S Company's Craft Beer Development Strategy Research

For a first decade of sustained and rapid growth,the per capita of China’s beer consumption has exceeded over that of the world,and the consumption has tended to be saturated,showing a downward trend since nearly two years.The open competition in the beer market and the product homogeneity of traditional beer industry has resulted in so intense competition in the current market that upgrading the performance relies on its quality,personality and differentiation rather than the cost reduction in the past.In the domestic beer market,the descent of total sales but meanwhile the rise of the high-end categories shows the consumers’ turning demand.As a local beer enterprise in Suzhou city,Company S is facing the same problem in China’s beer market.Traditional beer consumption is falling down but the sales of craft beer are growing rapidly,with most new created personalized brands and a small number of those imported from foreign brands.Consumers are not loyal to a certain brand or a category,but constantly change fresh taste,which means that the beer industry begins to enter the era of consumer sovereignty.This paper firstly makes a brief introduction to background,questions,the purpose and significance of the study as well as the study content and ideas.Then it elaborates the strategic development,competitive strategies and other relevant strategic theories and methods.And then the craft beer development strategies in Company S have been introduced:the status of Company S of in domestic market,the demand characteristics and changes in domestic beer market,the status and problems of production and marketing in Company S.Opportunities are provided for Company S to develop brewed beer strategies based on the current market problems and changes.At present the sales of craft beer are not large,but it is under the widely publicity,which will have great influence on the beer industry and consumers.Craft beer as a niche category is changing the high-end beer consumption,which will have important shares in high-end beer category in the future.In this paper,with the theories of SWOT strategy analysis and Porter Competition Model,the market status and problems are analyzed,Beer Company S as an example,to develop craft beer strategies for the consumer’s demands of beer qualities and personalization and to break through the plight of the present market for long-term development of the Company S.In Suzhou city at Yangtze River Delta Economic Circle of the eastern coastal developed region in China,for various consumers’ higher demands for craft beer,Company S as a local beer production enterprise in Suzhou city must actively take into consideration the craft beer market and development strategies.Finally,beer strategies in Company S are predicted to build Suzhou market characteristics learnt from the international experience of craft beer market.