WHERE ARE YOU?
To be successful in a market, a brand needs to know who its consumers are, what they want and how they see the brand.
In the middle of the ’90s, the executives of Corona beer were facing the tough decision to change or not the brand traditional theme “Fun, Sun, Beach” in the communication, once its most relevant rival - the other imported premium beer - Heineken was starting to navigate in the same humor platform. Should they have changed the direction of a winning brand positioning ? A positioning that helped the brand in 20 years conquest the position of second-biggest imported beer in the US. The answer is NO!
No, because Corona had a very clear vision of who was the customer, what is needed and which attributes and benefits to explore. The customer of Corona was the young Latinos and the Americans who appreciated the Latin culture, who worked really hard and just wanted a relaxing moment while drinking a beer, an “easy” beer to drink. While Corona was using its ads campaign to build emotional associations with its brand (fun, relax, beach, ocean sound, vacation, simple), Heineken was spending 3x more in marketing to promote the quality of the Dutch beer. However, quality is not a sustainable asset to advertise once it is relative to each customer, not to mention the arrogance behind the signature “Just being the best is enough”. Heineken definitely needed to change its position in order to keep its leadership on the imported beer/premium U.S market.
You might think that when Heineken changed the guidance of its campaign to the same humor background as Corona, the executives of the Mexican beer should feel threatened, it is indeed undeniable that both companies shared several points of parity which helped both brands to create associations into American customers, such as origin (imported), distribution channels, price, and so on. But, both also had strong points of differentiation which were crucial for its market like the taste and the emotional feeling that aroused.
It is easy to see why Corona should keep its strategy when we put both companies into a perceptual map, using two benefits and how the customer perceives it.
Even using the humor as its motto, Heineken occupies a different place in the consumer minds. Corona is in a relaxed moment, Heineken is at the bar, at night. Corona is to disconnect with the world, while Heineken is dive deep into the crazy world.