All of the above concepts are effective tools for promoting a craft beer brand. Craft beer marketing allows for brands to be edgy and provocative, and sarcasm, hyperbole, snark, and satire can make a craft brand stand out from the other 1500+ competitors in our industry. Being edgy can make a brand stick out amongst so much boring vanilla marketing out there. And trust me, there is a lot of terrible craft beer marketing.
This edginess can also bite you in the ass, if you take the wrong angle. I think that Avery Brewing Company’s recent blog entry about Mephistopheles Stout and the Gulf Coast oil spill is one of these lackluster attempts at satire. In a nutshell, their out-of-focus blog entry details how BP is asking Avery to donate $132 million in Mephistopheles Stout as the liquid to “top kill” the oil spill. There are a bunch of problems with this.
• Do you really want to pretend that BP actually asked you to do something, even if it’s in jest? BP is at the bottom of the barrel in terms of “companies that the entire world likes right now”. I would NEVER want to associate my company with one that is responsible for the “worst oil spill in American history“.
Satire can be really effective, funny and memorable. But only when it’s done well.
• The writing is much too wordy. Consumers aren’t generally reading long blog entries, watching long videos, etc. This is an instant-gratification world. Get to the point. And get to it quickly.
• What’s the point of this blog entry, even? I sort of get it – make fun of current events. But it’s nice to have a way to help, especially in the face of a really tragic disaster that is unfolding. More on this in a second.
• Haven’t the people at Avery ever seen a Black & Tan? Everyone knows that you can float a stout on top of a lighter-colored beer!
Don’t get me wrong, I love Avery’s beer. I’d say they’re in the top 10 in terms of quality, consistency and creative vision. In their beer. Their marketing is pretty awful across the board. And I get that they’re all about this “don’t do marketing” thing, but then why go ahead and write their blog entry? Either hire a competent marketing department or blow it off. Entirely. Half-assing it like this isn’t going to cut it, Avery.
I would have done it differently.
• Consumers find value in social action from craft beer companies. If I was writing about some sort of disaster happening, I would find a tangible way to help out. Even though Avery is a small brewery (<15,000BBL), they can donate some money to the relief efforts out there. Maybe they should have a Mephistopheles night at their tasting room, in which Avery could donate all profits to a relief organization working in the Gulf region. Here is a list of charities you could help out. I’m sure they would appreciate some of your money.
Plus people could come drink some beer at your brewery and have a good time, all the while helping charity. You win because people are sampling your beer, and the affected areas get some help.
• Find an angle that is actually funny/satirical. I would never satire a devastating oil spill, so I’m not really sure how I’d write about this. I’d probably not risk it, because there’s no reward here.
• If it’s not funny, don’t post it! Editing is important. Know when to self-edit, and run your idea past a few people. Make some edits, work on your voice, be consistent.
• Marketing is often a risk/reward scenario. What’s the potential reward about pretending you’re in cahoots with a horrible oil company? I can’t seem to find any.
Over the course of the last 5-7 years, Blue Moon has been one of the most amazing stories in Craft Beer – maybe even in the entire Consumer Package Goods industry. Not only has Blue Moon been able to convince consumers that it is a real craft beer, when it is actually owned by Coors, but they have also been able to build the brand almost solely through word-of-mouth. The ritual of bartenders adding an Orange slice has proven to be extremely viral. Not only did it look refreshing, but it also gave consumers a chance to “customize” their beer and recommend it to others.
But Blue Moon is growing up now. Now that the brand is 15 years old now (yes, the brand was launched in 1995) it might be time to take it out to a wider audience. To do this, Blue Moon has recently launched a TV advertising campaign that continues their “Artfully Crafted” theme they activated through other mass mediums (print, transit boards, etc) a few years ago.
But here’s the big question:
Will mass media diminish the brand’s mystique? Blue Moon was built through consumer discovery. Now the brand is controlling the message and in the process could disrupt everything they have built over the course of 15 years. And does Blue Moon really need TV anyway? Will the increase in sales (and departure from what built the brand) be enough to justify the spend?
My assumptions for their rationale are:
a) they think they have maxed out the potential of the current customer base and are trying to grow the business by introducing a new group of consumers
b) they believe the current Blue Moon consumer is losing interest in the brand and is straying too far towards other craft beer brands.
If you’re reading this blog, chances are you’re intimately familiar with Blue Moon and might have written off the brand years ago because it wasn’t a “true” craft beer. But how do you think the mainstream consumers will react? Will this help take the brand to the next level or will it stymie the brand’s growth?
Iron Chef Morimoto is going to open a restaurant in Napa, CA and it sounds like there’s going to be an on-site brewery there. Does this mean that craft beer is starting to gain traction among the really serious foodies as a viable (and awesome) alternative to wine and food pairings? I, for one, always thought that Dogfish Head (or Brooklyn, Avery or another high-class brewery with a huge portfolio) should try to sponsor Iron Chef for a season.
The problem with craft beer becoming a high-end item for high-end restaurants is that it adds an elitist element to craft beer. Especially in times when high-end wine seems to be tanking, does it makes sense to position craft beer as such a high-end item? We’re still in a recession, right? I guess it’s a positive that some of the most expensive craft beer is still very affordable, compared to premium wine.
What do you think? Is craft beer becoming too elitist for normal consumers?
Welcome to craftbeer.us - a blog about the state of the Craft Beer industry written by previous Craft Beer insiders. What we've learned while working in Craft Beer translates across a variety of industries, especially where there's a strong word-of-mouth community.
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