Josecuervo

This paper will attempt to discuss the global market in relation to the Jose Cuervo Company. Typically we think from the perspective of a U.S. company operating abroad in other countries and that company dealing with the various things overseas, this paper will look at a foreign company and its marketing decisions here in the United States.

Lets start with who, what, why, when, and where, or basically a history of the company and what they are doing here in the alcoholic beverage market in the U.S. According to cuervo.com the company got started in 1758 by Don Jose Antonio De Cuervo from a land grant from the King of Spain, in a region of Mexico called Jalisco. In 1795 King Carlos IV of Spain granted the Cuervo family the license to produce tequila. Tequila is derived from the blue agave plant which is only grown in two regions of Mexico, Jalisco and Tequila. The Spanish settlers learned from the natives how to obtain the juice from the agave plant (which is not a cactus, it is a relative of the lily) called pulque and then added distillation process to it to come up with tequila. Pulque by the way is almost beer like and smells and tastes like sweaty feet. The margarita is the most popular drink containing tequila and it origins go back to 1938 at a bar in Mexico where a bartender named the drink after an exotic dancer. The actual word margarita means daisy in Spanish. The Cuervo set up its Fabrica de la RojeÐ*?a in 1812 and is the oldest distillery in operation in Latin America. The Jose Cuervo Company is said to have the oldest example of commercial branding still in use, they used a crow on the barrels because many of the consumers in Mexico were illiterate. Along with the crow all Jose Cuervo bottles have Hecho in Mexico (made in Mexico) and a NOM which is a unique number given by the Mexican government to indicate the authenticity of the tequila. 1873 was the year that Cuervo began being sold in the United States. This is aside from the exports to Spain that were already occurring since the first licensing by the Spanish government. Cuervo is also one of the oldest companies to be family owned. Currently Cuervo Tequila is largest selling brand of tequila world wide.

One of the biggest concerns for any company marketing alcoholic beverages in the United States is the blue laws. The unique thing about blue laws in the U.S. is that there are laws that are national (like our B.A.C. of .080) and some are regional like the alcohol per volume allowed in beer or the dry counties strewn across our south. The county where Jack Daniels is produced is a dry county in order for the testers to check their product it has to be shipped out of the county. In terms of marketing the U.S. is in the midst of a big publicity and legal drive to stamp out drinking and driving, so companies that distribute alcohol are now encouraging consumers to utilize their products responsibly. Cuervo is currently sponsoring Fox Soccer Channel and in the past was one of the first sponsors of beach volley ball and has sponsored a national hip-hop talent search.

In the new product