Marketing Principles Analysis: Heineken's 'World's Apart' Campaign

This report provides an analysis of Heineken's 'World's Apart' advertising campaign, examining its application of marketing principles. It begins with an introduction to the Heineken company and its global presence, highlighting its competitors and product offerings. The report then delves into the 'World's Apart' advert, describing its concept of bringing together individuals with opposing views to foster understanding. It explores how the advert aligns with digital marketing and social networking strategies, as discussed in class, and compares it to the Pepsi advert. The analysis covers the company's use of digital platforms, the triggering of consumer emotions, and the advert's positive reception, supported by positive feedback on social media. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of adapting marketing tools to the dynamic business environment, and the effective use of digital marketing to connect with target customers, as demonstrated by Heineken's campaign. The report references various marketing theories and scholarly articles to support its analysis and conclusions.

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Marketing Principle: Trading and Exchange
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Introduction
The Heineken Nv Company is involved in the manufacturing and distribution of
alcoholic as well as non-alcoholic beverages. It is an international company that operates in
various countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Americas and the Middle East. The
company was founded in 15th of February 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken. The headquarters
of this company is located in Amsterdam city of Netherlands. The company is among the major
global beverage processing companies with the main competitors being the Coca-Cola and Pepsi
brands. The Heineken Company offers several beverages such as Desperados, Ochota,
Strongbow, Dos Equis, Newcastle Brown Ale and Primus among many other brands. This
company engages in marketing activities and last year around the month of April the company
produced an advert that raised some political concerns and it got a positive reception from the
consumers.
Heineken: World's Apart
Heineken: World's Apart is among the iconic advertisements that were produced in
2017. "World's Apart" by Heineken is a political advert that received a positive reception from
their target customers, unlike the Pepsi advert that portrayed the resistance movements and Black
Lives Matter in America. "World's Apart" advert features 3 pairs of strangers meeting for the
first time and they have no idea they had opposing views. The issues they pairs don't agree are
feminism, climate change and transgender issue respectively. The three pairs were given tasks to
work on together and participate in a Q & A session. This advert concentrated on elaborating the
divisions in the various countries across the world and illustrate that these divisions can be

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eliminated if people understand each other. This advert received a good public reception and this
can be seen according to the positive twitter feedbacks posted.
In class, we learnt a lot about marketing and I think this advert is closely related to week
6 lectures on digital marketing and social networking. Digital marketing and social networking is
an important marketing tool that has a positive impact if used well by any business firm
(Armstrong et al, 2015). The company used the various advertising concepts to come up with an
outstanding political oriented advert.
Comparison and Recommendations
The Heineken Company did good digital marketing and social networking in producing
this advert to promote their brand. They used the digital marketing platform and created an
advert that combined political issues prevailing in many countries all over the world (Chaffey,
2016). The video advert was shared on various social media networks such as YouTube and
Twitter which have very many followers across the world. Heineken is an international company
operating in very many regions and the digital marketing approach was the most appropriate for
accessing their target customers. In marketing, companies have to trigger certain needs in their
customers and the company looked around and identified political issues that will raise interest
among the public (East et al, 2016). Feminism, climate change and transgender issues are key
issues causing division among people and using them in their advert triggered the public
concerns. This tactic really helped the company to get positive feedback in social media network
hence promoting their public image.
The company did a good marketing and advertisement research and I think they hit the
nail at the head in this advert. Unlike Pepsi, who tried to do a political advert that received
negative public reception and the advert had to be pulled down after a short time, the Heineken

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advert applied the innovative marketing principles we learnt in class. The company applied the
marketing principles that enabled them to come up with an advert that will distinguish them from
their competitors.
I think there are no key differences in the marketing strategies the company used and
what we learnt in class about marketing and advertisement. The text was not different with what
the company did since the theory encouraged the use of creativity and innovation to influence the
purchasing behavior and this advert really achieved this (Levy & Gvili, 2015). Some people even
commented in social media that they were going to consume Heineken products just after
watching the advert.
The company was trying to achieve good public image and advertise their brands using
the political issues affecting the majority of their customer in a positive way (Riaz, 2015). The
company was trying to bridge the divisions among people and implying that sharing a bottle of
Heineken is the beginning of eliminating these divisions. The company actions were very
effective and the advert has been considered to be among the iconic adverts in 2017. The theories
outlined in our marketing lectures and textbook really brought positive results to the company.
The advert caused the sales of the company to shoot up and this ensured the company met their
target profit range.
The company really utilized digital marketing and social networks very well as we learnt
in our marketing lectures. This enabled the company to have an interactive involvement with
their target customers in the social media platforms (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014). This had a
positive impact on the customers since they understood the brand and therefore they would like
to be associated with it since it showed it was concerned about the political issues affecting the
customers.

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Conclusion
The business environment is dynamic both locally and internationally and therefore
business organizations should be equipped with the most appropriate marketing tools at any
given moment. Digital marketing and social networking is an important marketing tool that has a
positive impact if used well by any business firm. Triggering the consumers' emotions is one
way of influencing their purchasing decisions and Heineken used a creative way to advertise
their bran using issues that their customers can relate to. "World's Apart" by Heineken is a
political advert that received a positive reception from their target customers, unlike the Pepsi
advert that portrayed the resistance movements and Black Lives Matter in America. Social
networking is a marketing tool that is become critical in advertisements since most of the target
customer population is using this platform. Therefore, a company that utilizes this platform
effectively has the chance of ensuring that their business firm prospers.

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Bibliography
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Kotler, P. (2015). Framework for marketing management. Pearson Education India.
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Riaz, H. A. (2015). Impact of Brand Image on Consumer Buying Behavior in Clothing Sector: A
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