Beer, But Do They Polka?
Hoist One For Malaysia
I’m fascinated with difficult marketing problems and how companies have solved them. So I had to read the November 24 New York Times article “Brewers Tread Carefully To Raise Sales In Malaysia.” I love beer and worked three years in Singapore, so I have experience with finding a brew in the country next door.
Malaysia has 28 million people, but at least 60% of them are Muslim and thus forbidden from drinking beer or other alcoholic beverages, by law as well as religion. Surely, this is a daunting assignment for a beer salesman. The reporter interviewed Charles Ireland (appropriate name), managing director of Guinness Anchor in Malaysia. Mr. Ireland described how at a recent concert to celebrate Guinness’ 250th birthday, headlining Blacked Eyed Peas to pack them in, he couldn’t display the Guinness name anywhere. Ireland says he targets Malaysian Indians and Chinese in his marketing, but it doesn’t help that Malaysia has the second highest alcohol tax in the world (trailing Norway).
Soren Holm Jensen, managing director of Carlsberg Malaysia, says he avoids advertising that shows people drinking in a social setting, concentrating just on how great his beer is. Advertising for beer is confined to print media and in movie theaters.
With alcoholic beverages legal for only 35-40% of the population, it is no surprise that Malaysia’s consumption is among the lowest per capita in S.E. Asia – about five liters/person annually. Compare that to Thailand’s 31.6 liters/person. I won’t go into all the penalties for Muslims caught drinking beer (a woman was sentenced to be caned last July), but beer is usually available to non-Muslims in restaurants, bars and even supermarkets.
A friend in Malaysia reports a couple facets of the beer trade that the Times didn’t pick up. Seems that when the breweries pay their taxes, they are required to fill out the forms using a special ink – an ink that has only a sole source at an exorbitant price. Who is getting the rake-off from that?
I said above that beer is usually available, but that no longer holds in Selangor state (around Kuala Lumpur) where the state government has forced 7-Eleven stores to stop selling brews. This is said to be a move to prevent Muslims from buying beer – and to protect Muslim employees from having to handle the forbidden product (even if they don’t drink it). Will restaurants soon be required to hire all non-Muslim staff if they wish to offer wine to their non-Muslim patrons?
Despite all this, Malaysian beer still tastes pretty good.
