Heineken Brews the Future Beer With Data
- By CDOTrends editors
- June 12, 2023
For Heineken, one of the world’s leading lager companies, the future of beer lies in data.
The Dutch multinational brewer is putting its consumers front of mind by launching a new two-year evergreen strategy. The secret ingredient is an internally branded Knowledge & Insight Management (KIM) platform that runs on Stravito.
“As part of the evergreen strategy, we wanted to reimagine how we share insights across the organization, making sure that we put consumers at the center of everything we do. One key way to do this is by democratizing knowledge and giving those in the organization better access to consumer data, insight and everything we learn about our customers,” said Louise Fitzpatrick, the global CMI capabilities manager at Heineken.
“We see KIM as an integral part of our insights ecosystem, which is made up of a united collection of best-in-class tools and frameworks that help us ensure that every decision leads back to the consumer,” Louise added.
Brewing insights from different sources
Heineken runs a decentralized business with over 90 operating companies worldwide, with local teams and insights professionals on the ground. The small global team in Amsterdam provides guidance and access to tools that local operating companies can use to drive business efficiency.
While the setup has allowed the company to quickly capitalize and adapt to shifting tastes on a global scale, it also introduced other challenges.
“We often found that we were speaking different languages and, we in the center, saw this as being a real pity because people were doing great work, but nobody was seeing, sharing or discussing it, and often there was duplication across teams,” said Louise.
KIM offered a single source of the truth. Louise believed this would create a culture of sharing across an aligned ecosystem.
While the purpose was as clear as a crystal clear lager, finding the right platform was murkier.
"What we were really looking for was something quicker and centered around AI. Something that would really simplify the process for both the people sharing their own knowledge and the people consuming it. Ultimately, a place where people could go and feel inspired and excited. A platform that would lead us in our evergreen journey. That's when we started engaging with Stravito,” said Louise.
Saying cheers in one common language
That was a year ago. Today, the insights team are ardent users of KIM. “KIM is now very much the normalized way of sharing insight,” added Louise. “It’s not through email. It’s not through teams. We guide everyone to KIM.”
The response has been positive.
"Some of the feedback I'm hearing now, which really inspires me, is from senior directors who would never have used CMI tools. They say to me, 'KIM is amazing, I logged on, and I just couldn't believe the amount of stuff on there; it's amazing, kind of like Netflix, and I just kept going and going,’” said Louise.
“KIM has played a fundamental role in our journey towards democratizing insights beyond Strategy & Insights teams. It has unlocked the true power of our insights function, enabling us to connect the dots across multiple learning and data points. By delivering more relevant and meaningful recommendations to our teams worldwide, we empower them to make consumer-centered decisions,” added Lalo Luna, global head of category & shopper insights.
Making the data work harder for you
This is not the first time Heineken has invested in a consumer-centric Innovation Platform. The company has a number. KIM differed in its ability to use existing insights to offer fresh insights.
“When creating KIM, we wanted to make our existing research work harder. That meant limiting the amount of research we required,” explained Louise. "Previously, what we would have done is launched a project that aimed to uncover one specific innovation opportunity, involving X amount of focus groups, in X amount of markets, starting from scratch. But, I said to the team, 'We have KIM. We have so much knowledge here.'"
For example, the team created a project on KIM that it could share with its innovation agency, including its most recent trend reports. It ended up that the existing insight was enough, and no new research was required.
"Reusing our existing insights saved us a couple of hundred thousand Euros and allowed us to complete the process in six weeks. Before, it just would have been impossible to source input so quickly. Now we have six or seven really insightful consumer-validated innovation platforms without doing any new research,” said Louise.
KIM’s usage is growing. “We reached 1,000 users by January 2023. These users are not just from the CMI team but now from brand, innovation and R&D teams, the kinds of people who need access to insights,” explained Louise.
"KIM has been instrumental in building capabilities across our organization, especially for our small markets and Commerce Teams beyond CMI. It provides them with access to foundational knowledge, inspiring and guiding their decision-making process. By leveraging KIM, we equip our teams with the necessary tools to make better-informed decisions and drive success in their respective markets,” added Lalo.
“Yet this is just the beginning of our journey with KIM. Together, we envision an incredible future. With the integration of Generative AI capabilities, we anticipate an even better experience that will provide greater customization in KIM's recommendations, ensuring that the content is easily digestible for everyone across the organization."
Image credit: iStockphoto/ochoytres