ABSTRACT
In their most rudimentary expression, corporate marketing strategies are designed to separate the consumer from his money. Specific marketing strategies for the major legal addictive products — alcohol and tobacco — are essentially similar to those of TNCs in all other consumer product lines. Central to all TNC marketing strategies is the comprehensive integration of each individual component. Increasingly, corporate marketing strategies are adopting both the terminology and techniques of warfare, symptomatic of the underlying, fierce competitive antagonisms unleashed on the global market. It is crucial for understanding alcoholic beverage marketing strategies to see them in the context of mounting corporate concentration, transnationalisation, conglomeration and oligopolisation in the beer, wine and distilled spirits sectors. With the wine sector as a possible exception in certain countries, national and global marketing warfare among a handful of giants has been revolutionised by the conglomerate intrusions of such battle-tested veterans as Philip Morris and Coca Cola.
