Case Report Outline

To: Professor U. Y. Sullivan

From: Tessa Bubalo
Date: 2/20/2023
Subject: Report on Forbidden City: Launching a Craft Beer in China

Recommendation Summary: To best benefit Eurasian Brewing Company, choosing to side

with Vivian Chin would be the ideal solution. This decision will help accomplish EBC’s goal of
global expansion, especially into the western markets. 

Situation Analysis/Problem Identification: 

Victor Wang, managing director of EBC needs to decide whose idea is most beneficial for
Eurasian Brewing Company: Le Jie’s or Vivian Chin’s. Le is the vice president of EBC’s
operations in China and East Asia and is considered an expert on China’s market. He is known to
create a heavy workload for himself, without being able to delegate tasks to other employees
because of his lack of trust in their ability to do his job successfully. He is proposing that
introducing a new craft beer in China, Forbidden City could greatly increase EBC’s mark share
and profitability. 

However, Vivian Chin, Eurasian Brewing Company’s director of marketing and sales, has a
different idea in mind and does not believe there is room for both products to be launched on the
Chinese market. She and her team believe that they should focus their attention on bringing a
craft-type beer called Wild Dog to the market because they believed it promised a regional
appeal and could potentially gain worldwide appeal. They had already begun rolling out a small
batch and completed a successful Singapore test market of this beer, resulting in well-received
feedback from focus groups. While Wang wants to reinforce the ownership that Le has over
decisions in his region, he needs to ensure that his decision is aligned with that of EBC’s growth
strategy. 

Recommendation plus Pros/Cons and any Implementation Concerns

Although I would find this a difficult decision if I was Victor Wang, I ultimately believe that
choosing to bring Wild Dog to the market would be the best decision for the Eurasian brewing
company. By bringing Wild Dog to the market, EBC can achieve its goal of continuing to
expand worldwide, especially into the western markets.  

One of the reasons that I believe in Chin’s idea, is because it already has some success in
Singapore and could be considered a good opportunity for a possible global band and they are
considered to be a “high-quality and low-cost producer” making a global expansion. Receiving
positive feedback from their focus groups suggests favorable results in Singapore and possible
success in Kuala Lumpur and manila which is more progress than Le has made in response to his
beer. Because of EBC’s size and experience, they will be able to produce high-quality products
for a lower price, making it easier to distribute their product to western markets. Along with this,
it is clear that Wild Dog would align and be able to overcome any obstacles associated with the

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various elements of culture that should be considered when globalizing, such as language, social
organizations, and aesthetics of both Chinese and Western Markets. For example, the name Wild
Dog was chosen in hopes to create a masculine and edgy aura surrounding this beer that
specifically targets young/middle-aged men, so they have an understanding of western and
Chinese language/aesthetic, allowing the brand name to make sense and potentially become
popular in both markets. Along with this, I think China did a good job of understanding the
social organization aspect of globalization. For example, they chose this brand name to appeal to
a young masculine male, which reflects a large population of beer drinkers in western markets.
Chin looked at Caste or class grouping to understand what the buying behavior is for their target
market and designed a beer to appeal to that group. Chin felt taking this branding position would
differentiate it from the usual elite/fashionable brand image of American and European brands,
thus giving them a unique advantage.

Despite believing that this is the best solution, there are still some cons to this plan that should be
identified. One of these cons includes Le’s belief that they should be experimenting in a different
market to grow. EBC could be missing an opportunity to experiment with a potentially different
marketing model. Along with this, the case study acknowledges that local or regional brewers in
China were still strong in the retail channel, with few large brands established. Therefore, Le
believes that establishing distribution and growing EBC relationships with resellers would need
to be completed before expanding. Lastly, the case study presents the argument that the Chinese
market does not need more craft beers especially because they will not display the same
authenticity that Le’s beer might have. 

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