Festival Chosen

Do you have an idea what the most popular drink in the world is? As you would probably have guessed, the answer is beer. A beer fanatic I am as is 2 billion other people worldwide. After attending the BeerFest Asia, I was vaguely reminded of the Oktoberfest. Do you know what that is?

It is a festival held in Munich, Germany, which spans over 16 days and showcases the Bavarian culture. It is estimated that approximately 6 million people attend the Oktoberfest every year. Figures were taken from the Wikipedia website at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oktoberfest.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. Let me speak the next 5000 words with pictures.

Comparison with Oktoberfest in Munich

There are certain similarities in the marketing strategy for both the Oktoberfest in Munich and Beerfest Asia. Both Oktoberfest and Beerfest have set up websites to let the participants know about their events. The main purpose of the website is to provide details for the interested parties as information such as time, place, sponsors as well as what beer companies will be attending are all found on their website. The difference is in the main part of their advertising. Oktoberfest has a great deal of publicity about it from brochures to tour agencies bundling them as part of a tour package. In comparison, Beerfest Asia’s main promotion tool is by word of mouth.

Not much advertising plans can be found in the media such as newspapers, televisions or even magazines. The main difference lies in the advertising of Oktoberfest is more visual than Beerfest Asia.

Oktoberfest also has more activities catered towards people of various age groups as compared to Beerfest Asia. Some of the various activities which can be seen in Oktoberfest are things such as parades and restaurants. In comparison, Beerfest does not have any activities catered towards families and hence this greatly decreases their available target market. Oktoberfest also has a programme list available for first time customers whereas the only programme list which Beerfest Asia has is the order of band performances.

The people found in both festivals are similar in their lifestyle. They are the people who are usually drinking in their daily life and interested in beer. However the people found at the Oktoberfest constitutes of a bigger variety of people from all walks of life, mainly due to the huge number of tourists who participated in the event.

The pricing in Oktoberfest is stand alone and they are bought with the Germany currency. The main reason for this is because of the different stalls there which not only sells beer but facilities such as restaurants may also be found there and hence it would not be possible to use a standard unit of account. In contrast, Beerfest Asia uses beer currency for their transactions and it helps to give participants the feeling that they are really in a festival.

Best practices in Beerfest

One noticeable point about the Beerfest is that it uses a standard unit of account for all purchases within the event grounds. These “Beer Currency” are available in denominations of 5dollars and can be purchased at the counter. One might think of the “Beer Currency” as merely a standard unit of account to facilitate payment so that the various beer stalls do not have to fret over small change, but there is another benefit to the use of the Beer Currency. It gives the customers an authentic feeling of being in the event as they get the special currency which they can keep as a souvenir if they wish to instead of spending it. All participants will get a $5 currency by default which they can spend on anything within the event compound.

Another good practice which can be found in Beerfest Asia is that while they allow beer bottles to be used within the compound, only plastic ware is allowed outside of the compound. This is because of the fact that some of the participants will be leaving the compound drunk as hence, allowing them to carry beert bottles with them is dangerous as they might get into fights with others. Safety is always an important issue in every festival or event and the fact that Beerfest Asia has the rules about what wares to be used in and out of the compound shows that a lot of effort has been put into ensuring safety for the participants of the Beerfest.

Stakeholders of the festival

The various stakeholders of the festivals are the customers, who play a huge role in the success of Beerfest Asia and Oktoberfest, suppliers, sponsors, participants as well as competitors.

Additionally, the organisers who organised these events are also concerned with the profits or benefits brought about by the festival. If profit is not a major concern, they are then primarily interested in the publicity of the event for name recognition. It is likely that future events of similar nature might be held or abandoned depending on the turnover.

Customers consists mainly of people who love beer, and it is not strange to see that many people who attend these events overestimate their ability at handling alchohol and as a result, get drunk. In response to this, the managing committee of the Oktoberfest have set up a medical tent to tend to the drunk and injured people. Customers are primarily concerned with the promotion of beer as they wish to taste the beers which are not commonly seen in the market. Their major areas of concern are the products.

Suppliers plays a major role in the planning stage of the event. It is due to the suppliers that the even can be staged successfully. They provide the equipment needed to successfully stage the event. They are not primarily concerned with the profit of the event as their revenue does not have any relationship to the turnout of the event. In addition to revenue, the other reason which they may work with the organisers is because they wish to foster good relationships for the sake for future partnerships in other events, if any should be held.

Participants in Beerfest Asia are not limited to only the beer companies. There are many other groups who participated in Beerfest Asia, such as bands and snack stalls, as well as a souvenir shop. Some of these can be seen in the photos above. As with the suppliers, the stalls which sell snacks during the Beerfest are interested in the revenue and prospect of future partnerships. Bands which participated in the Beerfest included bands such as Last Horizon which is pretty famous within the region. They are there for reasons such as interest in the event and passion for performance.

Competition within the event is not very intense as most of the companies are just making use of the event to promote their own beer and not to make a lot of profit. Maturity of the participating companies might also be a reason which reduced the competivity as they are there to have fun as well.

Purpose of event

Both festivals are similar in the sense that they are related, in a way or another, to beer. However, their purposes can be said to vary slightly. The Oktoberfest in Munich has been part of Germany's tradition for a long time and it is not only a festival to showcase Germany's beer; it's a tradition, whereas the same couldn't be said for Beerfest Asia. The roots of Oktoberfest can be traced back to the marriage of King Ludwig I and Therese of Bavaria and since then it has been a yearly event for the country of Munich. To the Bavarians, Oktoberfest is an essential part of their lives whereas Beerfest is not a necessity to the population of Singapore.

So much for the difference, now let us look at the common purpose of the 2 events. Firstly, both festivals provides a platform for participating companies to promote their new beer. Some companies also made use of this event to promote their own brew which they might not be able to sell in huge amounts due to production costs.

Tourism benefits brought about by the event on Singapore

Numerous benefits can be derived from the event. Firstly, the introduction of Beerfest will allow Singapore companies to showcase their beer. Regional tourists and companies will be able to make use of the event to identify possible business partners to work together and hence the event is able to draw a fair amount of business travellers. However, the attraction of the business travellers is limited due to the small scale of the event.

The hosting of Beerfest Asia in Singapore serves to promote not only regional beers, but also Singapore. With beer being the leading choice of beverage in the world and especially favoured by the young adults, the presence of such an event in Singapore might possibly attract visitors from around Southeast Asia as Singapore will be perceived to be a nation with a vibrant night life and to be full of excitement. With this increase in the number of tourists, there will be a positive effect on Singapore’s economy.

Other then tourism benefits, there are also numerous benefits which the Beerfest will bring. Some of these includes social benefits such as the locals being more open minded and cultural benefits such as allowing tourists to get a feel of the local culture.

Opinion on Beerfest after personal experience

In my opinion, the Beerfest does not pale in comparison to the Oktoberfest. Due to the huge difference in the scale of both events, it would not be fair to judge them based on a similar yardstick. The main reason Singapore wishes to have this event is because of the business opportunities which might be possible and the turnover or profit of the event is not a major issue. However, there is a great room for development for Beerfest Asia in Singapore. The event has already seen considerable success despite its small scale and if government plans to portray Singapore as a young nation and tries to draw in young tourists, then the development of Beerfest Asia will be of a considerable asset to them. With sufficient effort, Beerfest Asia might even become Singapore’s unique icon in future.