The firm plans to highlight its community work
CARLSBERG may be well known for claiming to be ‘probably the best beer in the world’, but now the brewing giant plans to set about proving it.
In the heart of Carlsberg’s Copenhagen headquarters, global brand director Julian Marsili told Scottish Grocer that while the brand has been engaged in community work for decades, it hasn’t always done the best job of communicating its good work to consumers.
Marsili highlighted the work carried out by the Carlsberg Foundation, which financially supports a range of initiatives in science, arts and culture, while remaining relatively unknown to shoppers.
“These are things that have always been part of us but we have never told it in the past, simply because there wasn’t an interest from consumers,” said Marsili.
“But now these things are really important.
“It is something that we want to get to tell, we just need to get there in a way that is compelling and credible.
“We have been talking about actually putting lines on our glasses, saying that ‘30% of this goes back to society’.”
Despite its ‘probably the best beer in the world’ campaign being widely known, Marsili said that outside of its native Denmark, Carlsberg consumers weren’t aware of the story behind the slogan.
He said: “In the UK, there hasn’t been as much storytelling around Carlsberg, where it comes from, and why it is probably the best beer in the world.
“All we are doing is adding stories, to substantiate that in a meaningful way for the community.
“It started off with the Danish Way campaign, where the simple explanation around what makes the Danes a happy nation enabled us to open a conversation around being from Denmark, what we do, and the kind of betterment stories that we are bringing.”
The increased interest in brand heritage is, according to Marsili, driven in part by younger consumers.
“Inspired by millennials, and what is happening in the media, we have proof that companies that live up to a purpose, who are beyond just immediate gain, have a better resonance with these consumers — and actually these companies grow more than the others.
“So, inspired by that, from three years ago with our new CEO, we looked back at our foundation, thought about the founder’s mentality, and distilled that back into what we are here to do.”
In order to substantiate the claims that it is probably the best beer in the world, and to raise awareness of the story behind Carlsberg, Marsili said that the brand has plenty of activities and campaigns in the pipeline.
Carlsberg has already filmed new TV commercials with actor Mads Mikkelsen, who fronted their ‘Danish Way’ campaign, and Marsili said that he hoped this would “bring the message to life.”
