Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
By: Stana Šehalić
At the 56th award ceremony of the traditional UEPS awards, Atlantic Grupa’s Strategic Business Unit Coffee and its brands won seven awards in different categories. The Gold Award in the category of internet marketing went to the campaign Black ‘n’ Easy Amsterdam Trip. The Barcaffé brand won the silver award as the highest recognition awarded this year (no gold was awarded) for market communications in the category of performance at fairs, for their participation in the Espresso Expo fair in Belgrade. Grand Aroma won silver in the category of product packaging and industrial design for their gift set, and bronze for the Night of Aroma project in the category of internet element and application. Grand Kafa Gold won the silver award for their New Year’s campaign in the category of integrated promotional campaign for soft drinks and two bronze awards in the categories of overall internet presence and website for their Dan Komšija microsite.
These awards show that one of the most active advertisers in Serbia is continuing its strong marketing presence. For years now the company has been at the top of marketing activities – confirmation that they are exceptionally good at what they do. Andrej Bele, director of Atlantic Grupa’s Strategic Business Unit Coffee, has been at the helm of the company for five years now. Around the same time last year we talked with him about his Advertiser of the Year award, and back then he announced numerous innovations, “aimed at continuing to make new friends, and retaining old, loyal customers.”
Stana Šehalić: Judging by the awards and the presence of your brands on the market, it seems that the plans you announced in last year’s interview have been fulfilled?
Andrej Bele: Every success also represents a new challenge. Last year we won 13 awards – the highest number of awards won by a single company – and that only encouraged us to continue our original approach and development of innovative products, which motivate consumers to adopt new habits, and allow us to continue being one step ahead of the competition. We are extremely proud of the fact that experts from marketing and advertising have recognized that and rewarded us this year with seven awards in different categories. It means that we’ve done a good job, and have maintained quality in all fields, which was our goal.
Stana Šehalić: Innovation is a word that best reflects the company’s attitude. You brought a revolutionary project in the field of traditional coffee onto the market in mid 2015, and now you already have valid results. How was it received by consumers?
Andrej Bele: Innovation is a key word for us, not only when it comes to the method of preparing coffee, but also the concept of enjoying it. Because the enjoyment of coffee is an experience that we share with those we love, imbued with empathy, togetherness and, if you will, passion. We are committed to that – to understand our consumers, to feel what they love and to share with them this unique moment of enjoyment. All our innovations are dedicated exclusively to the enjoyment of coffee. That’s why, in May the year before last, we launched an innovative product in the coffee market – Black’n’Easy, the first instant Turkish coffee, because the pace of the times in which we live, and the trends in production and packaging, lead us more and more to practicality. The introduction of a new product on the market carries a certain amount of risk, but thanks to many years of experience and partnership with the agency Idea Plus Communications, we decided to take a bold approach, and it paid off multifold!
Consumers have recognized the quality and convenience of our new coffee, so in just over a year-and-a-half we have sold 15 million bags, and we are still perfecting the concept of enjoying Black&Easy coffee. We approached the HoReCa channel with the introduction of the Make it yourself concept, so now you can make your own real Turkish coffee in bars, instantly, with a Black’n’Easy bag and a coffee pot of boiling water, to complete the authentic atmosphere. In addition, we’ve also launched the pilot project Jazzva, Turkish coffee made from a capsule, which is the trend in Europe and the rest of the world. Jazzva is a Turkish coffee, prepared in a coffee machine; after 54 to 58 seconds a coffee pot in the machine fills the cup with homemade coffee with rich foam. These new ways to enjoy coffee and closeness with our customers continue to inspire and lead us to a world of even more interesting innovations that we are sure will delight our customers.
The consumer is our greatest source of inspiration
Stana Šehalić: Grand Prom collaborates with several marketing agencies and continuously invests in marketing, which is confirmation that it has a planned approach to promoting its brands. What was the basic idea of your marketing-advertising activities in 2016, and what were the expected results you set as your goals?
Andrej Bele: We live in an era of new technology and honest, direct communication with consumers is one of the most important factors in understanding their needs and habits. We are aware that competitive advantage is increasingly based on intangible assets that cannot be gained or successfully imitated in a short period of time. The assets we are talking about are created through years of accumulation, within the company, and we call it “learning by doing”. It takes a lot of effort, knowledge and investment, but thanks to constant observance of current trends in the global coffee market and careful monitoring of the wishes and expectations of consumers, we have built an entirely distinctive concept of coffee enjoyment. We make sure that we fulfill our promises, and because of that we have gained great trust. This special closeness with consumers is our most valuable resource and the greatest source of inspiration in the design of various activities aimed at marketing and advertising activities, not only this year, but also in all previous years.
It is therefore understandable that we invest a lot in creation, communication and added value, tailored to each customer. But in order to maintain the quality of work and achieve results you need people who are more than business associates. These are people who know how we breathe. They know us and the Grand Kafa brands very well. With the great trust that we have built over the years with all the agencies we work with, we try to improve communication and the creation of added value, tailored to each of our consumers, every day. We are proud that our collaborative ideas were received warmly by consumers again this year, and then made it to the top of the marketing profession.
Stana Šehalić: Grand Prom offers a wide range of products, followed by a variety of both commercial and socially responsible projects and PR campaigns. How did you communicate with consumers in 2016? Which brand and which type of marketing mix was the focus placed on?
Andrej Bele: In the first four months of last year we were working on a very demanding project, Night of Aroma – which was something no one has done in this area before. We filled the Kombank arena with 18,000 people, but you could only get a ticket if you had bought 1.5kg of Grand Aroma coffee. Consumers actually traded their barcodes for a ticket to the Vlado Georgiev performance. Not a single ticket was sold in the normal way, and the Arena was not filled with “free” tickets. The project lasted more than five months and I am very proud of my team. We are the first company to have leased the Arena and executed an entire project like that from beginning to end, with the help of the performer’s production company.
We also launched the loyalty campaign Namesti život po svom (Tailor your life to your taste), in which the lucky winners won certain amounts on gift-cards with which they could buy furniture or other things for the household. It began in an unusual way, with Santas on a beautiful sunny day in downtown Belgrade. This entire communication with Santa Clauses was extremely well received. The response of consumers was amazing, not only for this particular project, but also for all our previous campaigns and actions. We always seek to provide such activities for our customers, which is one of the reasons we always come first when it comes to closeness with consumers.
We put a lot of effort, knowledge and love into every project we realize, because in the end brands are not only and exclusively their quality, but also a network of associations that ties each consumer to a brand, and this is then that extra emotion, that consumers definitely recognize.
Quality – the crucial factor of competitiveness
Stana Šehalić: What are your market analyses telling you – are consumer habits changing? Is there a target group that you address in particular?
Andrej Bele: In Serbia, despite the steady growth of instant and espresso coffees, traditional Turkish coffee still reigns supreme. Each of our brands has a special relationship with its customers and these connections give birth to new ideas for different activities. When you know all their wishes and needs, you get a clear strategy. Depending on the target group we are addressing, we create activities tailored specifically to their interests.
A good example of how our brands communicate with target groups is Black’n’Easy. In accordance with the nature of the brand, dedicated to energetic young people, we created the campaign Amsterdam Trip, which we made with the agency IDEA Plus Communications. The campaign took place exclusively in digital media and conveyed the message to the target audience well, confirmed by more than 500 entries and tens of thousands of likes. The competition was open to young creatives, who sent original short videos or photographs of unusual situations and places where they enjoy Black’n’Easy coffee. The winning photographs were selected by a panel of influencers in the region, and the winners could take their best friend on an unforgettable trip to Amsterdam.
A completely different target group are those who enjoy premium espresso. They are creative in a different way – dedicated to inspiration, lovers of good art and good music. That’s why we naturally became sponsors of the Musicology festival with the Barcaffé brand. Because of this common thread, that connects the enjoyment of top-quality espresso and quality music, this concept has become a commitment and mission of the Barcaffé brand. Musicology is a festival of quality music, its performers are top artists who have almost a personal relationship with the audience. We build quality from the grain. We monitor the crops and choose the best coffee, because only high quality raw materials can make a quality product. And the quality is very distinctive, recognized and remembered.
We want to be part of the small everyday rituals and joys of our consumers – like enjoying a cup of your favorite coffee – but even more than that. Guided by the idea of our slogan, Both Smell and Taste and Grand Coffee Stickers, in collaboration with the creative agency Afirma we have created stickers that are suitable for all situations that are shared with loved ones, as well as customized for Grand Kafa’s largest campaigns: from festive visuals in accordance with the distinctive Grand Kafa Santas, to stickers about neighbors in the spirit of the international holiday Neighbors Day. Although we launched this campaign late last year, millions of downloads have already been recorded.
Stana Šehalić: What do you think has marked 2016 in the field of the strategic business unit that you lead?
Andrej Bele: Product quality is now a crucial factor in competitiveness. Consumers are well informed and want more value when purchasing than before. Therefore, a few years ago we launched an initiative for the introduction of excise stamps on the packaging of coffee, with the idea that a visible excise stamp would be a confirmation of legal import trade, and thus one of the ways to combat the gray market.
We are the largest importer of coffee from Brazil, we import about 80% of the total amount of coffee that comes from that area to Serbia. Our coffee, in addition to our selection as a direct buyer, also passes all customs and regulatory quality control and sampling. Like other major manufacturers, Grand Kafa in Serbia pays excise taxes and customs duties on every kilogram of imported raw coffee. The end consumer should also be aware of that when they are tempted to buy a cheaper, uncontrolled product. The excise stamp is a confirmation of legal trade and quality, which is a logical argument for the difference in price compared to cheap coffee roasters who often buy coffee of dubious quality. Healthy competition is always desirable, and certainly the presence of small producers is good for market development. But consumers should be provided with a guarantee of quality and confirmation through a declaration that clearly indicates exactly which type of coffee is in the product, and we want everyone who offers coffee on the market to abide by all the legal regulations.
Our efforts to bring order into the coffee market have been fruitful, because the Assembly adopted the Law on Excise Tax late last year.
Stana Šehalić: You have been in Belgrade for five years now. You once said in an interview that you often say “We, from Belgrade…” Does that mean that there are long-term plans for the future that you will oversee?
Andrej Bele: Yes, I often like to say that jokingly. I never dreamt I would stay so long, and I’ve stayed here for more than five years. In the beginning I used to say I was a Slovene working in Belgrade temporarily, and now I can add that actually I’m more a Slovene from Serbia, temporarily employed in Slovenia. After so much time spent in Serbia and Belgrade, I can say that these dynamic and inspiring years have been the best years of my business career for me personally.
Stana Šehalić: Plans for 2017?
Andrej Bele: As far as Grand Kafa is concerned, we will continue to develop brands and new products. This is just the beginning of the innovations that we want to implement in all the categories. Espresso is equally represented in this, which we are spreading across the region. Espresso came to this area in the nineties, and in our portfolio it accounts for six to seven percent under the brand Barcaffé. In the last two or three years, however, it has expanded in Serbia. We will continue to strengthen the trend of on the go consumption, which we are already strongly developing through Barcaffé&Go – a modern and popular concept that provides freedom of movement along with top quality Barcaffé espresso. Of course, there are also plans for further development of the Black’n’Easy brand, so in that sense our consumers can expect a lot of new surprises.
Stana Šehalić: Atlantic Grupa continuously supports UEPS, the oldest association in this industry, in its efforts to promote the profession and affirms the best work. Can you comment on the changes that were made in the work of the association last year in an effort to get closer to the interests of its members?
Andrej Bele: Last year I said one’s 55th year is the best year – a man of that age is experienced and has already reached a maturity worthy of respect and admiration. This, when combined with a youthful spirit, is a bullseye. The changes which were introduced last year have refreshed the image of the association, rejuvenated and modernized it, and the new concept of the jury has contributed to the credibility of the awards. I’m sure that in the coming period you will progress further and faster, and, along with you, both we who are building products and the agencies that help us to build brands out of them.