Value For Female Beer Consumers
Jul 28, 2010 Focus Group Information, Something To Think About, education
All value, all the time.
Wouldn’t that be a dream channel for real life?
All value, all the time
Well, if you’re in the beer business, you can make this a reality and attract millions more consumers. Millions seems to lofty? Consider even dozens or hundreds more consumers would make a difference.
How? By properly courting the female consumer.
Let me tell you about value for the female consumer.
Value for women includes:
- Time value otherwise known as the experience. If they are going to take the time to do something, they want it to be worth while.
- Enjoyment value. They want the involvement to be enjoyable.
- Educational value. Women like to and want to learn. A better educated consumer is a great thing for the beer community too.
- Dollar value. Be it $8 for a six pack of canned beer they want or $22 for a dinner table bottle of special beer they want to share (like yummy Bruery Beers). Whatever the price tag, it’s not the low or high of the actual dollar – it’s how much it’s worth to them.
Value.
One of the top three things women consider in their relationship to beer. Drink that up.
Tools
Jul 27, 2010 Focus Group Information, Something To Think About, education
What tools are in your tool box?
Adage from Sullivision: Tools left in the toolbox never built anything.
And, adding to that, unless you pick up the tools to build something new or repair something in need of attention, you’re never going to get anywhere.
For those of you in the beer business community – breweries, restaurants, vendors, suppliers, retailers, distributors – you’ll never go one step farther earning female market share unless you pick up the right tool to genuinely garner the female beer consumers’ attention. You don’t deserve it if you don’t use the right tools and you’ll certainly pay for it if you use the wrong tools.
How do you know which tools to use?
Ask women what they want, gather data from them, apply it properly. As a specialist, I can tell you that there are so many ill fated attempts to market to women because the lens is all wrong.
The lens has to be from the woman’s perspective; not from yours, no matter how smart you think you are (or actually are). And regardless of if you’re a women in the industry – being of the industry is different than being the consumer.
You’re not the woman, she is. Ask her, act on that information and you’ll both come out ahead.
Like Marti Barletta says, the first rule of marketing is to understand your market. The second? Understand your consumer.
Here, here!
Tags: earning female market share, Marti Barletta, proper marketing, Sullivision
Point Missed
May 6, 2010 Focus Group Information, Myth Busting, education
Unless my interpretation’s wrong (and I hope it is) the initiative is still missing the point.
The point for marketing to ANY SEGMENT is to educate, ask them what they want, then engage them accordingly. Yes, I know we are in different countries – the premise is the same.
Authentically and accurately marketing to the market share you are pursuing.
I find the statement by this writer (if it is accurate to the Bittersweet Project’s interview here) still off target.
“…with the aim of making beer more appealing to women”
It’s not about making it more appealing; it’s about finding out what the heck they want, what they don’t want and taking it forward from there.
If they don’t find it appealing in general, this is a futile exercise. You need to ask the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’ first - before you take action so you can know what action to take.
Kristy, tell me you do focus groups expressly with women to find out what they like, what they don’t like about beer – any one’s beer, not only Molson Coors UK. Or fly me over and we can work together to make sure the point is on target – for the women, about the women, of the women.
Tags: ask why, off target
Focus Group Participants Wanted
Feb 19, 2010 Events, Focus Group Information
Here ye, Here ye -
In search of Focus Group participants!!!
Requirements: Female who drinks beer, willing to talk about it, available (next) Wednesday February 24th, 7 – 830 pm, in Ashland Oregon.
If you can join us, we’re looking for up to 6 more women to contribute their opinions and thoughts, ideas and any other valid information that fits per women and beer.
Can you host one yourself with up to a dozen people? Absolutely!! Please Contact me.
Any opportunity women can offer to contribute their thoughts is exactly the information that drives WEB to assist breweries and brewers accurately and authentically develop female market share.
Tags: focus group
Last Night, Sitting At The Bar…
Jan 20, 2010 Focus Group Information, Myth Busting, Something To Think About, education
…I noticed that all the patrons who had bellied up were women. How refreshing.
Why is that? Because these women were comfortable in their ‘third place’? They totally enjoy good beer? They like sitting at the bar?
There’s a lot of information that many women have shared with me in focus groups, casual conversation and online about sitting at a bar. This example was rich as it’s still atypical. No reason it needs to be.
So what can you do – as a brewpub, taproom, or bar with a strong beer commitment – to authentically attract more females into the fray? To build up the only 25 – 30 percent of women (who are the majority of the entire human population)?
Encourage the women to sit at the bar, engage in intelligent entertaining conversation, invite them back.
Change is relatively easy to affect if you are active in pursuing it - not just saying “I wish…” and “someday…”
It made my night. Then I finished my double IPA and went home.
Tags: engage women, sitting at the bar
Beer Meditation
Dec 25, 2009 Events, Focus Group Information, Good People, Home Free Tour 2009
Hats off to Ben and for looking for a new opportunity, taking action to develop his dream and inviting me into the conversation at his home in Detroit last week.
Ben and a prototype
It’s becoming somewhat regular to get contacted by people to reaching out, calling or emailing in their efforts to start a new brewery, do research and other women and beer related projects. Looking for real information to bolster their cause.
Great! It’s flattering and interesting to be tapped as a resource. Every one has a story and each one is the same and unique simultaneously.
The ongoing efforts by WEB to compile qualitative psycho graphic data continues to make more and more solid information available for members of the beer community. The information supports, redefines, and enlightens – which is exactly the goal in supporting the greater beer community.
It’s precisely why Women Enjoying Beer was created and marches forward in the name of beer.
Tags: Ben Julian, Detroit, Rolling Stoneware
What Does ‘Local’ Mean (#4 of 4 Series)
Aug 7, 2009 Focus Group Information
When you think in terms of local and regional goods, what do you think of?
What does it mean to be “local”? What about “regional”?
In focus groups, women say that buying local, more and more, matters to them. When pressed for what local means to them, we do an interesting dance.
- “What does local mean to you”
- “That it comes from close by.”
- “So is an egg produced by a chicken within 50 miles local?”
- “(usually) Yes.”
- “Farther than 50 miles??”
- “No.”
- “What about your beer – how close is local?”
- (Run through similar questioning)
At the same time, because the conversation invariably turns to the fact that say hops is grown in limited areas of the world, then the definition is stretched to accommodate. And, knowing that, it’s perfectly fine with them.
They are telling us that local is a balance to strike – like everything else. Yes, they’d love it if all the ingredients were sourced locally, yet they realize that the crops are not necessarily available – so that is factored in.
Regional, well, that extends the definition even farther. If they want, say, a Midwest beer – wow! They’ve got a warehouse full of great choices. California? Same drill. Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota? It gets dicey simply due to sheer numbers.
So pay attention to how you advertise your ingredients. It can be a big plus – when a component is sourced close by. Just as importantly balanced out as buying organic. These are all conversations with your consumers and supporters you know. Talk it up.
Find out what it means to your patrons.
Photo courtesy of Flickr by Adrian Midgley
Tags: balance, consumer education, definitions, local, regional
Where Women Drink Beer (#3 of Series)
Aug 6, 2009 Focus Group Information
It seems that many people, regardless of gender, like to drink beer outside. Why is that?
Well, part of it seems to be regionally related. Said another way, people and definitely women in the focus groups, like to sit outside as weather permits.
Why? (feels like a 3 year old line of questioning)
Jennifer & Deidre enjoying a tasty beer outside
Because in some areas of the globe weather is not always ‘nice’. Nice being conducive to sitting outside. I’m not talking about the enthusiasts who will drink anywhere, under any atmospheric condition.
I’m addressing the average consumer female beer drinker. They like to sit out of doors, or be outside, to enjoy their beer.
Why? Because beer is a social beverage and generally when you’re sitting outside, you’re with company. And the social element is a really really big part of drinking beer for women.
That’s why.
In areas where you can sit outside most the year round, well, it’s still important. Perhaps not as amplified as those who live in different climates – including those who sit indoors due to really hot weather just as much as those who sit indoors because of really cold weather.
So when you think about where women can and will drink your beer, think about context of location, time of year and where they can do just that – sit outside, drinking beer.
Tags: drinking beer out of doors, location, relaxing, social element
Listen To The Market Share (#2 of Series)
Aug 5, 2009 Assumptions, Focus Group Information
You know what I love about kids? They don’t have what my friend Mike Wagner calls a crap filter. Indeed. Ask them a question and generally you get a straight forward answer.
Point today – ask your market segment directly you are after for their input, opinions, and insights. Don’t ask someone else who THINKS they know what that other person is invariably thinking. Regardless how well one person knows another, they are still not that person.
The same thing has happened in traditionally marketing beers. Some companies still think they know what the female consumer wants. Pray tell – how do they come to this conclusion??
Focus group participants let it rip – they tell me point blank they have no idea why companies simply do not ask them.
Who out there has a regular focus group program? Set up to listen (not just hear or assume they are listening) to their female patrons to find out what they really want, what they really like?
If you do not have an ongoing market development segment of your business there are lots of ways to go about it.
- Partner with other companies in the same industry. Craft brewers are a great example of an industry that wants to help the whole. Go with that comraderie. Share costs.
- Work with your female patrons – ask them what they like, what they don’t like, why and follow all sorts of thinking trails to get this information. Then act on it.
- Hire a facilitator, a moderator that knows how to get the best information for you to grow and develop your business. I guarantee you it will be well worth the time, effort and investment. And it is an investment – you will get it back in $$.
Listen to the market share.
Tags: accuracy, listening, market share
Know Thy Market (#1 of Series)
Aug 4, 2009 Focus Group Information
This may seem like stating the over obvious. However I wouldn’t be specializing in marketing beer to women if there weren’t a need.
Knowing the market you are after, BEFORE you introduce your product to market, is a true basic of marketing. Like the word (marketing ) or not, it’s what you are doing – trying to sell something to the market that will buy your goods.
- Did you spend time on the front end, prior to opening your brewery, in deciding and identifying your market?
- If so, what is that market share?
- Do you pursue them accurately and authentically?
If you answered yes, please continue to read for enjoyment and reinforcement.
If you said no to any one of these inquiries, keep reading. You must know your market – it cannot be incidental – to survive and thrive. To make beer just because you love beer – if you are hoping to make it a successful business – is foolish (unless you’re independently wealthy).
Women tell me over and over in focus groups they feel like (most) beer companies aren’t even trying to reach them. T & A of days past, too young ‘girl’ type females, and all the surrounding traditional advertising is not applicable. Why should a segment (women) listen when they aren’t even trying to be accurately reached?
Be passionate by all means. Be smart about knowing your market. Market research is pretty straight forward stuff. Hire the right person to help you develop and address it properly. it
Know Thy Market.
Tags: accuracy, authenticity, know your market