Ard Bossema - Asahi

With over 25 years of experience in commercial and marketing roles at companies such as Unilever, Grolsch, and now Asahi, Ard Bossema, General Manager EMEA & Latin America, has seen the marketing landscape evolve dramatically. Yet despite the changing tools and technologies, the fundamental drivers of growth remain remarkably consistent. In this conversation, he shares how Asahi approaches brand growth through a clear framework, how the beer category is adapting to shifting consumer habits, and why marketers must balance innovation with consistency to remain relevant.

Growth Starts With Consumption

The global beer market is evolving rapidly. Traditional consumption patterns are shifting, new beverage categories are emerging, and consumers are becoming more conscious about health and variety. For Ard, brand growth today requires more than simply launching new products or increasing marketing spend. It demands a disciplined understanding of what truly drives consumption.

“In the beer world, we often talk about hectolitres,” he explains. “That’s essentially a volume KPI. Volume is a key KPI for us as it tells you how much of your brand is being consumed. Growing your consumer base is crucial as it will lead to market share growth and potentially category growth.”

While many intermediate metrics are important for guiding marketing strategy, the ultimate measure of success remains whether the brand generates top-line volume growth. Concepts like share of mouth, share of stomach, and share of wallet all point in the same direction: increasing the role a brand plays in consumers’ everyday lives.

Of course, building that growth requires a sequence of steps. “For marketers, it starts with awareness,” Ard notes. “Then you translate that into trial, and eventually into loyal consumers. But at the end of the day, it’s about people consuming more.” This focus on consumption keeps marketing efforts grounded in commercial reality. Every brand-building activity must ultimately support the fundamental goal of increasing usage.

“In the beer world, we often talk about hectolitres. “That’s essentially a volume KPI. Volume is a key KPI for us as it tells you how much of your brand is being consumed. Growing your consumer base is crucial as it will lead to market share growth and potentially category growth.”

The Three Pillars of Sustainable Brand Growth

To align marketing teams across its global organisation, Asahi developed a simple framework that captures the key drivers of growth. Internally known as the Asahi Growth Model, it focuses on three essential pillars: Be Remembered, Be Available, and Be Relevant.

The first pillar, Be Remembered, focuses on building strong memory structures. Brands must stand out from competitors and become meaningful in consumers’ minds. This requires consistency in how the brand presents itself over time. “Distinctive brand assets are incredibly important,” Ard explains. “Take a brand like Grolsch. The typography, the look of the logo – those are things consumers recognise instantly. We have to ensure those assets remain consistent, because that’s how you build memory structures.”

Another key element within this pillar is reaching light users. Rather than focusing solely on loyal consumers, brands must continuously bring new people into the category. “If you bring new people into your brand in the right way, many of them will eventually stay,” Ard says. “That’s how brands grow over time.”

The second pillar, Be Available, emphasises the importance of physical availability. Even the strongest brand cannot grow if consumers cannot easily purchase it. “You can have a fantastic brand that everyone recognises,” Ard notes. “But if it’s not available to the right audience in the right places, it won’t make a difference.”

This includes not only distribution but also how the brand appears in stores and hospitality venues. Execution at the point of purchase plays a crucial role. “Marketers often underestimate how complex that execution is,” he says. “The moment of purchase is where the transaction actually happens. If things go wrong there, you don’t always get a second chance.”

The third pillar, Be Relevant, focuses on ensuring the brand continues to meet evolving consumer needs. This includes adapting to trends, developing new products, and finding new consumption occasions. “You need to remain relevant not only for consumers but also for your customers – the retailers, bars, and outlets that sell your products,” Ard explains. Together, these three elements form the foundation of sustainable brand growth.

“Marketers often underestimate how complex that execution is. The moment of purchase is where the transaction actually happens. If things go wrong there, you don’t always get a second chance.”

Navigating a Changing Beer Category

While the principles of brand growth remain stable, the beer category itself is undergoing a significant transformation. “In many developed markets, traditional pilsner is under pressure,” Ard observes. “You see consumers diversifying their drinking habits.” Several forces are driving this shift. Health-conscious consumers are increasingly moderating their alcohol consumption, while younger generations are exploring a wider range of beverages. The rapid rise of alcohol-free alternatives is also reshaping the category.

As a result, brewers are rethinking their portfolios to remain relevant. Innovation plays an important role, but it must be guided by genuine consumer demand. “On the one hand, you need to follow the consumer,” Ard says. “On the other hand, you need to create innovations that people actually want.” This can take many forms, from developing new flavour profiles to introducing alternative packaging formats that suit different occasions. Yet innovation alone is not the answer. For Ard, growth comes from combining portfolio development with strong brand building and distribution strategies.

“On the one hand, you need to follow the consumer. On the other hand, you need to create innovations that people actually want.”

The Corporate Agility Challenge

One of the most pressing challenges facing large multinational companies today is maintaining agility. A decade ago, the rise of craft breweries demonstrated how quickly smaller players could respond to emerging consumer trends. “They were able to launch new variants very quickly,” Ard recalls. “Sometimes we struggled to keep up, simply because we were operating on a much larger scale.”

Large corporations benefit from global reach, established supply chains, and powerful brands. However, these advantages can also slow down decision-making and product development. “The tension between being a large corporate organisation and maintaining the agility of a startup is very real,” Ard says.

Today, speed to market has become more important than ever. Consumers expect brands to respond quickly to emerging trends and changing tastes. This requires organisations to rethink internal processes and empower teams to move faster. “It was always important,” Ard reflects. “But today it’s far more critical than when I started my career.”

“Speed to market was always important. But today it’s far more critical than when I started my career.”

Consistency Over Reinvention

In an industry constantly chasing innovation, Ard believes marketers sometimes overlook the value of consistency. Brands do not necessarily need constant reinvention. In fact, frequent changes can undermine the memory structures that brands have spent years building. “Consumers are often perfectly happy with what they already know,” he says.

Strong brands evolve gradually rather than dramatically. Ard points to several examples where companies have successfully maintained their identity over time. “If you look at a brand like Hertog Jan, they’ve been extremely consistent,” he explains. “They’ve updated small things over the years, but they’ve stayed true to their core message.”

Another example is Lay’s Sensations, which has maintained its recognisable design while introducing subtle updates to remain contemporary. “The key is not to reinvent the brand every few years,” Ard says. “It’s about staying relevant while keeping the recognisable elements that consumers already trust.” For marketers, this balance between evolution and consistency remains one of the most delicate challenges of brand management.

“The key is not to reinvent the brand every few years. It’s about staying relevant while keeping the recognisable elements that consumers already trust.”