Is this where craft beer is heading?

I suspect the future will be one where breweries pay attention to what sells and try to provide it in a way and at a price that their customers will pay, and at a quality their customers will enjoy. I predict beer consumers who are best served by this, i.e. quality and style selection are most to their liking, will be happy in the future, and ones who find styles and quality they enjoy less available will be less happy.

 

I simply mean that its increasingly important because there is a lot more direct competition on the shelves as compared to 10 or 15 years ago when simply being not BMC drove a number of customers your way

 

The story is a bit more than that:

"You could put pretty much any ingredient in a beer and that's kind of where it's all heading. Making the next crazy beer, the next weirdest thing, the next combination of fruits, and hops,…

Cheers!

 

Beat me to it. Marketing has always been important, and people have always been infatuated with 'new'.

I don't see this as any different than trends in the past with the exception of two things: 1. number of breweries making this trend seem even bigger, and 2. free beer data sites for breweries direct from consumer (i.e. Untappd).

With more breweries, there is more competition for a similar market segment. This just means breweries need to employ better business and marketing strategies, including label artwork. Take a look at Green Flash's flop after their rebranding (when the marketing was the first to be laid-off) and you'll see just how critical branding is for a company.

 

That I can agree with. It certainly isn't the same as it was when I first started my drinking career.

Agreed, and I believe the point of the thread was a focus on that quote. I really dislike that quote, ha ha.

 

That is a single quote early in the article, it may be what the thread creator wants to ask about but its certainly not the focus of the article

 

The Vegas effect. Make it bright, flashy, and loud to draw attention. Big bold cans, bright artwork, etc. Nothing new to be honest, every item out there today uses this means to advertise buy me. Walk down any grocery store isle.

For me I could give a rip, if the beers sucks hard pass. I would rather the can be solid white with zero info on it and the beer taste beyond great, that is what I care about.

Cool video overall thanks for sharing, was a fun watch.
Cheers

 

While I do agree, there's something to be said about packaging when it's time to try something new. Clever, informative, and/or eye-catching packaging is often what causes one to grab this over that in a lineup if they're venturing into the unknown. In fact, I'd say almost always, assuming it's all beer you don't know anything about.

If you want to try a new scotch ale, and there are three on the shelf you've never heard of, you literally have nothing else to go by.

 

That is very true and I totally understand the reason and actually do like the cool artwork. Speaking for myself only, I always try and research a brewery prior to buying. I know this does not work all the time especially when out and you see a few new products. Its like you said a bad *ss can and you want to grab it etc. so your going off the can art to judge which helps sales. I would bet this is how most folks buy who are not like Ba folks or hard core beer people, they see with their eyes and buy not knowing whats inside. Being that most of us are in the minority when it comes to research before buying I would opt to say art will continue to dominate the reason why beers sell.

Another big factor to consider is that the person buying may not even like beer but grabs cans for their significant other based on cool art. Case in point my wife, she comes home at times with a treat and says these looked awesome, boom art work wins, lol. So I think breweries and their marketing folks know a lot of purchases are made by those who don't consume the product.

 

A great point. I honestly don't find myself in either situation too often (choosing based on artwork or researching while in the aisle) sadly because where I live in Florida, we don't get new beer often enough where I really have the opportunity to choose between multiple new beers. Every time any new beer is available, I tend to just buy it, ha ha.

My earlier fictional example of finding three new scotch ales I've never heard of at the same time sounds like a magical fairy tale! I'd probably buy all of them, realistically.

 

Decisions, decisions....The Brown Note or Merry Monks? Skid marks or pedophilia which label marketing was the worst in Craft beer history?

 

LOL

 

Label marketing doesn’t ever steer me to buy a beer but definitely steers me away from beers, especially if there is no way to tell from anything on the label what style beer it is. That drives me crazy.

 

The preferred beer of cult leaders since 1890!

 

YES!!! I can't stand that! It's funny too, because there's plenty of examples of this in branding of popular beers, so clearly it isn't a big enough turn off to buyers to effect sales too much. An example is TurboDog by Abita. One of my favorite brown ales, but until their rebranding a couple years ago, there was no mention of what the hell it was! Here's the old branding...

 

Sorry to double post, but I just thought of another insight. I also do think low quality branding can be a big turnoff. I think back to the old branding for Railbender by Eerie Brewing. Great beer, but I always thought their branding was awful. Like it was done in Microsoft Word or something. They rebranded and it looks so much more professional.

 

Simply saying: "The story is a bit more..."

Cheers!