Bionade is a German success story. I went along to the www.thinc.de presentation this evening to get further insights into the Entrepreneur industry in Germany. The first thing to note was that the lecture hall was jam packed. Standing room only at the back.
Peter Kowalsky is the founder of Bionade. He is a brew-master and worked with his family and more specifically his brother and mother as a brewer. Over 10 years they experimented, alongside normal beer production, with an organically brewed alcohol free lemonade. Why brewed? To create the bubbles without using chemicals. The idea was to brew it naturally, like beer, using micro-organism to get the bubbles.
It was interested hearing him talk through the development and the usual story of everyone telling him he was crazy etc. How he constantly ran out of money etc But he persevered. With a great product, great marketing and a genuine story his point is you can continue to back yourself. The sum of the three are far greater than the parts.
In marketing jargon they were attempting a 'Blue Ocean Strategy'. A high risk, high return strategy to place a new product in an uncontested market sector (alcohol free bio brewed lemonade). One major issue was German bureaucracy. All brewed drinks need to be certified (Reinheitsgebot) [maybe all food items in general in Germany??]. Peter told how he had finally developed a product after 10 years of experimenting only to be told by a public servant that because there is no category on their form for 'alcohol free bio brewed lemonade' it could not be certified. The public servant needed to pigeon hole the product but there was pigeon hole! Somehow very closed minded...a trip to Brussels to the EU fixed that and they were on there way.
The second major point from the evening for me was the power of word of mouth. On a non-existent budget you are forced to be creative. The usual tricks of product alignment and association (with planting trees and supporting sporting events) all provided free publicity. Furthermore getting journalists to write about the product also fuelled further word of mouth. They used every trick in the book and it showed how this viral / free PR / product association / emotional attribute marketing works extremely well. In comparison, Coke tried to barge into this drink sector with millions and millions of dollars and thousands of salesmen only to make zero progress. The very attributes of the sector favoured an organically grown company, a cult, a ground up development - something Coke couldn't recreate.
There were many other great points in his speech. A shame the rest of the class didn't go, but it was unfortunately in German for them. Another inspirational speaker who will hopefully get me and others fired up to develop the next big thing thanks to his take-aways. Unlike the US focused case studies we constantly study at school, there are some great local German examples - highlighted by Bionade. They have achieved many great successes and for that they are being finally duly rewarded.
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