NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

BUSINESS SCHOOL

SUBJECT: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

TOPIC: CARLSBERG’S INTERNAL ANALYSIS

Class: EBBA 10.2

Group: 6
Members: Nguyễn Hoàng Hiền Giang
Võ Thị Vân Anh
Trần Thị Thu Hằng
Nguyễn Thị Kim Dung
Nguyễn Ngọc Thúy

Ha Noi, 2020
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Resources
II. Capabilities (capabilities and strategic capabilities)
III. Core – competency
IV. Competitive Advantages
V. Value Chain
VI. Outcomes
 I. RESOURCES (TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE RESOURCES)
AND KEY RESOURCES

Tangible
 Labour: workers at the factory, employees in company
 Financial: ability to generate internal funds
 Structure, planning, controlling and coordinating systems
 Location of plants, factory and equipments
 Buildings for company

Intangible
 Reputation
 Employee’s loyalty: low turnover
 Technology: patents, trademarks, copyrights,...
 Customers data

Key resources
 Physical resources: raw material, buildings, vehicles, transportation, storage
facility, machines and factory.
 Human resources: staff, talented engineer, marketing experts,etc.
 Intellectual resources: brand, patents, copyrights, partnerships, and customer
databases. 
 Financial resources, such as cash, credit etc.
 II. CAPABILITIES (CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC
CAPABILITIES)

 deliver an attractive beer portfolio for all consumer situations:

Their brands offer us powerful opportunities for communicating with consumers.
They use these opportunities to encourage moderate, responsible consumption of our
products. They also increase the availability of alcohol-free brews.
 focus on the market where they have no.1 or 2 position:
They have particular focus on the 25 markets in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and
Asia where they are no. 1 or 2. 
 strive to excel in services to on and off-trade customers:
Such products and services include sustainable packaging solutions, such as Snap
Pack, and their innovative draught system, DraughtMaster™. In addition, digital
solutions and services are becoming increasingly important enablers.
 optimising our supply chain and improving processes and systems:
Recognising the need for strong actions in the face of complex sustainability
challenges, Their sustainability programme Together Towards ZERO sets clear and
ambitious targets for carbon emissions and water usage.
 marketing activities: represent for some music festival to push brand name
 attractive design: innovation and pioneer in brand to use shock plugs
 III. CORE COMPETENCY (ACTIVITIES THAT A FIRM
PERFORMS WELL COMPARED TO COMPETITORS)
 The core competencies of Carlsberg includes mergers and acquisitions made
globally, wide product portfolio (1664 Blanc, Carlsberg, Tuborg, Huda, Huda Ice
Blast, Huda Gold. Festival, Halida, Halida Export, Halida Dark.) through which it
satisfies taste requirements of their customers and research and development
capability. 
 The innovation approaches and actions which are undertaken are product
innovation and the innovations that are market-pull in nature.
 Brand Investment: Carlsberg has made a large number of investments in
their brand to change the perception of customers regarding their products (Carlsberg
invested heavily on its brand and increasingly focused on brewing quality instead of
brewing quantity)
 Ability to innovate: Carlsberg largely relies on its innovation capability to
satisfy the taste requirements of customers and to maintain its profitability in the
market (innovative technologies in the manufacturing and packaging of its products ).
Design of products towards the most convenient for customers, the pioneer brand to
use shock plugs, easy to hold, and eye-catching design.
 Manufacturing capability: Carlsberg has high manufacturing capability
owing to the number of breweries that are owned around the world. 
 Carlsberg invests hugely in technologies to improve energy efficiency and
reduce environmental impact, while at the same time keeping costs at a minimum.
Ex: solar panels, breweries have own thermal plants, systems for controlling,
recording and managing energy resources. 
 =>> These core competencies are very unique and hard to imitate for other
companies in the same market. This creates a great strengthen on the market, and
through one of the latest developments. 
IV. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES (BASED ON 4 EVALUATION
CRITERIA OF SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES)

 Powerful brand: Carlsberg has had a strong and well-known brand name in
the beer industry since 1904 with the slogan “Probably the best lager in the world”.
Besides, the crown on the logo stands for the company’s association with the Royal
Danish Court
 Pricing strategies: Carlsberg usually will have some discounts during the
festival seasons like Chinese New Year and Christmas. Besides that, there are few
substitute beer products in the market, so the price of the Carlsberg’s products will be
the same or slightly different with the other substitute beer products. The price of
Carlsberg’s products are cheaper compared to the price of Heineken’s product but
just slightly. However, the price of Carlsberg and Tiger are the same regardless the
size of the beer or packaging. This will be tough for Carlsberg to boost up its sales
due to the price. 
 Promotion: Carlsberg is well-known in 105 countries such as Japan,
Australia, Africa, China,... and sold in more than 150 markets. Besides that, Carlsberg
has adopted some aggressive promotions around the world to persuade people to
consume and be aware of it. 
 Carlsberg is a multinational company which has strong finance which
controls valuable assets, hard to imitate them by finding an equivalent product to
compete with them. Their manufacturing capability is valuable and rare but other
firms can imitate the technological production line, so manufacturing capability is
just a temporary competitive advantage. Tuborg is differentiated with other products
in the same segmentation by innovating in packaging (which is hard to copy), and
they have a distinguish marketing plan which helps them in raising their retail
turnover.

V. VALUE CHAIN (POINTS OF CREATING VALUES) 

 Primary Activities
1. Inbound logistics
 Carlsberg holds 3 different market shares including Eastern Europe,
Northern and Western Europe and Asia so the domestic logistics activities must also
be different in the procurement manager of raw materials.
 At Eastern, Northern & Western Europe, where Carlsberg had the central
department that will be responsible for packaging products and buying raw materials.
Depending on the area, Carlsberg will choose another supplier. 
 At Northern & Western Europe, where Carlsberg will select both local and
foreign suppliers is large, while Carlsberg will select small suppliers in Eastern
Europe and Asia areas. 
 Carlsberg created a program "the Excellence Program" in 2009 to decrease
the number of suppliers with the hope toward the low prices and the good service for
customers.
 Carlsberg has breweries located all over the world which enables them to
minimize shipping costs of their raw materials. They store raw material sourced from
various parts of the world in their breweries which are located in various strategic
locations to minimize shipping costs.
2. Operations
  The operations of Carlsberg comprise of various reputed breweries all over
the world to increase their offerings so as to cater to local needs of customers located
in various parts.
 The activities of Excellence Programmed also help Carlsberg bring a good
strategy for the operation because the program will create a connection between high-
quality breweries in Europe to provide good productivity for production. 
 Furthermore, the procurement department carefully checks the quality of
raw materials input such as hops and malt that will be used in facilities and other
ingredients and brewing the beer based on the taste requirements of the customers.
 Besides, the procurement department finds more other resources in areas.
3. Outbound Logistics
 The breweries of Carlsberg are located in various strategic locations of the
world which enables them to ship finished products to various parts with reduced
shipping costs.
 There are also some safety policies in Carlsberg, each of every branch that
brews Carlsberg under license, they need to send every type of beer of its sample for
once a month for the tasting panel to test in order to ensure the quality of the product.
So, Carlsberg can consistently deliver the quality that customers pay for.
 Carlsberg has distribution channels such as the wholesale distribution and
retail distribution to distribute their products to the customers. Carlsberg will deliver
their products to a combination of convenience stores or supermarkets like Tesco or
Jusco. Carlsberg focuses on the retail distribution to distribute their products. Some of
the examples of the retail distribution are the pubs, clubs or bars. Carlsberg will
establish alliance with some of the retail distribution to increase their sales
4. Marketing and Sales
  The marketing and sales activity has enabled Carlsberg to become one of the
most popular and reputed beer companies in the world. The efforts and initiatives
undertaken by them for marketing and sales has enabled them to create a brand name
amongst customers.
 Carlsberg is well-known in 105 countries such as Japan, Australia, Africa,...
and sold in more than 150 markets. Beside that, Carlsberg has adopted some
aggressive promotions around the world to persuade people to consume and be aware
of it. In order to compete with its competitors, promotion must be done in order to
increase the reputation, generate sales and profits.
 Carlsberg company spends money on buying the database to record the
customers’ information, such as income level, race, age, taste and preference. By
doing this, mailing to the right consumers to promote Carlsberg’s beer products will
be much more effective and mailing to those customers who are not interested in
alcoholic drinks. So, Carlsberg can send promotions via email to the customers to
inform them about their new beer products and contests.
 Carlsberg company uses location pricing, so the price  of Carlsberg can be
adjusted and flexible but it depends on different countries and even in restaurants.
Carlsberg focus their sales in pub, restaurants or clubbing places. For instance,
comparing the price of Carlsberg in pub and mini market, it seems obvious that the
price of Carlsberg in pub would be relatively higher than mini market because people
who go to pub are found to be able to afford it and the area of the pub is considered as
high class.
5. Service
 Carlsberg offers top quality services to customers to ensure that they have
the finest drinking experience with their beer products. The services offered also help
in development of brand loyalty among customers. 
  The services which were initially offered by Carlsberg were accounting
services but later the company increased its service portfolio such as IT. Master Data,
Procurement, Internal controls, HR services, Logistics, Planning, Sales Support and
Controlling. 
 The services which are offered by Carlsberg helps in creating a difference
between both the companies as Carlsberg by virtue of its increased services have
been able to outperform Heineken who provide limited services.

 Support Activities
1. Procurement
 The role of Procurement is to ensure a steady supply of input, manage all
supply risks, negotiate prices and lower the complexity in their supplies. By
managing the procurement of the key categories on a Group level, Carlsberg is able
to optimize terms and conditions and also benefit from longer lasting relationships
with their suppliers.
 Use of special relationship with distributors to get the products to the market
at lower costs.
 Product innovation

2. Technological Development:
 Carlsberg makes use of advanced technology to increase quality and
standards of their products.
  Use latest technological development in packaging to ensure that the
products are delivered in an efficient way to customers. 
 Moreover, technological advancements also helps them in marketing and
promotion of the products
 3. Human Resource Management:
 Carlsberg’s human resources are highly skilled and productive, which
ensures that they can perform their tasks with very limited supervision and also
remain productive and efficient. 
 The company pays attention to continuously providing training systems to
their staff in order to ensure that they remain updated with the latest brewing
technologies.
 That approach regarding HRM has enabled Carlsberg remain profitable and
productive in the market for years.
 
4.  Firm Infrastructure: 
- Carlsberg uses symbiotic relationships with distributors to push their
products and make customer loyalty. 
- There are ambitious and sustainable development goals included:
- Zero carbon footprint
 0% carbon footprint in 2030
 Reduce 30% carbon released in every cup of beer comes to consumer in
2030
 Use 100% renewable energy at their plants in 2022
- Zero water waste
 Reduce 50% water usage at plants in 2030
 In association with related parties to water protection
- Zero irresponsible drinking
 100% market improves drinking responsibility annually until 2030
 100% market supplies non-alcoholic beverage in 2022
  100% market is in association with related parties in drinking
responsibility program in 2022
- Zero accidents culture
 No lost-time accidents
 Reduction in accident rate year on year
         

VI. OUTCOME: STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Strengths
 Strong and well-known brand name in the beer industry since 1904. Crown
on the logo stands for the company’s association with the Royal Danish Court
 Ability to innovate and be creative, design of products, use shock plugs,
easy to hold, and eye-catching design.
 Product diversity
 Marketing ability
 Can approach wide target segmentation, golden population
 High manufacturing capability owing to the number of breweries that are
owned around the world. Ex: solar panels, breweries have their own thermal plants,
systems for controlling, recording and managing energy resources. 

Weaknesses
 Newly in Vietnam, compete with Habeco, Sabeco (2 major domestic beer
brands).
 Lack of reputation in Vietnam.
  Vietnamese prefer strong flavour, whereas Carlsberg - Tuborg tends to make
light and naturally beer taste.
 Raw materials mainly from external sources, import from foreign nations.
 As Carlsberg is an international company and has to coordinate all its
information and actions through its organization.