française d’Alcoologie (SFA), and has published over 200
articles in scientific journals, twice as many abstracts, and books
chapters.
48
I-4
The image of ‘wholesomeness’ of beer: Challenges and
opportunities for marketing
GORAN ROOS (1)
(1) London Business School, London, UK
The concept of wholesomeness has come to beer only recently despite
the archaeological and historical evidence to the contrary. Beer
must now compete with red wine for the accolade of having positive
beneficial effects when consumed in moderation. Beer provides far
more opportunities for the use of functional ingredients and other
additions than wine. However, sales success depends on a number of
factors. The first and most obvious problem is understanding what
functionality should be in the beer and what, in some countries, is
permitted. The second problem is understanding the motivations
of customers to drink and to drink a new functional product with an
image of wholesomeness. The standard approach used by companies
seeking to design or improve their products or services is conjoint
analysis. This is in essence a process in which the detailed descriptors
of a product or service are found, and a measured mapping is
developed to allow candidate products or services to be evaluated.
The problems of conjoint analyses are well known and arise even
in well-designed studies. Principal amongst them are respondents
developing simplification strategies with complex products
distorting results, the difficulty in reducing stated perceptions
to the underlying attributes, the difficulty in excluding old brand
loyalties and the inability of respondents to express clear views on
new categories. This paper describes the conjoint value hierarchy
(CVH) approach very briefly and how this approach generates useful
information about products and possible marketing approaches while
not suffering the disadvantages of traditional conjoint analysis. The
paper draws on three cases in the FMCG area. The first case supplies
background on trends in retailing, the second uses the CVH to gain
a better understanding of the factors that are important to retailers
at the practical level. In the third case, the CVH is used to evaluate
the motivations to drink and the factors important in the drink. The
results of these studies demonstrate that the CVH was capable of
discriminating between the key factor in product development and
marketing. With reference to beer, the CVH analysis showed that the
value attributed to a beer by the customer is a complex mix of factors
and includes the social benefits of drinking, the physical benefits
of drinking, product quality, properties of the drink, an attractive
presentation, a satisfactory buying experience, inducement to drink
and the image of the company. It also showed a clear distinction
between different demographic groups which would allow marketing
teams to target their efforts more effectively.
Göran Roos is a honorary professor at Warwick Business School in
the United Kingdom, visiting professor of innovation management
and business model innovation at VTT Technical Research Centre of
Finland, and visiting professor of intangible asset management and
performance measurement at the Centre for Business Performance
at Cranfield University. Göran is the founder of Intellectual Capital
Services Ltd., a leading think tank on methodologies for the
identification, management, and measurement of intangibles and the
cofounder of B+I STRATEGY S.L., a leading strategy consulting firm.
Göran is one of the founders of modern intellectual capital science
and a recognized world expert in this field and a major contributor
to the thinking and practice in the areas of strategy, innovation
management, and business model innovation. Göran has worked as
a consultant in most OECD countries and has served in management
positions in several European- and U.S.-based corporations. He is the
author and coauthor of numerous books and articles on intellectual
capital, innovation management, and strategy, many of which have
been recognized with awards.