Brewers Association Launches New National Campaign: "That's Independence You're Tasting"

I've expressed my issues with the independent label in the past. In this case, I'm only really interested in the execution of their communication strategy.

It makes sense for them to take this step after the introduction of their seal. Now that the seal has had time to get out there, generating awareness is the natural follow up.

It seems like their "national campaign" "presented across a variety of media platforms" basically translates to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter... and with Youtube as the video platform.

Who is the actual vs intended audience for this? Are all/most of the people watching it already aware of their seal? How are they reaching people who will be impacted by this media? Are they expecting this content to have legs or are they planning on generating content in a sustained way... or is this expected to just peter out? Is there a plan to attempt to measure their ROI?

Beyond all those questions, my big takeaway from the commercials is that "craft beer" appears to be something you only do in the dark.

 

Excellent point. I suspect they'll be getting to get a good bit of word of mouth advertising out of this social media campaign and my guess would be that it also tells us a lot about some of the general characteristics of their primary target audience.

 

I have sent a few e-mails to the Brewers Association on this topic. The plethora of old beer on retailers' shelves creates a situation whereby there are lots of non-quality beers being sold to consumers. For the first e-mail that I sent on this topic I received a perfunctory reply (basically an acknowledgement they received my e-mail). Subsequent e-mails were simply ignored.

Cheers!

@Lahey

 

That's the response I would have expected. No one wants to hear a problem or solution unless it's an easy one. Kudos for making the effort though.

 

That is some wacky stuff.

"Hate our stuff - it'll improve our sales."

 

ahahahaha you dumbshits angry at the BA for trying to promote independent/craft beer.

there's just too much ignorance regarding business/marketing and general dumbassery on this thread to address, so instead of doing that i'll just raise my digital glass and say cheers to all you 40+ year-old dudes sipping Honkers and burning your Nikes as you wax poetic about how all you really care about is "what's inside the bottle".

 

Something is wrong with beer when this comment is made sarcastically and with a complete lack of irony

 

Drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

 

Something was really wrong with "beer" back in the pre-craft-1960s-70s, when US-brewed ales had fallen to a little over 1% of the market, with dark beers, porters, stouts and all-malt lagers each an even tinier percentage of the market, approaching near-extinction. When well over 95% of the US beer was low-hopped, adjunct light lagers from - or mimicing the flagship beers of - the national and large regional brewers.

Back when the "conventional wisdom" within the brewing industry was that a brewing company needed to have a capacity (and, of course, corresponding sales) of at least 1-2 million barrels to run efficiently and to survive.

An era when the hottest product - to become the dominant US beer style a few decades later - was low-calorie "light beer", courtesy of Philip Morris' Miller Brewing Co. and followed by the "profit-over-product" (and soon to fail) Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co.

 

I was simply making the point that what is in the bottle is in fact more important than marketing. We definitely have more and arguably better options available now than at any other time during my lifetime but at the end of the day it is the beer that truly matters.

 

FTFY, but, yeah, it SHOULD be the beer that matters the most, but, in reality, there are myriad other factors that the consumer considers. Unfortunately, IMO.

 

I read the line "...sipping Honkers and burning your Nikes..." in his rant a dig at those who support Anheuser-Busch (while protesting other large corporations with which they disagree for reasons other than, say, simply "if the shoe fits" *), rather than a general objection to that illusive concept of "marketing".

*What is the sneaker equivalent of "What's in the bottle." anyway?
How 'bout "What's around your foot." ?

 

You just really wanted to make a connection between ANYTHING and politics. I get it, I'm tempted sometimes on here. We were talking about beer marketing without a political angle I thought. Btw, I'm sub 40, left leaning and I think Nike is dumb for getting in the middle of that political discourse. (Still wearing mine though) But that convo isn't for here.

 

Hi Jack. Definitely agree. Quality is extremely important. That’s why we have this suite of continuous, ongoing quality projects and resources, most of which are free to members and non-members. http://bit.ly/GuideToQualityBeer. We also think transparency is important. Many beer lovers do want to know who is brewing their beer, who they’re supporting and where their dollars are ultimately going and the independent craft brewer seal does just that. Cheers. Julia Herz, Brewers Association

 

Though it is a bit hip hoppy and seems more fit to a younger more modern crowd, I have to say those are a couple advertisements I wouldn't mind watching. I can understand the theme, that they do what they want and collaborate with their community and feel free like an artist to create the product they want, unlike Big Beer which makes the same swill beer since prohibition with more modern funny stupid nonsensical non-serious commercials. At this point though I think most people know what is Big Beer and what's craft beer. It may lure some more people in who like to be adventurous and enjoy the arts and doing the things in the ads who didn't know beer could be different than Bud Light.

 

Just because it's local doesn't mean it's any good. There, I said it.

I am a huge fan of local anything. Local products and services give me the warm and fuzzies. In the last week you could have found me at two local breweries and one local winery having a nice time drinking beer and wine. You could also have found me drinking several other local beers at home. Meanwhile, you could also find me buying insurance from multi billion dollar insurance companies, buying some food at multi billion dollar grocery stores and otherwise doing business with huge, faceless companies. At the same time, I operate a local independently owned business, I proudly sell a lot of beer made by local, independently owned and operated breweries. I sell some wine produced by locally owned and operated vineyards. None of this inhibits me from buying and/or selling global brands and services. I like Levis. So what? My customers like Heineken - big deal. I like to pay my rent on time. Heineken (and local beers) help me do that. But just because it's local doesn't mean it's any good. I root for and promote the home team but I am not a blind homer, plus I need to pay the rent. So, if it's local and it's not any good, you won't find it on my shelves. My ethos is vaguely in line with the BA but they do not seem to have any room for nuance. It seems that you are either with them or against them. If you are not within their allowable spectrum than you are a bad person. At the same time, I am almost at the point with beer where if it is older than 30 days and from more than 50 miles away, then I won't drink it (except for bottle conditioned Belgians) but if my friends, family members and colleagues want to drink macros, then go right ahead and drink them. However, I won't drink Golden Road, Ballast Point and most of the others which have been acquired by the biggies, but that's just me. The same is not true for most of my friends, relatives and customers and I don't have a problem with that.

 

Julia, thank you for participating in this discussion.

From my perspective it is question of allocation of resources (i.e., money) at the Brewers Association. I personally think the money you are spending on the Independent Seal initiative and now the New National Campaign: "That's Independence You're Tasting" could be better allocated elsewhere.

As regards the Independent Craft Seal aspect there are a number of quality craft breweries that are not eligible for that seal such as Founders, Ballast Point and others. Is the lack of a seal on these products indicating a lack of “transparency”? I personally think the answer to that question is no. The reason that breweries like Founders and Ballast Point are not eligible for the Independent Craft seal is because they do not meet the arbitrary criteria of the Brewers Association for defining a craft brewery. If in the next re-definition by the Brewers Association the aspect of ownership was changed from 25% to 35% then all of a sudden Founders would be permitted to have the Independent Craft seal. This effort is not appropriately addressing the transparency aspect in my opinion.

Back to the topic of beer quality. Did you read my post #30 discussing this topic? Permit me to repeat just one aspect from that post:

“They conduct a one day workshop periodically (and at differing locations). Is a one day course long enough? Is there a fee involved here? Is there a way (e.g., via certification which can be advertised) for the B.A. to incentivize their members to attend?

Needless to say but for B.A. brewery member to attend the course but choose to not implement what was taught (e.g., due to cost implications) does not result in full completion here.”

Can you please answer the questions above?

The second quoted sentence was framed as a statement but permit me to now frame it as a question: Does the Brewers Association monitor its member craft breweries to ensure that best quality practices are actually implemented?

I could likely construct a treatise on the topic of beer quality but permit me to just bring up two topics here:

So many new small craft breweries now

As you well know new craft breweries are opening at a rate of about 3 new breweries a day. Within the past 5 years about 4,000 new breweries have opened. Do these new breweries actually practice the quality brewing practices advocated by the Brewers Association? Making a book available to these breweries is a start on their education but if they do not actually conduct the practices they should be doing to produce quality beer than things are not really changing (improving) here.

Too much old beer on retailers’ shelves

A typical beer consumer will go into a local beer retailer and pick up what ‘catches’ their eye for that day’s purchase. A typical Beer Advocate consumer may actually pull a bottle out of the 6-pack holder (or flip the can to see the bottom) to check the packaging date. After reading how old the beer is (if there is a date) they then place it back on the shelf with a look of disgust. But the next consumer who does not know better will buy that same beer. They will drink that poor quality beer (because it is too old) and perhaps think: Boy, craft beer sucks. I guess I will go back to drinking x beer.

Since you are in the industry I know that you know that managing beer quality via age of the packaged beer is a solvable problem – AB does it every day across the nation with a beer like Budweiser. When a Budweiser beer reaches a date of 110 days from the packaging date the Wholesale Distributors remove that old product from the retailers’ shelves. Is there a single Independent Craft brewery (as defined by the Brewers Association) that matches AB performance here as regards beer quality?

Once again thank you for your participation and I will await your responses to my above queries.

Cheers!

Jack

 

The Brewer's Association is a trade association established to protect the interests of its membership. It is no different than the American Independent Business Alliance, the International Council of Shopping Centers, the Corn Refiners Association, The American Horse Council, or the American Gas Association. I have looked at the economic impact of brewers that meet the definition of the Brewers Association - small, independent and traditional - on the Twin Cities. They buy most of their raw materials and supplies locally, they are active in the local community, they have an impact revitalizing the neighborhoods they locate in and their staff are local. They also support a vibrant food truck community and also support restaurants near the brewery. One brewery I know of did a survey of their staff and all but one lived within 5 miles of the brewery. Each brewery is different and has its own personality and quirks and each brewer takes pride in her or his product. Most are pleasant places to sit and have a beer. It may not be the best beer in the world, but when I am sitting there drinking it and talking with the people around me, it is the best places at the moment to sit and have a beer. I am not always going to a brewery for the best beer in the world - but I sometimes find it - I am going there for the Gemütlichkeit and that I usually find.