Light beer beacon: Heineken Premium Light shines in new category.

Throughout their careers, new product developers cultivate, coax and pitch ideas and concepts. At times, those ideas are elusive and the path forward dark with confusion and stagnation. But then, all of a sudden, a light snaps on. And there it is in front of you: a new product concept to shape, nurture, test and support.

For Heineken USA, the source of illumination emanated from a new product concept that evolved into what we now know as Heineken Premium Light.

With strong and strategic support, the new product is exceeding first-year market projections. But the launch hasn't been without skepticism from an industry that knows Heineken as a full-flavored imported lager, not a light beer alternative. For its critics, Heineken Premium Light seems like a contradiction of the core Heineken brand. Andrew Thomas, Heineken USA chief executive officer, says he loves to debate the issue.

"It was controversial when we introduced [Heineken Premium Light]," says Thomas. "But that's the kind of thing that excites companies like us--when everyone looks at you and says 'that's not going to work because it's never worked before.'"

This seems like as good a time as any to quote author Aldous Huxley:

"At first appearance, innovators have always been derided as fools and madmen."

This summer, Heineken announced that Heineken Premium Light's initial projection of five million cases of volume for year one has been far exceeded, and that the new projection is somewhere north of seven million. It attributes that success to a number of factors in consumer trends, the state of its own brand and an array of business imperatives. Of course, the essential element in the equation is Heineken's awareness and willingness to respond to the marketplace with its first major line extension using the Heineken name in more than 125 years.

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For all intents and purposes, the United States is the only market for light beer. Some satellite markets with U.S. influences harbor small demands as well, but the vast majority of worldwide light beer sales come from American consumers. And those American light beer drinkers are critical to American beer sales as a whole. In fact, light beer accounts for almost 50 percent of beer category volume, according to a 2005 report by Beverage Marketing Corp., New York.