Building a global premium go to market channel strategy

The Challenge

The global beer landscape is undergoing rapid transformation. While overall market value continues to grow, that growth is increasingly driven by premium and super-premium segments rather than mainstream volume. Consumers are shifting toward a “fewer but better” mindset.   At the same time, drinking occasions are fragmenting — with consumption expanding beyond traditional on-premise settings into more diverse, modern and premium environments.  

AB InBev’s portfolio was over weighted toward traditional channels, which meant it was missing out on where premium consumers were spending time - and where competitors were already gaining ground.

However, the scale and shape of this premiumisation opportunity varied significantly by market maturity.  It was within this complex and uneven global context that Cognosis was tasked to help develop a GTM channel strategy designed to unlock premium growth while accounting for differing levels of market development, retail structure, and consumer readiness.

AB InBev’s overriding objective: Determine which channels would most effectively drive both sales and brand equity across their key global markets.

Our Approach

To help AB InBev capture premium growth globally, we designed a data-driven channel strategy rooted in a deep understanding of premium consumer behaviours and the environments that shape their brand choices. Our approach moved beyond traditional channel definitions to focus on where premium value is actually created.

1. Defining the Premium Consumer

We began by defining what “premium” truly meant in behavioural terms.  Using multiple data sources, we developed detailed profiles of premium consumer segments and mapped their key behaviours, lifestyles, needs and consumption occasions.  This ensured the strategy was anchored in demand realities, not just supply structures.

2. Identifing the channels they spend time in

We then connected these consumer profiles to a geolocation dataset, enabling us to understand where premium consumers were actually spending their time.  Across 97 assessed channel types, this revealed a much broader and more nuanced universe of premium-relevant environments than traditional trade definitions capture, with 30 emerging as clear priority opportunities.

3. Evaluating channel desirability

Each potential channel was assessed not only for its commercial potential, but also for its ability to build premium brand equity. Combining quantitative analysis with local in-market stakeholder interviews, we evaluated the role each channel could play across markets at different stages of maturity - recognising that the same channel can serve very different purposes depending on context.

4. Creating a practical prioritisation framework for implementation

To translate insight into action, we ranked every channel based on its potential role (sales driver, equity builder or both) alongside the ease of implementation. This allowed us to build a clear prioritisation framework and roadmap that was practical for local teams across markets to adopt.

5. Turning go to market channel strategy into a scalable activation model 

Finally, we converted the channel strategy into an implementation framework that worked at both global and local levels. This included recommended investment levels by market, a global roll-up to inform capability and support requirements, and clear guidance on how priority channels should be activated across the premium portfolio.

The Impact

The project delivered a clear, actionable global go to market channel strategy, ready to be rolled out across markets and used to support annual planning. The strategy established a shared, organisation wide definition of premium consumers, identified the top 30 channels with the greatest strategic relevance, and equipped teams with the practical frameworks, KPIs and investment guidance needed to drive consistent decision-making and execute with confidence across markets.

By grounding the premium growth agenda in where consumers spend their time, socialise, and shop, AB InBev were able to invest smarter, compete more effectively and accelerate premium portfolio performance globally.  Markets were able to deploy resources more effectively, strengthen competitive positioning in high-value environments, and accelerate the performance of the premium portfolio worldwide.