Corona
Here we have a battle of the beers: Heineken, associated with consistency, quality, and European style - you can be cultured but not *too* exotic, trendy but safe in knowing you’ll like what you try. Or you can go for Corona, which is breezy, chill, simple, and straightforward - a beer for young professionals. (Really we should all be drinking Pacifico, the finest non-Corona Modelo beer)
The beer industry was facing some general changes at the time of this case - overall beer consumption was decreasing due to national interest in health, while imports were doubling as American interest in nontraditional options was piqued, allowing both Heineken and Corona to position themselves as “premium” brands.
Corona branded itself as the easy, no-fuss nonsense - its simple bottle (largely unchanged from its domestic packaging) made consumers feel like they were getting a more authentic Mexican experience. Ads like “fun sun and beach” or “cross the border” were filmed in Mexico and focused on vacations, allowing consumers to feel a sense of escapism when they drank Corona. Additionally, Corona was able to capitalize on the “corona and lime” trend and distinguish itself from other beers - something that we see in its ads even today (I would in fact argue that the Corona+Lime is the brand’s true image - I’m not sure what the actual logo is). Lastly, Corona was able to maintain a consistent image and marketing strategy for a long time, ensuring that these associations were really burned into consumer’s minds for an entire generation
Heineken on the other hand, was facing some macro difficulties: the revaluation of the guilder caused imports to decline in the face of a weaker dollar, and the rapidly growing hispanic population had a greater affinity for Corona than a European brand like Heineken (note that this issue is somewhat lessened by the lower purchasing power of hispanic Americans). Additionally, there were some operational challenges to keeping beer fresh, it being more expensive to produce in and ship from the Netherlands versus Mexico. Heineken had pursued very little marketing efforts, believing that “just being the best is enough”. Faced with Corona’s rapid expansion, they had to take this perspective and brand themselves as a premium beer, emphasizing the quality and consistency of their product.
Lastly, and rather sadly, Heineken was able to capitalize on consumer’s willingness to believe false rumors about Corona, and started some nasty ones. First, there was the rumor that the beers were contaminated with urine - something which I felt had racist undertones (would people believe the rumor the other way around?). Second, there were rumors about corona’s caloric count and even that one of its ingredients caused cancer - seeing how in today’s society many people already believe negative things about Latin America, it seems that it was easy for Heineken to prey on those subconscious biases back in the 90s
