Cerveza Siempre is a spin-off of ZX Ventures, founded by Roberto Robles. ZX Ventures is a part of the global growth and innovation group of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the leading global brewer. Anheuser-Busch InBev owns, among others, Grupo Modelo, a Mexican brewery that produces various brands for the local market and export, like Pacifico, Corona or Modelo.
Cerveza Siempre is a Mexican subscription-based, affordable beer delivery service that distributes both Grupo Modelo’s products and other beer brands. It was started in 2018 to try different (DTC) distribution channels and a very innovative business model in the brewing industry. Cerveza Siempre offers the best beer prices on the market and unparalleled convenience, thanks to home delivery. By subscribing to Cerveza Siempre, customers can choose the type of beer and the frequency of delivery they need, for example weekly, monthly, bimonthly, etc.
“Cerveza Siempre is a dynamic DTC brand, we are planning to expand our operations and grow tenfold within the next year."
Selling beer online is still a new market in Mexico although it quickly became widespread. Currently, Amazon and other online retailers are offering beer sales online, competing against Cerveza Siempre.
Key challenges
- The need to offer competitive pricing without going below the retail recommended price.
- Low brand awareness and a need to speed up the market penetration.
"We believe Voucherify’s flexibility and scalability will support us with meeting our goals.”
Cerveza Siempre’s main value proposition, as opposed to their competitors, is the convenience of a subscription where the users do not have to place orders each time they want to order beer. Instead, they can “set it and forget it” and get their favourite beer delivered right on time and at a very competitive price.
Price is one of the most important factors for the Mexican audience when choosing where to purchase beverages. That is why sales promotions were crucial for Cerveza Siempre, to lower the price without going below the retail recommended price.
Beer subscription service is a new business model and Cerveza Siempre did not have much brand awareness when entering the market. They needed a strategy to enter the market and speed up the market penetration. They have decided to try a referral program and standalone coupons to get more people to try their service. They have also launched smaller discount vouchers campaigns focused on customer retention, with the goal to retain the customer until she or he places at least 6 orders (after which the chances for churn drastically decrease in subscription-based business models).
To power both types of sales promotions, discount coupons and referral programs, Cerveza Siempre needed a robust software. They were comparing developing their own promotional software or using SaaS, out-of-the-box solutions. They went for an out-of-the-box solution to be able to test the concept quickly (faster time-to-market) and iterate, if needed, with a “fail fast and learn” mindset. That is why they have started using Voucherify.
Cerveza Siempre integrated Voucherify in a single sprint, using Node.JS SDK. Cerveza Siempre’s primary use of Voucherify platform is to run their referral program. Here are the referral program rules (as of April 2021) that Cerveza Siempre set in Voucherify:
- A referral is considered successful if the referee (invited friend) places an order for at least 180 pesos.
- Referee (invited friend) gets a 150 pesos discount for the first two orders.
- Referrer (advocate) gets 60 pesos for each successful referral, no limit on referrals.
- You can become a referrer if you have placed at least one order with Cerveza Siempre.
The referral program was a great success for Cerveza Siempre, bringing 20% of the clients via this channel and increasing customer retention of existing clients thanks to the referrer discounts offered.
Another type of campaigns run by Cerveza Siempre are percentage- and amount-based standalone discount codes (public codes).
Types of discount promotions they run so far:
- Reengagement campaigns for customers who cancelled their subscriptions.
- Discounts for clients who have placed more than three orders.
- Special promotions, for example for Father’s day.
- Welcome coupons for new users.
- Discounts applied if a specific type of payment is used.
They have been trying various types of discounts to see what works best, however, the main target of the discount campaigns is acquiring new users. Cerveza Siempre publishes all discounts programmatically, using the Voucherify API directly. They distribute the discount coupons on the website and via email. They are planning to expand their distribution channels to SMS using Voucherify integrations.
In the future, Cerveza Siempre would like to expand their referral program to offer not only monetary value (discounts) but also exclusive products or extra products added to the order, to decrease the budget spend and optimize the ROI of the program. Currently, they are analyzing what motivates their customers to find the right balance.
