SWOT Analysis of Corona: Renowned Global Beer Brand

Quick Stats on Corona

Founder	Antonino Fernandez
Year Founded	1925
Origin	Mexico
No. of Employees	40,000
Company Type	Private
Market Cap	N/A
Annual Revenue	$ 7.5 Billion (2020)
Net Income/ Profit	$ 398.4 Million (2020)

Products of Corona

Corona has been dealing with a range of beers to suit every need:

• Corona Extra
• Corona Light
• Corona Premier
• Corona Familiar
• Corona Non-alcoholic drink

Competitors of Corona

Corona competes on a global level while maintaining its quality and uniqueness, it competes with global brands such as:

• Budweiser
• Heineken
• SAB Miller
• Femsa
• Diageo

Now that we have seen a brief overview of the company, we can now delve right into the SWOT analysis of Corona.

SWOT Analysis of Corona

A SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning and management technique that helps an organization determine their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats related to business competition or project planning. It is a useful planning system that allows Corona to help identify its performance about its competitors and the industry as a whole.

To better understand the SWOT Analysis of Corona, refer to the infographic below:

Let us now learn more about the SWOT Analysis of Corona by starting with its strengths.

Strengths of Corona

Strengths are determinants that help identify the company’s unique qualities, what features does it excel at and what makes the organization stand out from the rest of the competition. 

• Target Consumer: While most of the other beers under the competition target youngsters, Corona has always focused its target towards an older group; adult and grown-up set of males and females who are well educated and classy. The beer targets both men and women and in fact research indicates that the beer is popular amongst women drinkers.
• Marketing and Advertising: Corona has always been a consistent advertiser and over the years it has not changed its signature message or positioning of “refreshing memorable moments”. Moreover, Corona advertises its beverage as more than just a drink. Corona positions itself as a ‘medium’ in which consumers can associate their beers to the experience of consuming the latter. 
• Leadership in the Market: Corona is regarded as one of the best selling beers in its respective category while being a prime leader in the export section. Further, in the U.S, Corona beers dominate the market claiming 29%, which accounts for 8 million cases around the world.
• Engaging with Environment: As beer Corona was born at the beach, the brand had pledged to protect 100 islands from plastic by 2020 and they did it successfully. This initiative increases the accountability of Corona in the beer market.
• Innovation: The company is always aiming for development and innovation. Due to their advanced facilities and equipment, they can ensure that their product is of its utmost quality ensuring value to consumers.
• Location: Because of the location of the company which is Mexico surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, it has an ease of access to resources such as water, supplies, and even has the advantage of logistics.
• Sponsorship: Since the inception of Corona, it has been sponsoring many sports including boxing, ATP’s premier worldwide, Mexico national football team etc. Also, it was the sponsor of the SBK Superbike World Championship for 9 consecutive years from 1998 to 2007.

Weaknesses of Corona

Weaknesses are pointers that may prevent an organization from functioning at its prime level. There are areas in which Corona has to improve:

• Low Systematic Growth: Since Corona was acquired by Anheuser Busch, the organic growth of the company is lagging. This is due to the company’s over-dependence on well-developed markets like the USA where the beer brand name is almost crashed.
• Monopoly: The US, which was always one of the leading countries for the beer industry, will be taken over by AB Inbev after the integration of Grupo Modelo and Anheuser Busch. After the latter happens, prices of certain brands of beer are likely to rise while others may plunge which in turn may affect the presence and even existence of individual brands.
• Incorporation Issues: The integration between Grupo Modelo and Anheuser Busch has been undergoing a lot of legal and functional crises in turn affecting both Budweiser’s and Corona’s sales.
• Poor Margins: Corona’s key markets are developed countries where the beer business is established and pricing is the only differentiating feature. Though Corona’s Extra beer has high-profit margins, their light & premier beer, which should account for the majority of their income, do not.
• Increased Expenses: Over expenditure have always been a problem for companies. The number of expenses by the company is increasing which results in a decrease in profits every year. Even though they have a high net revenue their profits are falling every year. A reduction in profits may create possibilities of losses in the future.

Opportunities for Corona

Opportunities are prominent external circumstances that may provide Corona with a competitive advantage.

• Synergetic Endeavour: As craft beer is growing in demand globally with a prime focus in developed markets, many leading companies are trying to join forces in the brewing of craft beer to divert mishaps off the radar. The latter will offer more opportunities to improve efficiencies and increase costs.
• Increased Awareness of Foreign Brands in Various Countries: In emerging nations like India, for example, where the number of clubs and pubs are increasing in the city, a majority of people ask for the brand ‘Corona’ due to its universality in the US, Canada and various other nations.
• Launch New Varieties: Corona only deals in 4 varieties of beer named extra, light, premier and familiar. Corona should think of launching new products like new beer varieties, snacks, fruit beverages, desserts, etc. Corona can also consider launching beers that may be low-carb to serve health-conscious customers.
• Improve its Digital Presence: Being one of the top beer brands in the world, Corona should take the opportunity of the booming digital era and build a stronger relationship with its customers online using digital marketing strategies. Having a strong digital presence creates a lasting impression and attracts new customers.

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• Change in Lifestyle: With the lifestyle change, many people believe in enjoying life by eating and drinking to the fullest. This can be a great opportunity for the company to reach potential customers and increase sales.

Threats to Corona 

Threats are factors that have the likelihood to disrupt an organization. 

• Government Regulations: Corona should monitor the fast-changing government regulations under the growing pressure from protest groups and non-government organizations, especially regarding the aspects of environment and labour safety.
• Bargaining Power of Consumers: Over the years the bargaining power of customers of Corona Beer has increased significantly which is a pressure for the company to lower their prices since Corona is a high-quality product.
• International Geo-Political Factors: Geopolitical factors have taken a turn for growing trade barriers. Developments such as Brexit, Russian sanctions, foreign exchange crisis & inflation in Venezuela, lower oil prices etc are impacting the cross border business environment.
• Competitors’ Low Prices: The company may be challenged to control its prices as compared to its main competitors. Other competitors have lower prices compared to them. Consumers may opt to purchase cheaper products that may look and taste like Corona beer.
• Covid-19 Controversies: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Corona beer brand has been disrupted several times due to the brand’s name being similar to that of the virus. Also, this is the main reason why Corona beer has been avoided in the US market.

For large corporations like Corona Beer, it is essential to break down their brand into the above-mentioned steps to have a more successful strategy and decision-making process for the year to come.

This ends our detailed SWOT analysis of Corona. Let us conclude our learnings below.