If you live in New England and are a sports fan, you were likely watching too much tv this weekend. Between the Red Sox & Yankees, Celtics & Bulls and the NFL draft, it was sports nirvana. In as much as I enjoyed the games and draft action, what I really enjoyed was the commercial for Dos Equis beer.
I think its a funny commercial and its got some great lines – “he lives vicariously through himself” and “he once had an awkward moment to see what it was like” are probably my two favorite. However, what really caught my attention was the last line – “I don’t always drink beer but when i do it Dos Equis. stay thirsty my friends”.
What is fascinating about that line is what it is implying and what it is telling you about Dos Equis business strategy. In developing this campaign, they are clearly going after a very defined customer, likely someone along these lines:
An educated male or at least a male with a pretty good level of sophistication; on the higher end of the income scale; likely married with kids; is more inclined to drink premium spirits and higher end wines than a beer but was likely a beer drinker at one point in life; and probably aged somewhere in their mid thirties to mid forties. Lastly, this is the group that remembers Dos Equis as a pretty good beer, one that provided an opportunity to drink a Mexican beer (when that was popular), but allowed you to be different than everybody drinking Corona’s.
What I clearly like about the approach is that this probably isn’t the result of a group of guys in marketing trying to be creative with funny commercials. This is based on a carefully crafted profile of the beeer & spirits market, an understanding of the customers expectations which was used to create a model of their targeted customer with a clear value proposition for that customer. The brand messaging, as evidenced by the commercials and the campaign which can be found at this site – Stay Thirsty My Friend is clearly an extension of the business strategy to establish Dos Equis as the beer of choice for its target customer – the sophisticated casual beer drinker.
So, in my mind, Dos Equis is doing something right. Do you know of any other companies that are doing a good job at integrating their branding with their busines strategy?
