Bringing Chinese Beers Mainstream (1/2)

Two Chinese beers, fierce rivals back home, aim to become household brands in the United States. The makers of Yanjing Beer, a little-known Beijing-brewed lager, are betting that the slam dunks of Houston Rockets' center Yao Ming will propel it to major player status in the imported beer market. The makers of Tsingtao Beer, Yanjing's rival and the longtime best-selling Chinese lager in the United States, thinks low-key reinforcement of its Chinese identity is the best way to expand. While not yet household brands, Yanjing and Tsingtao are readily available in Chinese restaurants and Asian supermarkets across the country. Tsingtao, brewed in the coastal city of Qingdao, has been sold in the United States since President Nixon returned from China in 1972. In China, Yanjing and Tsingtao both claim to be the number one selling beer. Each brand claims to have about 12 percent of the Chinese market, but in the United States Tsingtao has traditionally accounted for one-third of all Asian beers and 95 percent of all Chinese beers sold. Retail sales of all Asian beers in the United States, the consulting firm Kotler Marketing Group estimates, were worth $130 million in 2002. Chinese beers accounted for almost $40 million -- a small drop in $73.7 billion U.S. beer market. Yanjing, which didn't officially come to the United States until 2001, aims to outsell Tsingtao in two years. To do this, Yanjing wants to move out of the Chinese restaurant niche and convince the average American that Yanjing can complement nachos just as well as kung-pao chicken. “When you think burrito, do you think Corona? No. You think of the beach,” said Rich DeCicco, president of Freeport, N.Y.-based Harbrew Imports, the importer of Yanjing Beer. “I want people to walk into Murphy’s Pub and order a Yanjing.” Through shrewd marketing, DeCicco said, Yanjing can position itself as a premium import, in the same league as Heineken from Holland or Corona from Mexico. Instead of taking the well-entrenched Tsingtao head-on in the Chinese restaurant and Asian grocery niche, DeCicco is trying to reach all of America. In a $6 million, six-year deal signed last fall, Yanjing Beer paid big bucks to become the official imported beer of the Houston Rockets. It is no coincidence that the team’s center is the Chinese-born rising superstar Yao Ming. Last June, DeCicco’s top salesperson was in Houston for a business convention at the time of National Baskestball Association’s draft. The salesman heard a local radio station was giving a pre-NBA draft party. With anticipation heavy that the Rockets would select Yao with the No. 1 draft pick, the salesman offered the bar 10 cases of Yanjing. The fans loved the beer and the Chinese connection, DeCicco said. That night, the bar kept ordering more cases of Yanjing for the fans. By the end of the night, DeCicco added, almost 40 cases of Yanjing were sold. Before Yao was formally selected, Harbrew cut a deal with the Rockets to be an official sponsor. “It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time,” DeCicco said. “It was incredible.” In addition to selling bottles of Yanjing at the Compaq Arena, the Rocket's home, Yanjing bought full courtside signage and arena signage. The Yanjing logo was stamped on Houston Rocket promotional materials and the beer sponsored radio and TV ads. Harbrew cut a similar but lower-profile deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, home of Wang Zhizhi, another Chinese-born center. DeCicco wants to capitalize on the fame of the Chinese basketball players with his Chinese beer, but doesn't want drinkers to associate Yanjing only with China. “Tsingtao positions themselves as a Chinese beer from China. Ours is a premium imported beer from China,” he said. By the end of 2002, DeCicco, said 100,000 cases of Yanjing Beer were sold in the United States. He expects to match Tsingtao’s 1 million cases a year by the end of 2004.