Corona
There are a number of trends in the global beer industry. One is consolidation, where firms are using mergers and acquisitions to enter new markets and to achieve economies of scale. For a brewer like Modelo, consolidation means that the company becomes smaller relative to the industry's top firms. Modelo has does not compete (at least with Corona) on a cost-leadership strategy, so this trend does not matter much for production economies of scale but it does matter for marketing economies of scale. Corona is also leading a trend of premium beer brands competing in the marketplace. Products such as Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Heineken and (in international markets) Budweiser are competing with this strategy in this is one of the most important growth markets in the industry.
Modelo's international expansion was made possible through the use of strategic partnerships with distributors. These partnerships allowed Modelo to penetrate internationally markets quickly, with little initial investment. These distributors were able to get the product shelf space quickly, and are able to understand how best to position Corona in the foreign market. Thus, Corona benefited from the established routes to market and distribution infrastructure, in addition to local market expertise. This allowed the company to focus on two aspects of their business that they considered to be essential -- brewing and marketing.
In the critical U.S. market, Modelo's strategy for Corona was to use two different distributors, and split the country evenly between them. This forced each of the distributors to pay more attention to the brand,...
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