 Tecate Beer Hispanic Marketing - Tecate Beer Brand Stays True to its Mexican Roots in U.S. Marketing Efforts. Brewer Speaks 'Authentic' Language of Immigrants Rather Than Targeting Broader Hispanic Market.
Tecate's Carlos Boughton isn't a fan of targeting a broad Hispanic audience. Tecate, which focuses all its U.S. marketing efforts and ad dollars on Hispanics, is the beer for Mexican immigrants. Segmenting that group further, the company launched a beer for the next generation, Tecate Light.
"We believe Tecate should only speak in Spanish," said Mr. Boughton, brand director, Tecate Equity. "In authentic Mexican language, not a pan-Hispanic approach. You often water down your message by going very broad."
Despite the recession, he said Tecate's sales grew 6% last year in a flat market, and were up 13.3% by volume in Hispanic markets during the first quarter of 2009. Tecate, distributed in the U.S. by Heineken USA, has close to a 20% share of imports in Hispanic markets, and is the No. 1 imported beer among Hispanics, he said.
Tecate ads position the brand as the beer "con caracter." New ads humorously reference the struggles and hardships of resilient Mexican immigrants, whether they are tough guys working construction, sending money home or leaping up to offer a woman their bus seats. Radio spots warn men who are "chicken, whiny, insecure, cowardly and not that manly" or players of badminton or ping-pong to avoid drinking Tecate.
Mexico Sports Boxing Fans - Tecate also made a strategic decision that soccer is too broad and has too many clubs and countries for any brand to own, but that it could put its stamp on another sport popular with Mexicans: boxing. When a Spanish-language network canceled a weekly boxing show last year and Tecate lost a boxing platform, the beer marketer asked networks and producers for ideas, reviewed proposals, and went with ESPN. Now a Tecate-sponsored Friday night fight show airs on Spanish-language ESPN Deportes, hosted by a boxing champ who appears in Tecate commercials. The fights also air on English-language ESPN2, sometimes with Tecate ads in Spanish.
In 2008, Tecate spent $15.8 million on Hispanic media, up from $10 million in 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence. Of that total, $2.7 million was spent on Tecate Light and $318,000 on sponsorship.
New ads are breaking to lure Tecate drinkers' more acculturated kids to Tecate Light. Born in the U.S., they are more similar to general-market drinkers than to their Mexican parents.
In Mexico the light-beer category is small but in the U.S., it's half the industry. An immigrant's average age is about 25, so his frame of reference is the Mexican industry, with two beer giants and about 12 brands.
Three spots feature two parents in Mexico horrified that their son in the U.S. is drinking generic light beer. Papa implores him to at least drink Tecate Light, which has taste, and worries about what's next -- melon margaritas? as Mama waters her plants with the generic light beer. A coming English-language spot will celebrate the achievements of Mexican-Americans with celebrities like boxer Oscar de la Hoya who help shape American culture today. |
