Dos Equis Beer Brand - Case Study Example

DOS EQUIS BEER BRAND By Location Dos Equis beer brand Introduction Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma is a subsidiary of Heineken International based in Monterrey, Mexico, which began operations in 1890. The brewery runs plants in Orizaba, Tecate, Navojoa, Monterrey, Toluca, and Guadalaraja and has been producing beer brands such as Dos Equis, Indio, Tecate, Bohemia, Carta Blanca among a list of other reputable brands. The founders of the brewery were family members of the Murgeza family that included, Jose Caleron, Francisco Sada Mugurza, Alberto Sada among a list of others where they injected a capital of 150,000 pesos. One of the reputable brands produced under the Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma brewery is the Dos Equis brand in which analyst have predicted that it is set to have global trade impact because of its unique approach for reaching its target market. Essentially, Dos Equis has been able to stand out among a list of twenty thousand global beer brands because of the advertising campaign applied in marketing this brand to the international market. With this, this essay will delve in to Dos Equis beer as part of the Heineken family by explaining why the brand has the most global trade implications, which is set to revolutionize its global trade distribution processes in the years to come. Background information on the consumption of Dos Equis beer One of the key aspects that has influenced Dos Equis to be a global brand is its senior brand manager Paul Smailes because the brand has become the most sought after beer brand in the world. Presently, Dos Equis is a powerhouse brand because of the creativity and market research strategies that its brewer applies in order to stay ahead of its competitors (Jackson & Deckers 2013, p. 136). Research has shown that Dos Equis became known as a result of students from the University of Texas that were on their spring break in Mexico and carried the brand back to Texas. Initially, the sale and distribution of Dos Equis was only in the south western states of the USA but the frequent drinking of the beer by students made the brand director in 2007 Mr. Jan Van Der Hoeven Willem to see the opportunity that lied in the US market. As a result, the brand grew because the students intended to carry through the Mexican experience that they had exposed themselves to during their spring breaks, which guaranteed the brand of sales across the border. With this, Dos Equis slowly became part of the spring tradition in which Van Der Hoeven and his team sought to establish a lasting relationship with the college students and retain them as their customers. As part of their market expansion strategy, Dos Equis focused on conducting market research in order to acquire feedback from the beer drinkers both in Mexico and for the college students, which helped the brand to understand what their customer’s perception was towards the Dos Equis product. The market research process The information gathering process was both through formal and informal research that included those involved in building and marketing the brand having to sit down in bars so as to interact with the customers and receiving feedback. Therefore, Dos Equis sought to understand its market positioning through the eyes of its customers in order for its expansion process to be inclusive of the views that their market held of their product. Ideally, Dos Equis was brand developed by a German, which explained its distinct taste that created mystery and also the name that the brand had influenced customers to want to know more about the drink. The other aspect that led to the growth of Dos Equis as a brand was the fact that customers felt that the brand represented the true Mexican experience that the market appreciated. In addition, Dos Equis gave a different feel as compared to other brands such as Corona, which represented the beach and relaxation, an aspect that many were accustomed to. The mysterious aspect that surrounded this beer attracted more drinkers because Dos Equis brand represented a contrary image of Mexico. Remarkably, the brand management team of Dos Equis managed to turn the research findings into sales in which it was challenging at first, but later became achievable. For one, Dos Equis had to understand the market base drinking needs at a personal level in which the brand was able to establish a valid emotional connection between the brand and the consumers (Kelley & Jugenheimer 2011, p. 92). The implication of this is that the brand was able to influence customer satisfaction because the brew delivered as per the needs that the customers had presented during the research process. This means that part of the reason why the Dos Equis brand has attracted global trade implications is that the brand factors in the feedback given by the consumers making the brand to be more customer-oriented rather than profit-centred (Halloran 2014, p. 119). Further, the brand also applied various promotional strategies that were able to make the product known to the target market that was not aware of its existence, which also helped in the market positioning of the brand. Promotional strategies used by Dos Equis Ideally, the Most Interesting Man in the World campaign was one of the principle achievements of the Dos Equis brand team as it received positive reviews in which it became one of the most enjoyable advertisements in the history of USA ads. It also had aspects that the target market could connect with in which the actor depicted a man that lived in richness and glory an aspect that many young people hoped that they could have in the future. Since the inception of the ad campaign that starred Goldsmith Jonathan, the sales of the beer shot up by significant margins because the target market was able to associate with both the young and older ‘interesting man’ because of the experience that he shared. The social media as a promotional strategy has also been instrumental in making the brand to develop into a global brand because they have influenced an appeal for the products worldwide. Ideally, social media as a promotional tool tends to be an engaging tool in that allows the brand team to engage with the customers by coming up with promotions tat influence the participation of customers. One of such can be the promotional campaign in which customers had to apply to be the next assistant to the Most Interesting man. In many cases, such promotional studies tend to influence sales because one of the key requirements of participating in the promotion is a customer has to drink the beer so as to be part of the experience. The implication of this is that these strategies tend to influence the sales of a product by making them to be higher because customers have to consume the product in order for them to enjoy the promotion. Such promotions also tend to motivate customers to use the products in the promotion because most of them tend to be interactive games that help in sharpening skills. The decision of not taking the conventional marketing and advertising strategies that include fun at beaches has enabled Dos Equis to stay at the top of the beer market because of the fact that they have taken a divergent approach to reaching out to its market (Retail customer experience.com 2014). Essentially, it is pertinent for brand managers to stand out in order for their products to continue enjoying high consumption because sticking to the norm of advertising can influence a downward trend on sales. Therefore, the avoiding of applying cliché’s in Dos Equis brand of beer has enabled the brand to be ahead of other beers in the USA because they seem to have understood that consumers were tired of marketers misunderstanding them (Schultz 2014). According to Alexander of the Brand Channel (2010), Dos Equis targets the young population that is between 21 and 34 in which the brand tends to associate with because of the desired feeling of being interesting. With this, the brand has made trade impacts on a global scale because those that it targets are outgoing and have active social lives as they share with their peers about their experiences in life. Ideally, the story behind the interesting man is that he is older and he shares the experiences of his life and travels, which makes his stories to be appealing to the target market because age has association with credibility. The message conveyed in the adverts also influences responsible drinking in which many feel that it is a necessary approach rather than the conventional way of highlighting the dangers of excessive alcohol drinking. In essence, the interesting man asserts that he is not a drinker when he chooses to consume an alcoholic drink his preference lies in Dos Equis. The advertising campaigns that Dos Equis applies has enabled Heineken to regain its lost marketing ground in the US but the acquisition of this beer brand has attracted a wider consumer base to the amazement of many analysts. Most the competition that Heineken was experiencing came from brands such as Stella Artois whose country of origin is Belgium and influenced the plummeting sales for this beer giant. After the acquisition of Dos Equis in 2010, this brand brought in many sales for Heineken in the US because it helped in raising the sales percentage of Heineken products (Fletcher 2011). The implication of this is that Dos Equis stands as a tool for Heineken to outshine its competitors in the US market because the brand has influence a decrease of sales for other beer brands that had dominated this market. However, much of the success that Dos Equis enjoys in terms of sales attributes from the ad campaign where Goldsmith began appearance in 2006 with each year registering an increase in sales percentage in the US and Canada as well (Oliver 2011, p. 594). According to analysts and data provided by Dos Equis, the sales percentage stood at 22% while the other beer that exported to the international markets were experiencing plunging sales. Conclusion In essence, Dos Equis appears to have applied revolutionized global impact strategies rather than using old ones that have proved to be ineffective in terms of capturing new markets. Further, its distribution process as applied by Heineken also favours the sale of this brand because the beer has dominated the US market because of the way that it portrays Mexico. The gamble that Dos Equis took as part of its marketing strategy appears to have been fruitful because the beer is the most popular in the USA among college kids because they tend to relate to what the advert say about them being interesting. The implication of this is that brands that intend to make global impact should employ strategies that are outside the norm by understanding the needs of their market in order for them to become market leaders in the area that they trade in the same manner as Dos Equis. 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Retail Customer experience.com 2014, A Tale of Dos Equis and Romancing the Brand, , Available from: http://www.retailcustomerexperience.com/article/225893/A-tale-of-Dos-Equis-and-romancing-the-brand [11 April 2014] Schultz, EJ 2012, How This Man Made Dos Equis a Most Interesting Marketing Story, Advertising Age, Available from: http://adage.com/article/behind-the-work/story-dos-equis-interesting-man-world/233112/ [11 April 2014] Read More