THE BOOZE BIN
Guest Post By Colleen Mita
As a recent graduate of a certain New Hampshire institution with a well-documented affinity for frat basements and Keystone Light, I’m happy to be out in the real world where there is more than one kind of beer on tap. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much about beer, but I know what tastes good to me and what kind of marketing catches my eye. Most of all, I’m willing to try just about anything in the process of determining what kind of beer I like. So yeah, I guess I’m your typical millennial consumer.
What kind of beer gets my attention? After spending my undergraduate career consuming mass-produced light beer with no flavor, I’m looking for something that’s been brewed with care, in small quantities. I’d really like to actually be able to discern flavor nuances while I sip, instead of just tossing it back to avoid the gross taste. Like many of my peers, I’ve become a fan of the microbrew. You can blame Dogfish Head for their amazingly cool integrated marketing campaign that really helped bring independent breweries into the limelight. And in case you were unaware of the current microbrewery trend:
“In 1980, 26,470 barrels of craft beer were sold in the US. In 2010, that figure was nearly 10 million” Bloomberg Businessweek April 17, 2011
So, why do microbrews appeal to millennials?
1) We like to feel we are part of a community, while still maintaining our independence. Many microbreweries are actively engaged on social media sites and offer brewery tours, fostering a sense of community. Our independent spirit is preserved by knowing we’re supporting small businesses, not giant beverage conglomerates.
2) We care about how things are made and where they come from. Coming of age in the era of sustainability and recycling, “green” values are near and dear to our hearts. Microbreweries source local ingredients for their brews, much like Abita’s Satsuma, which uses local Louisiana produce for flavor. Independent breweries are also more apt to create limited-run, seasonal beers, like Starr Hill’s Lucy, keeping with the current trend of seasonality.
3) Bottom line: We like our beer (and food) to taste good. Call us beer snobs, call us foodies; we don’t care. Before going out to eat, we look at digital restaurant reviews and menus to see what looks good, right now. We’ve begun doing the same kind of research before picking our tipple o’ the moment. Microbrews offer greater depth of flavor and more interesting food pairings than your average mass-produced brew.
And now, in true millennial fashion, I’m going to head home, crack open a bottle of Harpoon’s UFO, turn on last week’s episode of True Blood and nosh on a panini (made from grass-fed organic beef, vegetables from the farmer’s market, locally made cheese and homemade bread of course!).
Photo Credits: Hipster or Hobo, Grand Rapid Grub and Magpie’s Marbles.
And this explosion of beer brands translates in ~1000 beer bloggers in social media. A recent survey from PR WEB shows that blogs are 2 times more likely to drive beauty product purchases than magazines. Assuming it works also for beers, the ‘beer blogger’ tribes is to be considered when marketing a beer brand.
I am reading this at 9am and you now have me craving a good beer! Thanks for the good read.
Colleen, I think craft beer is the perfect industry for social media marketing–thanks for pointing out this case (pun intended)! I think the explosion of craft beer is, of course, emblematic of a larger food change where consumers are looking for food that shows great attention and care to production, sourcing and distribution, and within this larger retail shift I think your point about community is spot on– no matter what kind of products or marketing big food producers come up with, they are going to have huge hurdles to jump in this department, if only because consumers associate them with the old guard, with cheesy tv commercials and cardboard cutouts at liquor stores, which is to say, with one-way communication. Microbreweries, on the other hand, don’t have this sort of history they have to jettison.
Laurent, I definitely agree. Bloggers have such great power when it comes to influencing consumers, particularly the younger generation. Now I’m going to go look up any potential cool beer blogs…
Rachael, 9 am is completely appropriate time to crave a good beer. It gives you something to look forward to after work :)
Ryo, in addition to the serious changes large food and beverage companies are going to have to make to appeal to this new demographic of consumers (new products and/or marketing) it’s also going to be very challenging for them to interact with customers on an individual level like many of these microbreweries can. It just won’t have the same feel. I anticipate seeing a lot of larger companies trying to snatch up some of these smaller producers instead of creating their own craft beers, if for no other reason than the social media/marketing aspect.
Hi Colleen,
Thanks for the great post! Craft beer is a thriving industry, and I’m continually impressed with the sense of camaraderie and community among beer crafters and beer drinkers. I follow quite a few craft breweries on Facebook and Twitter and enjoy seeing the different ways they engage with their customers through social media. Even more amazing is the amount of love that their customers show them in return. I also appreciated your point about quality – it’s clear that craft brewers are extremely proud of the product they sell and want to provide their customers with the best quality possible. Brady over at Crafted shared this video from New Belgium Brewery earlier in the week, which I think really illustrates the value craft brewers place on their customers and the quality of their product: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L94PE12VaFY
Cheers!
Zoe Geddes-Soltess
Community Engagement, Radian6
@zodot