XX Mexican Beer building on Culture!

Cinco de Mayo is around the corner. Being a very important national holiday that involves festivities and in many households surely a few beer, Dos Equis is embrancing the opportunity to further impregnate their brand. National Pride + Holiday + Fun = Dos Equis, or at least they are trying to convey this thought.

Here is the whole article:

Mexican beer brand Dos Equis yesterday launched Expedition Cinco, a mobile marketing tour featuring branded off-road vehicles and unique sampling teams. Inspired by the escapades of the brand’s “The Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign, for two weeks leading up to Cinco de Mayo, the tour will engage consumers in 14 local markets via sampling, promotions and on-premise activations.

“Cinco de Mayo is not only an important Mexican holiday, but [also] an important part of the Dos Equis Mexican heritage,” noted Paul Smailes, brand director, Dos Equis. “Expedition Cinco is an opportunity to bring to life the brand’s adventurous spirit, while creating an authentic and engaging mobile marketing experience for our consumers.”

Expedition Cinco Teams, which consist of an Indiana Jones-like leader and Dos Equis ambassadors dressed as exotic tribal princesses, will travel in branded Dos Equis six-wheeled adventure vehicles to various Dos Equis accounts in the targeted market. The brand ambassadors will distribute such items as rigging carabineers and compasses and provide on-premise sampling opportunities. Consumers can additionally have their pictures taken with the “tribal princesses” in accounts and in front of the adventure vehicles. Consumers can access their photos online at www.ExpeditionCinco.com.

Expedition Cinco will visit Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Houston; Los Angeles; New York; Orlando, Fla.; Phoenix; San Antonio; San Diego; San Francisco and Tampa Bay, Fla. New York-based Mirrorball is the experiential marketing company behind the program.

Source: progressivegrocer.com

Coffee in China!

Today I would like to share with you an interesting paper by Daniel Spear:"Branding in China: The Challenge of Selling Starbucks Coffee in a Tea-Drinking Nation and Other Lessons."

It is a good example on how a company tries to change consumer taste or behavior, that stands in a cultural context, through effective brand management.

Below is a short introduction of the article and the link to the site. You can also find the PDF with the full article under the link.

On January 30, 2009, Columbia Business School hosted a conference exploring branding in China and India. With a population of 1.3 billion, China presents an attractive market opportunity for many multinational companies, as well as some unique challenges in building and expanding a brand. The first panel discussion focused on branding trends in China and was moderated by Mauro Guillen, the Dr. Felix Zandman Professor in International Management and director of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute for Management & International Studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mark Aoki-Fordham, director and corporate counsel for Starbucks Coffee Company, spoke about the challenges of selling coffee in a tea-drinking nation and protecting the valuable company trademark in Chinese courts. Roger McDonald, outgoing executive director for global accounts for Xerox Corporation, explained Chinese attitudes toward brands in light of the country's historical experience and modernization. Jessica Zoob, senior vice president of global strategy and business development for American Express Company, outlined how partnerships in China can be effective and addressed the issue of Chinese consumer brand loyalty.


Here is the link to the site and PDF

Courtesy of Columbia Business School Chazen Web Journal

Fulla Doll - Because girls want to be girls!

Here is another interseting example on how to adapt your product to meet the needs of the environment and target market. In this case the goal was not to create another extension of a Barbie, but to create a product that stands within a cultural context that enables the consumer to extract a clear set of values that he/she identifies with.

According to the article here are some of the key learnings they are trying to transmit:

The Fulla doll is one of the few Muslim dolls in the market but provides the necessary depth of the Muslim lifestyle to act as a role-model for young girls. This was accomplished through understanding the preference for Islamic influence sans cultural baggage and the need for children to be protected from detrimental influences that are too concerned with image and sexuality.


Fulla was not created as an extension of Barbie, and neither is she meant to be seen as a version of Barbie. Rather, she was created with a starkly different personality in mind that would allow her to be identified by children and parents alike who are keen on establishing values other than what Barbie exudes.


To accentuate the Muslim lifestyle and establish a connection between consumers and Fulla, the creators of the doll extended Fulla’s influence by providing life-size Fulla ancillary products such as prayer mats and foodstuff to create the ultimate Fulla experience.

The full article can be found here. Courtesy of www.dinarstandard.com and www.halalco.com