A wedge of lime

There's an interesting thing about Corona beer that a lot of people don't know about. A lot of people realize that Corona uses, in their advertising and, in fact, the way the beer is served, they use a wedge of lime in the bottle. Now, here's the story. It turns out that when this was initially being done, it was being done by people, consumers, who were consuming and drinking the beer. The people at Corona, the company — actually a Mexican company called Grupo Modelo — didn't like this.

And the reason they didn't like this is because they recycle their bottles. And this meant that every time there was a wedge in a bottle, it had to be taken out when the bottle had to be cleaned, to be reused. So they tried to initially discourage this.

And then they realized that consumers really like this ritual of putting the lime in the bottle. Since then, it's become part of the way that Corona beer gets marketed, to the point that they put it in all of their advertising.

To me, this is a wonderful example of how you learn from your customers, from your consumers, what's important to them. See, a lot of brands don't understand that a brand is more than just a logo, it's a relationship with a customer. And the customer co-creates this relationship with all kinds of rituals — in this particular case, something as simple as a wedge of lime in the bottle.

That today has made Corona beer iconic. When you see a clear glass bottle of beer with a wedge of lime, you almost don't have to see the brand name on it, you know that it's Corona.

So, great example of how you can use a consumer ritual as part of your brand, a ritual that the consumer has initiated.

When companies embrace consumer rituals as part of their brand, the customer relationship thrives