What America’s #1 Beer Can Teach You About Successful Marketing

When the Modelo beer brand launched its “The sign of a warrior” in its March 2023 marketing campaign, it was not only an intriguing concept that appealed to underdog Americans, but also an indicator that there is a fierce and competitive spirit running through this beer brand – something much needed if it is going to take on Anheuser-Busch , the brewery behind Bud Light and the “King of Beer,” Budweiser.

In fact, Bud Light reigned as America’s #1 beer for over two a long time (since 2001). It seemed that Bud Light was as American as the 4th of July. Meanwhile, Modelo was not even in the top ten beers ten years ago, based on reports.

But Modelo fought its solution to the top and is currently the hottest beer in the country.

You could be much more surprised by Modelo’s secret weapon: marketing. Here are three lessons we are able to all learn from Modelo’s marketing strategy that may even show you how to reach the top spot in your industry.

Lesson 1: Spend crazy amounts of cash on marketing – much greater than your competitors.

If Modelo was “brewed with a fighting spirit”, it definitely shows. They fought so hard to get to the top that they spent crazy amounts of cash on promoting. In fact, they paid the highest TV promoting bill since the second quarter of 2020, research shows.

Last yr, Modelo spent $155 million on TV ads and plans to spend much more in 2024. Since July, it has invested $65 million in television promoting — about 75% greater than Bud Light has spent this yr, and 35% greater than Michelob Ultra, which just dethroned Bud Light as America’s second favorite beer in July.

You may notice a trend here: the more you spend, the more business you generate.

This is actually my only – and most hated – marketing tip for business owners: spend more on marketing than you think is rational and reasonable. This is the hardest thing for me to convey to clients.

Here’s a story that sums up what I mean: I have a friend who is incredibly successful. Throughout his profession, he has never needed marketing because he manages money, and in his circles which means growing through word of mouth. He recently decided to try his hand at real estate development and built eight gorgeous townhouses in Hiawassee, Georgia, right on the water, and found a realtor. Simple real estate investment, right?

Unfortunately not! None of his terraced houses have been sold yet, and only one is under contract. He truthfully thought, “If I build it, they will come.” But it doesn’t work that way! Eventually he realized he needed to advertise these homes and was going to launch a large integrated campaign with direct and internet advertising.

The point is that a very smart and successful man had no idea about this! He desired to run a small campaign and I had to essentially spend time teaching him this rule – you have to advertise greater than you think is reasonable and rational!

This applies to every type of companies, but here are three great company examples that have arisen as a result of accelerating marketing budgets:

• American manufacturer Proctor & Gamble’s marketing budget of 9.84% of revenues translated into revenue growth of 5.9% in fiscal yr 2023

• SaaS company Atlassian’s marketing budget of 15-16% of revenue led to 26% revenue growth in fiscal 2023

• Third-party SaaS company Asana’s marketing budget of 78.3% of revenue led to 45% year-over-year revenue growth in 2023.

Lesson 2: Counter fads and popular marketing tactics to really dominate

Fighting the competition is not all the time a battle on the front line. Sometimes a smarter approach will show you how to win. It could appear counterintuitive, but hidden spaces can show you how to get ahead, as can taking shortcuts forward that no one else is being attentive to.

For example, between 2019 and 2023, total linear TV promoting spending dropped 20% to over $183 million. Going with the flow, competitors Budweiser and Bud Light have cut their television budgets. Research shows that between 2018 and 2023, Budweiser reduced its TV promoting spending by 77% and Bud Light by 38%. Meanwhile, Modelo continued to significantly outperform them.

Despite the declining popularity of linear TV, Modelo has made large investments that have helped it take over this promoting space while other brands similar to Bud Light have spent more on social media and influencers.

Likewise my company PostcardMania selected the path less traveled. Direct mail, once the commonest type of promoting, has also declined. Marketing mail decreased by 26% between 2014 and 2023.

But not us – we have increased our customer base and now send out 232,000 postcards each week promoting our services.

Postcard marketing takes up the largest a part of our budget and it pays off. As of 2023, email delivers six times more revenue per lead than digital promoting. We figured this out by analyzing 114,373 leads that converted into sales in 2023 and found that we made $229.41 on each postcard lead in comparison with $37.09 on each pay-per-click lead.

Meanwhile, digital and social media remain a trendy space for promoting dollars because spending on digital platforms like Meta and TikTok, it continues to grow. In fact: For the first time in history, greater than half of U.S. promoting dollars will probably be spent on digital platforms like Google and Facebook. reports show.

Would you slightly be a big fish in a smaller pond or fight for space in a crowded ocean? I know which one I’d select.

Related: Don’t copy. Be different. And your marketing will win.

Lesson 3: Refine your strategy by tracking your marketing efforts

Failure is often the best teacher and can set us up for future success. By tracking all of your marketing efforts, you possibly can see which avenues are missing and which of them are succeeding. Just like a boxer in the ring, you should use hard punches as a learning experience and come back stronger and stronger.

In Modelo’s case, they saw that traditional TV promoting was working in their favor and continued to speculate in it. Of course, don’t throw all of your money at one tactic; also diversify your marketing budget. But let the data determine the percentage of cash allocated to one form of promoting or one other. We also spend a pretty penny on digital promoting!

One of my clients, A dentist in Charlotte, North Carolinaat one point he equated spending money on unsolicited mail with “hoarding money.” But his marketing manager insisted on a unsolicited mail campaign, and when his practice began seeing an 87.5% increase in latest patients due to the postcards, he had to confess he was incorrect – and all the higher for it because his practice did higher in this case !

And after all, never surrender the fight. The hard times and losses I experienced only fueled my fire to succeed much more. Let it do the same for you!