Older than many nations and a few religions, San Miguel has faced and conquered ruin no fewer than three times. In 1898, the Treaty of Paris ceded all existing Spanish grants in the Philippines to the U.S. San Miguel’s management, just eight years old, fought hard for survival and won. Then came World War II. Rampaging Japanese forces seized all of San Miguel’s assets. By the end of the war, San Miguel’s ruin mirrored the nation’s. Yet, the brewery survived, renaming itself San Miguel Corporation.

In 1970 – San Miguel’s 80th year – social unrest hit the island nation. Peso devaluation, inflation and restrictive fiscal policies once again threatened to wipe out the brand. Again, it endured, emerging as it is today; the largest publicly listed food, beverage and packaging company in the Philippines reporting annual profits in the billions of U.S. dollars and owning animal feed, coconut oil, dairy and meat, real estate and packaging interests. San Miguel products are now exported to 25 countries. But it all started with the beer.

It is no surprise that San Miguel is looking to expand its brand presence overseas. Despite a 4 percent contraction in the Philippines’ local beer industry (to around 1.2 billion liters per annum), San Miguel's market share soared to over 90 percent from a previously (hardly low) share of a little over 80 percent. However, with the imported beer market forecast to grow between 5 percent and 15 percent per year in the near future, San Miguel, never one to rest on any laurels, is looking overseas. And any beer brand, at least in Asia, that does not have San Miguel at the top of its immediate threat list is making a grievous error.

San Miguel has always had a commanding brand presence in Asia. The brewery began exporting beer to Guam, Hong Kong and Shanghai as early as 1913. A Vietnam War veteran, commenting on this piece, remembers drinking San Miguel at every posting he had – Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan and, of course, the Philippines, adding: "And it was damn good."

San Miguel has made public its intentions for brand development as stated by President Faustino Galang: "We want to increase our presence abroad, particularly in the Asia-Pacific." As part of this strategy marketing teams have begun advertising San Miguel as the "Great Asian Beer." A further element in the brand's export strategy is to convert beer drinkers to San Miguel through brand-owned occasions and events, such as street parties, food festivals and contests. Also, the marketers plan to tailor such events to be region-specific, so that they best fit local preferences, of which there are hundreds in the Asia-Pacific. Galang: "We want to establish San Miguel as a 'Megabrand' – the desired beer for all." Ambitious? Sure. Successful? You bet -- San Miguel posted an overall 35 percent gain in consolidated revenue (41 percent gain in beverage sales!) for the first quarter of 2002 to PHP 30.17 billion (from PHP 22.39 billion last year; US$ 5.8M from US$ 4.3M).

The sagacity behind San Miguel's real push into the global market, which started in earnest in 1991 with breweries in Vietnam, Indonesia and China, is the brand’s focus on the regional market. Many brands, to their own detriment, get starry-eyed about high-quality brand-saturated markets such as the U.S. and Europe. However, with San Miguel's brand recognition legacy in Asia and its distribution advantage within the Asia-Pacific to build on, along with the region's growing market for high-quality beer, San Miguel recognizes that Asia's booming markets are more suited to its development than other more potentially complicated markets. Simply put, San Miguel's brand development strategy is wise to stick to the potentially huge Asia market for now and avoid overextending.

All of San Miguel's overseas' efforts aside, the home market has not been forgotten. Although already in control on the core market (25- to 45-year-olds), new brand development strategies are in the works to increase San Miguel's appeal to fickle younger drinkers. The efforts aim to encourage brand loyalty. Additionally, "this is my father's beer" promotions and packaging makeovers figure into the development plan. The latter having proven extremely successful with the repackaging of Cerveza Negra, which drove up sales volume by 16 percent in the second half of 2001. More successful than ever, and never complacent, San Miguel's only limits are those of per capita consumption.

Abram D. Sauer is a writer currently living in New York. He was a columnist for The China Daily while living in Beijing and is co-founder of Chopstickfactory.com.