Kirin Case Study- Conjoint Analysis and Brand Launch
Kirin can launch the following four new brands of beer (Oishii-L, Oishii-S, Tei-karorī-L and Tei-karorī-S) without changing its key attributes of “Rich full-bodied” and “No aftertaste”. Oishii-L is large pack regular beer with regular calories and Oishii-S is small pack regular beer. Tei-karorī-L is large pack beer of low calories whereas Tei-karorī-S is small pack beer of low calories. These new brands are differentiated by changing the secondary attributes like calories, packaging and glass color.
New Product Profiles
Kirin Oishii-L
Kirin Oishii-S
Kirin Tei-karorī-L
Kirin Tei-karorī-S
Origin
Japanese
Japanese
Japanese
Japanese
Price
6.19
5.49
5.49
6.19
Body
Rich full bodied
Rich full bodied
Rich full bodied
Rich full bodied
Aftertaste
Very mild
Very mild
Very mild
Very mild
Calories
Regular
Regular
Low
Low
Packaging
Six 12Oz Large
Six 12Oz Small
Six 12Oz Small
Six 12Oz Large
Glass
Brown Painted
Brown Painted
Green Label
Green Label
It is expected that the introduction of the new beer brands from Kirin can have an additional market share of 21 percent from our conjoint analysis. Kirin can take 3 percent from from Heineken, 5 percent from Becks, 3 percent from Bass/Guiness, 5 percent from Amtel light, 4 percent from Corona and 1 percent from Sapporo and Kirin. Kirin sells around 1 million cases prior to the new brands roughly 2 percent market share (50 million total USA import market). With the new brand Kirin’s total market share can achieve a staggering 23 percent behind Corona’s 35 percent market share. From the positioning analysis it was concluded that Beck and Corona were the primary competitors for the Kirin. The conjoint analysis also shows the same result. Kirin’s new brands of beer cannot cannibalize its old brands; instead it can compete with European and Canadian