Message in a bottle: InBev's Brazilian beer Brahma is looking to cash in where other national products have fizzled.

If Andres Siefken, marketing director for inBev, is to be believed, the next Latin American craze coming to the United States won't be from traditional music and food hotspots like Mexico and the Caribbean. It's going to come from South America. Executives at InBev, the official name of the company following the 2004 merger of European brewing giant Interbrew and Brazil's AmBev, think they can ride the trend on a chilled bottle of Brahma, Brazil's top-selling light beer. In June, Brahma's U.S. unit started selling the brew in the United States, marketing it as "Brazil in a bottle."

"In the U.S., anything Latin is associated with Mexico," says Siefken. "Five years ago, the trend moved to the Caribbean because of people like Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin. Now the trend is going to showcase a more South American perspective. Just take a look at the Victoria's Secret models. They're all Brazilian. Here we come."

Maybe so, but what do U.S. consumers really know about popular Brazilian consumer goods? Take Havaianas brand flip-flops. The Brazilian-made sandals, generally cheap and very well-known in Brazil, were made famous by Victoria's Secret model Gisele Bundchen on the fashion runways a couple of years ago. The brand is ubiquitous in small surf shops and high-end jeans stores, but big U.S. retailers sell cheaper knock-offs of the flip-flops. For a brand that received a lot of buzz when it was celebrated as a fashion sandal, there hasn't really been much mass marketing for it in the United States.

Siefken is undaunted. "I'm amazed at the reception we've gotten from everyone," says Siefken. "I just don't see any big obstacles. We've been receiving calls from Baltimore to Miami from retailers and consumers who read about Brahma in a press release. The response has been above expectations. Our focus groups--and we've had tons--tasted Brahma and they like it."

Cachaca is another one of those famous Brazilian products that has failed so far to find serious footing in the coveted U.S. consumer market. "Brazilian exporters all tell us they want to import cachaca to the U.S. because Americans all tell them that they love caipirinhas," says Octavio Cardoso, a vice president at management consulting firm Westchester International, which specializes in international trade. Caipirinha (translation: "little hillbilly") is a mixed drink made with cachaca, lime, sugar and crushed ice. "Even though we hear that Americans love caipirinhas, you don't see them ordering them up at bars when they leave Rio and come home to the U.S.," Cardoso says. "Know what they order instead? A margarita with Mexican tequila and a Cuba libre with Bacardi."

Lifestyles. Then again, Havaianas and the myriad of family-owned cachaca companies in Brazil aren't InBev, now the largest beer corporation in the world. The marketing campaign is targeting what the industry calls a "lifestyle drinker" and beer drinkers who prefer premium, imported beers. InBev sees Brahma competing with Heineken, Corona and spirit drinks like Smirnoff Ice. The export version of Brazil's number two beer, Brahma (InBev owns the top three brands in Brazil; Skol is number one, Antarctica number three) is packaged in a curved bottle.

Promoters are trying to sell through Brahma's brand a carefree, lifestyle philosophy Brazilians call ginga, meaning effortless flair, according to InBev USA President Simon Thorpe. "Marketing support in the U.S. will allow people to experience the authentic Brazil for themselves, with strong on-premise sampling and media support that will deliver the cachet of Brazilian ginga in a way relevant to how beer drinkers live," says Thorpe. "Once people have tried Brahma, there will be no turning back."

Interbrew and AmBev's merger made Brahma USA possible. Other worldwide launches of the brand include the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, to name just seven of 13 foreign destinations. Brahma is already the No. 2 or No. 3 beer in Argentina, Venezuela and Paraguay, where it is brewed locally rather than exported.

Executives at competitor Scottish & Newcastle, which imports Newcastle Brown Ale into the United States, say the import beer market has slowed from a high of 10% annual growth a few years ago to just 2% in 2004. Bill Wetmore, marketing director for Scottish & Newcastle Importers, says Mexican beers, Red Stripe of Jamaica and their own brand grew in 2004. Newcastle Brown Ale grew by 8% last year, down from 14% in 2003 and 13% in 2002. A key competitor is InBev-owned Bass Ale.

"When InBev acquired Bass a few years back, they immediately became a competitor for us in the U.S., but in the past six years Newcastle has gone from just 44% of Bass's sales volume to 88% today. We've overtaken them in the chain grocery store sector and will continue to push to be the No. 1 imported ale in America," says Wetmore. Mexican powerhouse Corona Extra is the No. 1 imported beer in the United States.

For now, InBev's prize from the AmBev partnering is going to be Brahma. Beck's and Stella Artois of Interbrew will be the other global brands. AmBev's Skol and Antarctica will remain local brews, according to AmBev. "We began exporting Brahma to the U.S., Canada and England in mid-March because they prefer imported beer made in its country of origin," says Alexandre Loures, an AmBev spokesman in Rio.

Brahma will be also made in Belgium and shipped out to European markets from there. Russian-made Brahma will find a second home in the Ukraine. Both AmBev and their partner in Belgium, Interbrew, are studying whether or not to export Beck's and Stella Artois to Brazil and other Latin American countries, Loures says. He dismisses rumors that Bundchen, often photographed at Brahma media events, will be the face of ginga to U.S. beer drinkers.

AmBev, meanwhile, has come a long way since 1999, when it was strictly a Brazilian operation. Despite operational hurdles like high taxation, currency devaluations and a cumbersome legal system, Carlos Brito, the company's president, says Brazil is still a growth story for the company. "In Europe, prices are shrinking and volume is shrinking. In South America, the opposite is happening," he told graduate business students at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in March.

Best practices. Management owns 8% of the company's stock. Brito doesn't want his managers to treat the company, as he put it, like a rental car. "We all know how you treat a rental a little differently," Brito said. "You tend to do things you wouldn't do with your own car." Brito also said the company copies some of the best practices of global corporations, such as Wal-Mart and PepsiCo. "I'm very proud to say we copy everything we can and adapt it to our own reality if we cannot copy it 100%," he said. "We're not afraid of saying we didn't think of it first."

There's nothing new in exporting beer, either. But now AmBev--it remains separate, operationally, from Interbrew--is in the big leagues, with a US$15 billion market cap and $10 billion in sales in Brazil alone. InBev and AmBev have different boards of directors and different fiduciary responsibilities. A committee of two--one executive from Interbrew, one from AmBev--hammer out corporate skill sets and talk about execution. "We're the No. 1 brewer in Brazil, but we're not the best. We are learning from our successful merger with Antarctica. That's our model," Brito told LATIN TRADE. "Our ultimate target is Anheuser-Busch."

So, is a "Brahma Gardens" theme park in the cards? (Anheuser-Busch owns six amusement parks, including Busch Gardens and SeaWorld.) Perhaps in Rio de Janeiro, around 2020. Brito probably wouldn't scoff at that. Thinking big has put the company where it is today, at the front door of the world's biggest beer markets, walking in.

--with Michael Kepp in Rio de Janeiro

KENNETH RAPOZA, BOSTON