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When beer brand Modelo launched its “Mark of the Fighter” marketing campaign in March 2023, it was not only an interesting concept that appealed to America’s underdogs, but also a sign that the beer brand was fiercely competitive. It also showed that. Spirit — a big necessity when going up against Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch, the brewer of Budweiser, the “king of beer.”
In fact, Bud Light reigned as America’s No. 1 beer for more than 20 years (since 2001). Bud Light seemed as American as Independence Day. Meanwhile, reports say Modelo wasn’t even in the top 10 beers 10 years ago.
But Modelo rose to the top and is now the most popular beer in the country.
Modelo’s secret weapon, marketing, may surprise you even more. Here are his three lessons you can learn from Modelo’s marketing strategy. This will help you earn the number 1 position in the industry list.
Related: 5 Marketing Strategies of Leading Brands: What We Can Learn from Their Failures and Successes
Lesson 1: Spend far more on marketing than your competitors.
If Modelo is “brewed with fighting spirit,” it definitely shows. They fought hard to get to the top and spent huge amounts of money on advertising. In fact, the company posted its highest TV ad spend since the second quarter of 2020, according to the study.
Last year, Modelo spent $155 million on TV commercials and says it plans to spend even more in 2024. As of July, they have invested his $65 million in TV ads. That’s about 75% more than Bud Light has spent this year. That’s 35% more than Michelob Ultra, which just took over Bud Light as America’s second-most popular beer in July.
You might notice a trend here: the more you spend, the more business you generate.
This is actually my most effective and least favorite piece of marketing advice for business owners. Spend more on marketing than you think is reasonable or sane. This is the most difficult thing for me to convey to my clients.
The summary of what I want to say is as follows. I have a friend who is very successful. Throughout his career, he has never needed marketing. Because he was an asset manager and it was growth through word of mouth. He recently decided to try his hand at real estate development, and he built eight luxury townhomes on the water in Hiawassee, Georgia, and hired a real estate agent. It’s a simple real estate investment, right?
Unfortunately, that’s not the case. None of his townhomes have sold yet, and only one is under contract. He honestly thought, “If I build it, they will come.” But it doesn’t work! He eventually realizes he has to sell these homes and is running a large integrated campaign using direct his mail and online advertising.
The point is that a very smart and very successful man knew nothing. He wanted to do a little little campaign, so I had to spend a lot of time educating him on this principle. That means you have to market more than you think is sane or reasonable.
While this applies to all types of businesses, here are three great examples of companies that grew by increasing their marketing budget.
American manufacturer Procter & Gamble’s marketing budget is 9.84% of its revenue, and its revenue grew by 5.9% in 2023.
SaaS company Atlassian’s marketing budget is 15-16% of revenue, and its 2023 revenue grew by 26%.
Asana, another SaaS company, has a marketing budget of 78.3% of its revenue, and its 2023 revenue grew 45% year over year.
Related: The growth hacks my clients hate the most are the ones that promise the biggest financial returns — here’s what you need to know
Lesson 2: Ignore trendy marketing tactics to truly gain an edge.
Fighting your competitors isn’t always about fighting on the front lines. Sometimes a smarter approach can lead to victory. It may seem counterintuitive, but hidden spaces can help you move forward by taking shortcuts to the front lines that no one is paying attention to.
For example, between 2019 and 2023, linear TV’s total ad spending decreased by 20%, or more than $183 million. Following the trend, rivals Budweiser and Bud Light also cut their TV budgets. According to the study, between 2018 and 2023, Budweiser reduced its TV ad spend by 77% and Bud Light by 38%. Meanwhile, Modelo continued to outspend them by far.
Despite linear TV’s decline in popularity, Modelo has invested heavily, making it an area of advertising at a time when other brands like Bud Light were increasing their spending on social media and influencers. It helped me take over.
Similarly, my company, PostcardMania, takes the road less traveled. Direct mail, once the most common form of advertising, has also declined. Marketing emails decreased by 26% between 2014 and 2023.
But we are not. We’ve grown and now mail out 232,000 postcards every week promoting our services.
Postcard marketing takes up the bulk of our budget, and it’s paying off. As of 2023, email brings in 6 times more revenue per lead than digital advertising. We arrived at this by analyzing his 114,373 leads that converted into sales in 2023. They found that they earned $229.41 per postcard lead, compared to $37.09 per pay-per-click lead.
Meanwhile, spending on digital platforms such as Meta and TikTok continues to steadily increase, with digital and social media remaining a trending venue for ad spend. In fact, reports show that for the first time ever, more than half of U.S. advertising dollars will be spent on digital platforms like Google and Facebook.
So, is it better to be a big fish in a small pond or fight for space in a crowded ocean? We know which one we’d choose.
Related: Don’t copy. Let’s do something different. And your marketing will be successful.
Lesson 3: Track your marketing and fine-tune your strategy
Failure is often the best teacher and can prepare you for future success. By tracking all your marketing, you can see which avenues are lacking and which are successful. Just like a boxer in the ring, you can use your hard blows as a learning experience and come back even stronger.
In Modelo’s case, they realized that traditional TV advertising was working well and continued to invest in it. Of course, don’t put all your money into one strategy. Marketing budgets will also be diversified. However, data determines the percentage of funds devoted to a particular form of marketing. We also spend a significant amount of money on digital advertising.
One of my clients, a dentist in Charlotte, North Carolina, at one point considered spending money on direct mail a “money pit.” But when his marketing manager insisted his direct mail campaign and his clinic started seeing an 87.5% increase in new patients thanks to those postcards, he realized he was wrong. I had to admit that. And his clinic is even better because of it.
And of course, never give up the fight. The difficult times and losses I experienced only further fueled my passion for success. Let us do the same for you!
