97 Management – Marketing - Tourism THE BEER BRANDS ON THE MACEDONIAN MARKET: HOW ARE THEY PERCEIVED? Assist. Prof. Ph.D Anita Ciunova-Suleska, University “Ss Cyril and Methodius” Faculty of Economics Skopje, Macedonia Abstract: The aim of this paper is to present the perceived position of the beer brands (domestic and foreign) on the Macedonian market. There are lots of beer brands offered on the Macedonian market which indicates that the competition is quite big. The competition is especially fierce among few of them because respondents have very similar perceptions about those brands. To have knowledge about the perceived position that product holds is crucial for the company because it is very important the perceived position to be identical with the desired position, otherwise (if the perceived position is worse than the planned) the company must involve itself in the activities of repositioning. JEL classification: M00, M31 Key words: positioning, positioning map, beer, perceived position Introduction The positioning process encompasses the development of positioning map which gives clear picture of the position of each company (product) in the customers’ eyes. Special softer has been developed in order positioning map to be constructed as a very helpful tool for the managers for defining as much better strategy as possible. But, the whole process doesn’t stop after the construction of the map, it proceeds with map interpretation for which integral knowledge of the marketing-managers is demanded. There are several positioning maps that can be used by marketing-managers: perceptual maps, preferential maps and combination of the both (that take into account the buyers’ perceptions and preferences as well). The paper gives an analysis of the beer brands in the R.Macedonia by creating perceptual maps based on the product’s characteristics. For the benefit of constructing a positioning map and in order to gather data about the various brands that are offered in restaurants and bigger supermarkets in the Republic of Macedonia, research was conducted about the most important characteristics of the brands that customers take into account when they make decisions which brand to buy and about the customers’ perceptions for the beer brands in Macedonia. The first research showed that in Macedonia there are lots of beer brands produced by lots of producers, i.e. there is a strong competition in the beer market in Macedonia. By constructing the positioning map, a clear picture was created regarding the position of the beer brands as they are perceived by the consumers, from which it can be seen among which brands the competition is the strongest i.e. which beer brands hold similar position in customers’ eyes.