The views expressed by the business participants are their own.
When the beer brand Modelo launched its “Mark of a Fighter” marketing campaign in March of 2023, it was not only an interesting concept that appealed to the American masses, but it was also an indication that this beer brand was fierce and competitive. spirit – a must if you’re going to take on Anheuser-Busch, the brewer behind Bud Light and the “King of Beer,” Budweiser.
In fact, Bud Light reigned as America’s No. 1 beer. 1 for over twenty years (since 2001). It seemed that Bud Light was as American as the Fourth of July. At the time, Modelo wasn’t even in the top ten beers of the previous decade, according to reports.
But Modelo fought its way to the top and is now the most popular beer in the country.
You might be even more surprised by Modelo’s secret weapon: marketing. Here are three lessons we can all learn from Modelo’s marketing strategy that will help you reach the top of your industry rankings, too.
Related: 5 Marketing Strategies From Big Companies: What You Can Learn From Their Mistakes and Results
Lesson 1: Spend crazy amounts on your marketing – much more than your competition.
If the Modelo is “built with a fighting spirit,” it definitely shows. They fight so hard to get to the top that they spend crazy amounts of money on advertising. In fact, they had the biggest TV advertising bill since the second quarter of 2020, the survey shows.
Last year, Modelo spent $155 million on TV ads, and they say they plan to spend even more in 2024. Since July, they’ve invested $65 million in TV ads — that’s about 75% more than Bud Light spent this year, and 35% more than Michelob Ultra, which just dethroned Bud Light in July as America’s second favorite beer.
You may notice a trend here: The more money you spend, the more business you generate.
This is actually my most effective – and most hated – piece of marketing advice for business owners: Spend more on your marketing than you think is reasonable or reasonable. This is the hardest thing for me to convey to my clients.
Here’s a story that sums up what I mean: I have a very successful friend. Throughout his career, he has never needed marketing because he is a money manager and that is word of mouth growth in his circles. He recently decided to try his hand at real estate development and built eight beautiful town homes in Hiawassee, GA, right on the water, and found himself a realtor. Simple real estate investment, right?
Unfortunately, no! None of his townhomes have sold, and only one is under contract. He thought sincerely, “If I build them, they will come.” But it doesn’t work like that! He finally realized that he had to market these homes, and he was going to do a big campaign that integrated direct mail and Internet ads.
The point is: The wisest, most successful man knew nothing! He wanted to do a small campaign, and I had to spend time teaching him about this principle – you have to market more than you think is reasonable or reasonable!
This applies to all types of businesses, but here are three great examples of companies that have grown from increasing their marketing budget:
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American manufacturer Proctor & Gamble’s marketing budget of 9.84% of revenue has led to revenue growth of 5.9% in fiscal year 2023.
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SaaS company Atlassian’s marketing budget of 15-16% of revenue has led to revenue growth of 26% in fiscal year 2023.
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Another SaaS company Asana’s marketing budget of 78.3% of revenue has led to annual revenue growth in 2023 of 45%.
Related: The Growth Hack My Clients Hate The Most That Promises Big Financial Rewards – Here’s What You Need To Know
Lesson 2: Cut back on trendy and popular marketing tactics to truly take control
Fighting for rivals is not always an uphill battle. Sometimes a smart approach will help you win. It may sound counterintuitive, but it’s the hidden spaces that can help you get ahead, like taking a shortcut to the front that no one notices.
For example, between 2019 and 2023, total TV ad spending fell by 20%, falling to more than $183 million. Along with the flow, rivals Budweiser and Bud Light have pulled back on their TV budgets. The study shows that, between 2018 and 2023, Budweiser has cut its TV ad spend by 77%, while Bud Light has cut theirs by 38%. Meanwhile, Modelo continued to outdo them – by a lot.
Despite the popularity of the TV line, Modelo invested a lot of money, and this helped them take this advertising space where other brands like Bud Light spend a lot of money on social media and influencers.
Similarly, my company PostcardMania has taken a more minimalistic approach. Direct mail, once the most common form of advertising, has also declined. Marketing mail decreased by 26% between 2014 and 2023.
But not us — we’ve scaled up and now send out 232,000 postcards every single week advertising our services.
Postcard marketing takes up a large portion of our budget, and it pays off. As of 2023, email brings in six times more revenue per lead than digital ads. We found this by analyzing 114,373 leads that converted to sales in 2023 and found that we made $229.41 per postcard lead compared to $37.09 per click lead.
Meanwhile, digital media and social media remain the trendiest space for ad dollars as spending on digital platforms like Meta and TikTok continues to rise steadily. In fact: More than half of US dollars will be spent on digital platforms like Google and Facebook for the first time, reports show.
So, would you choose to be a big fish in a small pond, or fight for a place in a crowded sea? I know which one I will choose.
Related: Do not copy. Be different. And Your Marketing Will Win.
Lesson 3: Adjust your strategy by tracking your marketing
Failure is often the best teacher, and it can set us up for success in the future. By tracking all of your marketing, you can see which methods are not working and which ones are working. Like a boxer in the ring, you can use hard blows as a learning experience and come back stronger and stronger.
In Modelo’s case, they realized traditional TV advertising was working for them and continued to invest in it. Of course, don’t throw all your money into another strategy; allocate your marketing budget again. But let the data determine the percentage of money that goes into one form of marketing or another. We spend a pretty penny on digital ads too!
One of my clients, a dentist in Charlotte, NC, once described spending money on direct mail as a “money pit.” But her marketing manager insisted on a direct mail campaign, and when her practice started seeing an 87.5% increase in new patients because of those cards, she had to admit she was wrong – and her practice was all the better for it!
And of course, never stop fighting. The hard times and losses I have experienced fueled my fire even more to succeed. May it do the same for you!
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