In 1996, Shandy, the pioneering brand of beer mixed with citrus-fl avoured soda, was launched on the market by Cruzcampo. The national leader of the industry Mahou-San Miguel, repeated this move in 2005 with Mixta, which initially captured a low market share as compared to its main competitor, although it took over DLemon of GrupoDamm.

In Spain, bottled beer mixed with soda is 40% distributed via Horeca (out of home consumption), and 60% through the Food channel (home consumption). More than 50% of sales are generated during summer and the target population are young people between 18 and 30 years, 54% females and 46% males, who are described as moderate consumers and consume the drink out of home, during the day, using this drink more as a refreshment than beer (the drink

contains only 0.9% of alcohol and belongs to the category of soft drinks).

Campaign aimed at differentiationIn 2007, the owner of Mixta – a name originally conceived to differentiate the product in this category of drinks, which by that time had already assumed the name of the pioneering brand, as it often occurs in many industries,– decided to launch the fi rst communication campaign outside its traditional distribution channel – promotions at the point of sales and at restaurants – designed by the international advertising agency Vinizius Young & Rubicam. The campaign focused on the rational message in the conventional style, highlighting the functional attributes of the product (freshness) as well as an emotional message and alignment with the target segment (youth, dynamism and common values): “Mixta, the Shandy of Mahou

What do product brands have to do in order to shorten the distance between themselves and the consumers, especially with the youngest segments of the market? Communication with these segments is becoming more and more diffi cult due to the new digital opportunities that furnish young people with more power and control over brands and distance them from traditional advertising.

The Case of Mahou-San Miguel, a Success Strategy for Commercial Brands

Brand

Strategy DocumentsC10 / 2012

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The document was prepared by Corporate Excellence and contains references, among other sources, to the statements made by Angélica Hernández (Mixta’sBrand Manager), Chiqui Búa (CEO of Publicisin Spain) and Carlos Magro (Design Director at Interbrand Iberia)during the Branding Days event organised by the Complutense University in Madrid on January 17 and 18, 2012.

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The Case of Mahou-San Miguel, a Success Strategy for Commercial Brands

with a refreshing flavour of lemon. Experience it with your friends”.

However, according to Mixta’s Brand Manager Angélica Hernández, the campaign was not fully effective due to the fact that the target audience shunned the advertising, which was incorrectly and belatedly using the codes shared by young people: the music and the language used in the campaign had already been out of date. Another reason was that young people more than any other segment of the population expect that the advertising should speak to their hearts rather than their minds.

That’s why Mixta had to revise the campaign, to turn the product into a brand, change the manner of addressing the audience and create its own communication codes in addition to appealing to the young people (especially University students between 18 and 25 years old), so that they could use them absolutely free, at complete discretion and in that way would adopt these codes, appreciating their intelligence. Chiqui Búa, from Publicis in Spain, suggested this strategy to Mixta and developed an advertising campaign, in which the main objective was to regain and highlight the product’s engagement with young people.

As a result, since 2008, this idea has been realised in successive campaigns – most of them with animals as main characters: pigs, cats, penguins and ducks, such as duck Willix and the campaign for its liberation – that aimed to surprise the young audience, connect and drive to absurd, to appeal to what is considered unexpected and weird by this audience. The “Know the Mixta” campaign was a success in the first year, with more than 20 mn views and downloads on YouTube, almost 20,000 subscribers and higher than average evaluation of the brand according to opinion polls (favourite brand in the category with an average of 63%, record result of 75%, 17 points ahead of the market leader and 11 points above the starting point, identification with the product, association with something modern and up-to-date).

In the following 2009, 2010 and 2011, the campaign repeated with a series of similar videos, characterised

by cheap, “home video” style that were highly successful, including such activities as casting of cats through social networks like Facebook and Tuenti, with almost half a million fans. The campaigns that followed were titled “Love at first Mixta”, “Mixto and Mixta”, “Disecadox”, “Nombrex” or the above-mentioned “Free Willix”, with 28 different versions in the first year, all of them pre-tested.

In the same way, innumerable unofficial webpages of the brand and “fakes” have been created (simulations or home versions) on YouTube: consumers were creating their own content and sharing it, thus creating a true social phenomenon, which became a trend and spread through word of mouth, boosting the sales (by 56% in 2008, 31% in 2009 and 16% in 2010). In 2011, the campaign received the Golden Prize of the Effective Advertising Award, organised by the Spanish Association of Advertisers. The product snatched a significant market share from Shandy and its growth in the category continues globally.

The changes also affected the logo, the package and the label of the brand, highlighting the most nonconformist and rebellious values, following the dynamic and even aggressive youth aesthetics, the expression of which culminated in the X of Mixta – which then became a symbol – emphasising the colours, especially the yellow and green, and modernised fonts.

‘Know the Mixta’: more than positioning, an ideologyThe key to success of Mixta and the described campaign was the original form in which young people told their absurd and strange stories, completely out of this world. Originality was not an end in itself, according to Carlos Magro, the Director for Interbrand Iberia Design. The objective was to break an invisible glass wall, which separated the brand from its audience and hampered effective communication.

Interbrand analysed the range of commercial brands held by the Mahou-San Miguel Group and the role of each brand in the Company´s portfolio of products. Interbrand also analysed the role of the master brand Mahou, which accounted for 15% in the visual identity of the product mix – similar to the case of Mixta – as well as the relationship with the Company’s brands family.

For that purpose, some symbolic and distinctive elements have been defined, such as the colour –at the same time preserving the distinctive red symbol of Mahou – the verbal identity, the illustration and the innovation. In this way, Mixta was able to easily adjust to the digital environment, which became the foundation for repositioning and reinvention of the brand – and develop a flexible platform that can be changed and adjusted to the tastes and moods of the consumers.

“The challenge was that

Mixta, a brand

produced by traditional

advertising, should stay

relevant over time and retain

its strength at all points

of contact with the

consumer”

Graph 1: Market Share

Source: Grupo Mahou-San Miguel, 2009.

Shandy CCSM 00 ManzanaSM 00 Té limónMiXtaDlemmonFD ManzanaFD Limón

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The Case of Mahou-San Miguel, a Success Strategy for Commercial Brands

The challenge for Mahou-San Miguel was also that a brand like Mixta, produced by traditional advertising, should stay relevant over time and retain its strength at all points of contact with the consumer. That’s why the brand had to break from all conventions established before, take advantage of social networks and adopt a new social focus.

That’s why “Know the Mixta” translated into “Likes” on Facebook and Tuenti, became an ideology, a

platform for communication, where the brand can express what it thinks and allow the consumers to express themselves in an open manner, saying what they think about different things: if the brand thinks that a flying pig is funny, it can tell others about this, and if the consumers also think that it is funny, they can share this story with their friends and tell others about it in their own way. According to the CEO of Publicis España, Mixta managed to attribute a more rebellious, liberated and non-conformist image to Mahou-San Miguel Group.

“Mixta became an ideology, a

platform for communica-tion, where

the brand can express

what it thinks”

MAHOU CINCO ESTRELLAS

Excelente cerveza tipo Pilsen de fermentación baja (Lager). La elaboración con las mejores variedades de lúpulo y levadura le da su inconfundible carácter. Su intenso sabor, su cuerpo y un suave pero persistente amargor hacen que sea la cerveza más apreciada por el consumidor español. Su contenido alcohólico es de 5,5º.

SAN MIGUEL ESPECIAL Cerveza de tipo Pilsen de gran popularidad y penetración en todo el territorio nacional. De color oro pálido, combina la suavidad con un sabor intenso y lupulado. Su contenido alcohólico es de 5,4º.

REINA Elaborada según la ley de pureza de 1516, tiene un aroma de intensidad alta-media. Es una cerveza refrescante, de textura ligera y equilibrada y con sabor afrutado. Su contenido alcohólico es de 5,5º.

MAHOU CLÁSICA Todo un símbolo del sabor tradicional de Mahou. Cerveza tipo Pilsen con un sabor suave, muy refrescante y con un ligero toque de amargor. Su espuma abundante y cremosa es una característica de las cervezas Mahou. Su contenido alcohólico es de 4,8º.

SAN MIGUEL 1516 Elaborada exclusivamente con malta de cebada, esta cerveza se produce según estrictos procesos tradicionales que datan de hace casi 500 años. Aun con un grado de alcohol moderado, 1516 posee un intenso sabor a extractos de malta y lúpulo finos. Su contenido alcohólico es de 4,2º.

LAIKER El proceso de elaboración natural con fermentación controlada seguido por Mahou produce una cerveza baja en alcohol que conserva a la vez todas las características propias de una excelente cerveza rubia. Una cerveza que puede tomarse a todas horas sin perder nada del sabor Mahou. Su contenido alcohólico es de 0,85º.

SAN MIGUEL 0,0% Es la cerveza sin alcohol de San Miguel. Un producto de alta calidad que incorpora toda la tradición y el saber hacer de la cerveza San Miguel. Hecha a partir de la selección de las mejores maltas y lúpulos, mantiene todo el carácter y el sabor de una Pilsen con un 0,0% de alcohol.

SAN MIGUEL 0,0% MANZANA

La primera cerveza española con un toque de manzana. Un producto que amplía la gama de cervezas SIN ofreciendo un sabor diferente: a la San Miguel 0,0% de siempre se le ha añadido zumo natural de manzana verde.

MIXTA Cerveza con gaseosa con sabor a limón. De bajo contenido en alcohol (0,9º) es refrescante, con un definido carácter cítrico y un toque de amargor. Para poder disfrutar de su sabor conviene tomarla muy fría.

SAN MIGUEL ECO La primera cerveza española elaborada con ingredientes procedentes de la agricultura ecológica. Contiene malta de cebada y lúpulos procedentes de cultivos especiales que siguen estrictamente las normas establecidas para la agricultura ecológica. Su contenido alcohólico es de 4,2.

SAN MIGUEL 0,0% CON TÉ SABOR LIMÓN

La original mezcla de cerveza San Miguel 0,0% con extracto de té y un ligero toque de limón, da como resultado un producto con un sabor sorprendente. Dirigida a consumidores de cerveza sin alcohol y que buscan nuevos sabores.

MAHOU NEGRA Cerveza tipo Múnich elaborada al estilo tradicional, cuya malta ha sido tostada en su justo punto. Una cerveza que se distingue por su color oscuro y aroma único y cuyo sabor logra un perfecto equilibrio entre la malta tostada y el lúpulo. Su contenido alcohólico es de 5,5º.

SAN MIGUEL NOSTRUM Es la cerveza de categoría “extra” de San Miguel. De color ámbar luminoso y burbuja pequeña y abundante, destaca por el equilibrio de su sabor. Pertenece a la categoría de las cervezas más fuertes, tiene un fino cuerpo y gran buqué. Su contenido alcohólico es de 6,2º.

Marcas internacionales distribuidas por Mahou-San Miguel

CARLSBERG Cerveza premium internacional, que nace en 1847 en Copenhague y hoy en día está presente en más de 40 países. Es de estilo centroeuropeo, con sabor suave y ligeramente afrutado. Su contenido alcohólico es de 5º.

KRONENBOURG 1664 Es la cerveza premium internacional con más carácter, líder en Francia y con una amplia presencia internacional. De sabor seco, con un aroma intenso y afrutado y un punto de amargor diferencial. Su contenido alcohólico es de 5º.

Graph 2: Trademark Guide Mahou-San Miguel

Source: Grupo Mahou-San Miguel, 2007.

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The Case of Mahou-San Miguel, a Success Strategy for Commercial Brands

Conclusion: a campaign that cannibalised the brand?Some of the criticisms waged against the Mixta campaign in the last few years by some marketing, communication and advertising professionals are related to the core strategy suggested by the agency and adopted by the company.

The launch of videos that aimed to establish direct contact with the target audience of the brand and the viral campaign in social networks and in the digital media in general, led to a signifi cant growth of awareness and recognition of the brand, but on

the other hand resulted in diffused positioning, put in the shade by the visibility and success of the advertising campaign.

Certainly, in the beginning Mixta saw a signifi cant increase of sales; but the number of downloads on YouTube and the number of fans on Facebook and Tuenti turned out to be inversely proportionate to the sales processing capacity of the company. This makes one think how diffi cult it is to make sure that the chosen approach is effective in the long run and in terms of the brand’s strength and its economic performance.

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