Self-proclaimed “skilled marketer” wants to get in craft beer business
Those who lived through the roller coaster that was craft beer in the mid-late 90s occasionally bring up the fast growth of the industry and abrupt shakeout of small breweries that couldn’t survive. In 1997, the net increase in breweries was around 250. In 2000, the net increase was around…3.
Currier said he’s never been much of a drinker, but he does consider himself to be a skilled marketer. He said Henniker, with its status as “The Only Henniker on Earth,” will be an ideal location for this new business venture. […] While he’s missed the window to create a Primary 2012 brew this year, he hopes to have a “Primary Pale Ale” in all upcoming presidential election seasons.
The question is, “Who has a better shot of running a successful brewery?” A skilled marketer that has business prowess and money or a homebrewer that may not have business prowess or money but is passionate about beer?
via Around the Region: Plans on tap for only Henniker brew on Earth | Concord Monitor.
At the risk of being wishy-washy, I feel this is a false choice. Fun question though. There are too many local, regional and transnational brands of beer that are great and available in most areas of America. You must do both.
There are breweries that make different kinds of beer that are doing well in their own markets.
It’s like asking who will win a race, a person with one right leg or one left leg. The answer is almost anyone else with two legs.
Well, look at our new-ish local guys at DC Beer. They’ve got one skilled marketer and one skilled brewer (with, of course, some overlap in each). They can’t brew enough beer to meet demand and will probably even have trouble once they expand their operation and resume distribution outside of the district. It’s good stuff, and well-marketed.
We’re seeing more and more “businessmen” and “marketers” opening up their own breweries because they think it’s akin to printing their own money. These breweries (especially in eastern MA) are entering an intensely saturated geographic footprint and will really need to fight to survive.
Their “skilled marketing” is often delivering a sharp rise in lowest-common-denominator marketing tactics: female sales reps forced to wear low-cut tank tops at events, gimmicky/controversial names, and so on.
PLEASE give the average craft buyer more credit than this. Your beer should speak for itself. If it’s GOOD, word will travel fast. If it’s not, well, you may need to rely on the aforementioned cheap parlor tricks to get noticed.