The market where I was fortunate to own a beer distributorship was located in far south Texas along the Mexican border. The demographics of the marketing area, was as you might expect, was over 95% Hispanic.
Even with such high Hispanic demographics, Cinco de Mayo was not consider a major holiday. There were no special events, parades, or even promotions during the early 1980s. In fact, the two biggest events for beer sales were spring break, in March, and the week of Easter. Easter was considered a big event in South Texas because many Mexicans came to South Padre for a week-long to celebrate. During both occasions, the island was full and our distributorship sold large amounts of beer.
During this time, Dies y Seis was actually a bigger affair than Cinco. One year we even promoted Schlitz 16 ounce cans to celebrate the 16th of September. We ran the promotion because both Modelo and Femsa products, while growing, did not have a large share of market. It was not until spring break 1986 did we realize that Corona was going to be a big hit, when we sold five truckloads of straight Corona bottles.
While at Gambrinus in the mid-1990s, our Cinco efforts were initially directed at Mexican restaurants. The early Cinco kits we used for promotions consisted of the usual, banners, table tents, and other misc. paper items that promoted Corona. Femsa did the same. Soon these promotions moved into other venues including sport bars, casual dining, and even white table cloth restaurants.
The growth of Cinco was unbelievable. Gambrinus closed its corporate offices and all employees were required to work the retail market. Every year I had several employees from the San Antonio office come to Dallas and ride the market with me, visiting and working all these Cinco promotions, and allowing them to see firsthand what dealing with the retailers and wholesalers entailed.
The Cinco promotions expanded even further when national accounts took over the off- premise and started nailing down ads and features. Displays went up in all the chains. The Kroger on Mockingbird Lane in Dallas, then the largest square footage in the US, built a 1,000 case Corona/Corona Light display. Because there were no cell phone cameras, this was a mandatory stop for everyone beer person to see.
Over the last twenty years Cinco has grown into a major beer consuming weekend led by the Mexican beers. Cinco has done for Corona and Dos Equis what St. Pats Day has done for Guinness. No matter how it is defined, both Modelo and Femsa are now main stream brands.
So the question on this Cinco de Mayo day is: did the holiday make these beers or did the beers make the holiday? Enjoy this Cinco de Mayo!
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