Saw an online ad for Stella’s “free chalice” offer and called their toll-free phone number, but by the time I called they had already run out of them…
I got my free Stella Artois Chalice today!
Posts tagged "Branding"
Today this beer blog stands in solidarity by protesting SOPA, PIPA, and any legislation which tries to censor the web. Cheers to everyone who is helping out by raising awareness and contacting their representatives!
In the last year, censorship has become a bigger issue in the beer community as well, as brewers are increasingly not allowed to sell beers under names of their choosing, in certain states and countries. A few of the beer brands currently facing censorship:
- Flying Dog’s “Raging Bitch” IPA
- Flying Monkeys Brewing’s “Smashbomb Atomic” IPA
- Shelton Brother’s “Santa’s Butt Winter Porter”
- Lagunita’s “Kronik Ale”, as seen above with the “Censored” labeling
We think brewers deserve the right to name, brand, and package beverages however they express their creativity through making tasty beers, especially for a product which is already highly regulated in its distribution to an adult audience. Just like adults (of age) are allowed to choose (or not) a beer of their liking through their own purchase decisions…
What makes a craft beer Brand?
Besides brewing tasty beers, there are lots of other choices a brewery can make that impacts not just the beers we choose but how we enjoy them. Especially when we’re trying new beers, marketers have an opportunity to use original branding to help their beer stand out on the refrigerator case. But there are a number of choices beyond the label, like what kinds of bottles or cans to use, that can also effect the taste. On Quora, here are some answers from beer lovers about what makes a great brand great; what characteristics do you think help make good beer into a memorable brewery brand?
Request beer over Twitter? A Seattle beer vendor is taking orders
Or at least bringing beers to your seat at the baseball stadium in Seattle, so it sounds like macro-brews may be your only option. Still fun to follow @MsBeerVendor on Twitter, although their name makes me think of “Miss Beer Vendor” rather than the team’s abbreviated name…
“Since the beginning of beer vendors, we’ve been walking up and down the aisles seeing who wants a beer, I’m going to try to change that,” says the beer guy in an interview with CNBC. Hopefully Twitter will help them create more efficient distribution at the next baseball games this season.
How Craft Beer indicates Change in the Marketplace
From my professional blog, using the craft beer movement as a good example of the changing media landscape and the shift in consumer behavior.
Context matters in social media, especially for beer brands.
As craft breweries extend their brand through social media, it’s important to consider how followers differentiate from fans and advocates. Context of the media is especially important: while labels and logos can make a big impression for beer purchasing descisions in the store, Twitter followers might expect more playful, less formal interaction with a smaller brewer.
An except from FastCompany’s 5 Steps for Consumer Brands to earn Social Currency:
What do beer drinkers talk about? Not what brewers think they will, the study concludes. Who cares if a beer is triple-hopped in an ultra-cold bottle? “Product and packaging innovations do not help create relevance in this consumer’s daily life,” Joachimsthaler says. What’s important is the bonding or “social context” during consumption. Anheuser-Busch’s ballyhooed bud.tv, an original Web-video site, tacitly encouraged being a solitary Web potato — and quietly folded last year. Similarly, those Bud Light Lime ads on the Weather Channel’s iPhone app won’t help partiers reach the beach. Bud’s attempt to brand “fan cans” in collegiate colors for tailgating was the right kind of bonding idea, though, sadly for Bud, it failed when colleges feared the cans would encourage underage drinking. Even so, who wouldn’t share the tale of that time their beer was confiscated?
At the end of the day, it’s important for a beer brand to meet their market wherever they spend their time; whether it’s sharing a beer with good friends in the local public house, or in a beer review community where opinion leaders and advocates debate debate the merits of floral hops.
This Blog's for You: How Beer indicates a Changing Marketplace
Writing about Craft Beer on my Professional blog turned into a big hit on Twitter. I thought you might be interested in how I think the rise in craft beer parallels the changes in communication through new media.
Because A-B has spent years building its brand around nationalism and tradition, their sale to InBev last year has been especially damaging to its core identity. No amount of marketing can counteract this single fact, especially after the idea has become so ingrained over time. In some ways it might be easier to market a new beer, rather than reinvent the brand that sells America’s two top selling beers, Bud Light and Budweiser.
I was still living in St. Louis when the news broke, and since almost everyone there is related to an employee (in my case, an uncle) the reputation of a local business was at stake. By the time the sale was announced, it was Old News to me.
I feel the theme of this ad still holds true. To make a great beer takes more than its quality ingredients or branding, but the people who brew it. It takes ingenuity, attention to detail, passion, and forsight to brew tasty beverages.
In that regard craft beer has become my favorite, but every once in awhile a major brewery innovates their craft (Michelob anyone?). The beer business is complicated, but brewers take careful planning to both create the product and to market it.
I have a sneaking suspicion I’ll be talking much more about A-B in particular, and Beer Ads in general, in the near future.
Accent theme by Handsome Code
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