Comparison with Similar Event / Festival

Another successful festival is the Munich Beer Festival, or Oktoberfest. There are similarities and differences in the marketing strategies of Beerfest Asia and Oktoberfest and I have analyzed them below according to the eight “P’s” of marketing strategy along with a short introduction of the Oktoberfest.

1) Introduction of Oktoberfest
The Munich Beer Festival, or the Oktoberfest, held annually is a hallmark event of Munich, Germany occurring in the period between mid-September to early October for two weeks. The unique part of the Oktoberfest is that it starts on the third Saturday in September for two weeks in a park known locally as “Theresienwiese” or “Wies’n” in short. The festival features locally brewed beers and parades on weekends. It is also held beside an amusement park and there will be food stands as well as waitresses with baskets of brezen.

2) Product

The product for both festivals is clearly stated in the introduction, beers. However, there is a difference between the types of beers exhibited in each festival. There is also food and alternate source of entertainment, for example music performances and competitions or parades.

For Beerfest Asia 2009, the product is beers from all over the world. However, the product for Oktoberfest is locally brewed beers. The food featured at Beerfest Asia is also different from that featured at Oktoberfest.
As stated above, Oktoberfest is more focused on local delights such as brezen, a large salt-encrusted pretzel that complements well with beer. Beerfest Asia, on the other hand, featured a wide range of delicacies, from Asian delights to European and Western favourites.

3) Place
Both festivals are held outdoor with marquees and beside a certain attraction. The layout for both festivals are quite similar as the main activity is held in the marquee with lots of long trestle tables and chairs placed so closely with each other that visitors sitting down will be rubbing shoulders with the person next to him or her (reference to pictures on websites).
However, unlike Beerfest Asia, the Oktoberfest was held at the exact same location for the past one hundred and seventy five years where it originated, which is at Wies’n park. For Beerfest Asia, it has changed location from Fort Canning Park to Singapore Flyer along the Formula One tracks facing Marina Barrage.

4) Partnerships

Though both festivals have sponsors, their sponsors have a big difference among themselves.
For Oktoberfest, as the world’s largest public festival, the major beer companies sponsor for their own tents.

As for Beerfest Asia, it had a range of sponsors, from banks to magazines to music equipments and performers partners.

5) Promotion (Communications)

To encourage more visitors, both festivals need to have certain promotion.

For Beerfest, there is a discount for “early bird” tickets for those who pay using Citibank (sponsor) credit card. This is similar to Oktoberfest’s strategy of allowing visitors to reserve seats of specific beer tents that they would like to visit on the day so as to avoid waiting for a long time to get a seat on that day. Other than that, Oktoberfest also have promotions for families.

6) Programming

The programs for Beerfest Asia 2009 was quite similar for the each of the five-day-event. There were mainly music performances starting from evening till late night. There were also two specials: the Aussie Specials on 1st May and Celtic Clan Day on 3rd May. In addition, there was a “Victoria Bitter National Arm Wrestling Championship” held on the last two days of the festival.

As for Oktoberfest, all the programs are planned on weekends and seem to be repeated over the years. For example, for this year’s Okotoberfest, the programs includes the “Grand entry of the Oktoberfest landlords and breweries” on the first day, a costume and riflemen’s parade on the second day and an open-air concert of bands adding up to four hundred musicians on the second Sunday of the festival.
 
7) People

The audience of both festivals are the same as it requires visitors to be of legal drinking age to be able to participate in the festival and they are definitely beer lovers.

8) Price

For both festivals, there is a similarity as visitors have to pay for items consumed within the festival grounds.

The difference is the admission fee, as only Beerfest charged admission fee while Oktoberfest does not charge a fee as it is a public festival. The admission fee is considered quite expensive for students like me but it may be a tactic used to ensure that the right target audiences visit the festival.

All products are set at a reasonable price such that more visitors will be able to afford them. For example, beers at Beerfest starts from $3 onwards and the steamed prawns cost $5 per plate; all paid using the coupons that can be purchased at the entrance using cash. This is similar to beer tokens used by locals during Oktoberfest, which can be given to them by their companies or even as pension for the senior citizens, but it can also be purchased from the tent-owners too.

9) Packaging & Distribution

The sales of tickets for Beerfest could be bought online, at the festival entrance as well as at some of the sponsors’ websites or shops. Thus, most of the intermediaries are the sponsors themselves. They have also packaged Beerfest tickets with Singapore Flyer tickets and sell at a cheaper price to attract more visitors to both the festival and the attraction. This is also done for Vertical Horizon’s Concert Day (2nd May) tickets.

Similarly, Oktoberfest is packaged with hotels such that tourists will have no trouble enjoying the festival.