So You Want To Get Into the Beer Business?..
Jul 31, 2010 Something To Think About
Here’s a recent conversation with a person asking me about how to get into the beer community.
I’m glad to help, just as so many others have helped me.
Only Rule = Get out there and make it happen for yourself!! The craft beer industry regenerated due to self starters. No pity party, no giving up, no whining, no excuses. Dedication, investment of time, money, self and energy is required.
7.27.10
Hi X -
Good to hear from you again – hope you are well and happy.
As a direct person, I’ll get right to it. Take it as firm help/tough love – since you asked, here’s my answer (again). If you don’t want to hear it, stop reading here.
I cut and pasted your original comment per this same request back in April with my suggestions at the time. What have you done about those suggestions? What kinds of inroads are you making per your own initiative? Who knows who you are due to you sticking out your hand, writing letters, making phone calls – persistently? Summed up = How are you marketing yourself, Cindy? It’s entirely up to you, not them.
I’m happy to be hired by you to help you market yourself when you can tell me what specifically you’ve done already and when you’re ready to put forth the dedicated effort to get out and go do it. I’m doing what I do because I am relentless. I chomped at my own bit and ran with it.
Your feet will be fully in the door when you do some of these things.
If you want to hire me to help you, let me know – be glad to be at your service for some coaching. Thanks Cindy – take good care.
Cheers -
Ginger
p.s. unpaid positions are still your choice
Jul 26, 2010
Message Any ideas as to how I can break into the craft beer industry (not as a brewer)? I have this HUGE passion for craft beer, currently (writing position noted) and (second writing position noted) (unpaid position) on (url). I am chomping at the bit to get my feet in the door!!
Thanks!
Hi X – Hope all is well, good to hear from you. Put your passion to work – what have you done in the last week to try to infiltrate? Followed a brewer? Talked to a brewery about all the different things they have position wise? Volunteered with a brewery for a festival? (GABF is coming up again – perfect networking environ) Waste only happens without action. I know you can get into doing something you love per beer – don’t envy me; do something about it. I created WEB and there’s no reason a smart engaged person like you cannot find a good fit. Consider this a gentle nudge. Stay in touch – let me know when you’ve made progress – or need another cheer session. Best, Ginger
4.25.10
New comment on your post #1297 “Back in Action”
Comment: I envy you, but in a good way, because I have a huge passion for craft beer and want to work in the industry sooooo badly. It’s a shame that I feel this passion is going to waste and passing me by because I can’t put it to use in a job setting like I would like to.
You go girl!!! 
WEB Can Help Grow Your Business
Jul 30, 2010 Events, Something To Think About, education
Everyone wants to be reminded of good stuff. And part of that is learning about the good stuff.
Good stuff begets growth – when people learn, they are the right kind of consumer and provide for growth, whatever your definition of growth is (not necessarily larger).
We’ve got lots of that – good stuff – that can help your brewery and beer business grow.
Want some ideas? Let’s start with just a few.
1. Focus groups, even thus far, from hundreds of women have yielded dozens of categories of information per marketing beer to women. Valuable and useful information.
WEB can help you grow your beer business
2. On premise expertise. Want to figure out how your taproom, pub, brewery, and restaurant crews can better and still responsibly sell more beer and brush up on their customer experience skills? WEB has that kind of knowledge for you.
3. Educational workshops and discussions. WEB has numerous ways to help open the conversation with your consumers, within your crew, as well as from consumers to staff and staff to consumers. They’re all related and all different. Know which one to do when.
4. Events execution. WEB works with you to customize events to best fit your goals, market share, vision, and budgets. Most importantly – WEB helps you get more women holding your beer in their hands, more often.
Need more reasons? Call me to talk about it. 515.450.7757.
This operator is standing by and the women are waiting.
Small World
Jul 29, 2010 Something To Think About
Here’s a direct quote from an email removal request:
“I would appreciate your removing my email address from you[r] list as I live in Pittsburgh and I think I am on the other side of the world from you and your activities. But thank you anyway.”
Small world - from one coast to the other
Very good. Permission marketing dictates, as should our uncommon good sense, that we act appropriately on this (which I did immediately and from which this person originally asked to sign up).
What struck me was that it really is a small world, two coasts or borders of any country are only separated by miles and mindset.
Be a geek, not a snob, honor thy consumers requests in a timely fashion, small world or not.
Permission marketing is another big point for the female consumer. Ask them how they want to be communicate with and then do just that.
“But that’s so much work!”
Not really – in fact when you ask, they’re helping you figure out how they want to be reached and will be way more receptive.
See it as opportunity. Anytime there’s a conversation, there’s opportunity.
Open the doors that’re knock knock knocking…
Tags: mindset, opportunity, permission marketing, small world
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
How Do You Quench Your Thirst?
Jul 13, 2010 Something To Think About, craft beer
What quenches your thirst? And what specifically are you trying to quench?
In the beer world, quenching – for me – involves context as well as what’s in my glass. What to consider?
thirst quenching beer
Well, time of year and climate of locale for one. For example right now, in Southern Oregon, it’s hot and dry. Bring on a refreshing session beer (a range of them is great). As the evenings cool down, I’ll always welcome a full flavored stout or porter with some ice cream or other yummy complementary dessert. A crisp hoppy Pale or IPA with fresh citrus fruit in a tart – mmmm! also makes a swell choice.
Consider also availability of beer where you’re at. What’s fresh on tap at the spot you’re sitting or driving to or through. Fresh is always better (as long as it’s not green). Available beer could also be some home brewed beer as well if someone decides to offer to share.
And what about what’s new? Consider what’s new to the market as well as what’s new to you. What haven’t you tried – or had in a long time. What’s newer to the market, perhaps even an exclusive roll out or tasting event of a special beer.
Quenching involves your physical thirst as well as your metal thirst. What makes you satiated and happy – although I’d actually put happiness with satiation.
Have fun quenching this summer.
Tags: availability, beer and dessert, climate, fresh, porter, quenching your thirst, session beer, stout, time of year
Beer Is Not Wine CBS!
Jul 9, 2010 Myth Busting, Something To Think About, Unbelievable, craft beer
I feel ultra compelled to share the following with you.
As a member of the Brewers Association, one receives a daily Monday through Friday e newsletter chock full of great information, conversation, happenings and so on. Horst Dornbusch posted this spot on piece this week.
This, sadly, made me laugh out loud - and then get slightly pissed off. ‘To wit’ indeed Mr. Dornbusch.
I’m in your camp and wanted to share it with WEB followers. If you agree readers, SPEAK UP !! Call CBS, NBC, FOX, whoever demand accuracy and proper representation and get them to realize Craft Beer is NOT a novelty nor nearly this ridiculously monochromatic. You get the idea. Act and we shall all receive.
Here it is.
“Mainstream Media Still does not (!) Understand Beer
Beware of false saints!
I followed Julia Herz’s link to http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/03/earlyshow/saturday/main6643411.shtml?tag=pop in BA Forum Vol. 16-0706, which guided me to “CBS Early Show features wine expert Ray Isle talking up ‘Beervana’ in Portland, OR.”
While it is commendable that organizations like CBS have begun to recognize the existence of craft beer as an important part of our culture, I believe the piece behind the link shows how far we still have to go in educating the media and much of society about craft beer. To wit:
* Why on earth does CBS need a “wine expert” to showcase craft beer? As if there weren’t enough brewers or beer journalists who could have lent a (competent) hand!
* And then there was this zinger in the write-up: “Rogue Dead Guy Ale: This is a darker, more intense style of ale (technically, it’s a German style called a Maibock).” This is inexcusable (even though in Texas, equally inexcusably, a Bock must be called an “ale” by law). I really must tell my friends in Munich about this American “Bock” innovation! With such brew-technical nonsense, Mr. Isle has shown himself to be a mere vacuous pontificator, a false saint!
* A quick look at his food pairings, too, reveal Mr. Isle’s rather unsophisticated understanding of beer: He singles out as suitable pairings “grilled seafood, raw oysters, that sort of thing;” “chicken, potato chips, pretzels, you name it;” “hamburger;” “anything from fried shrimp to French fries;” “sausages on the grill, barbecued ribs, that kind of thing.” How pedestrian and utterly predictable!
“That sort of thing, that kind of thing, you name it,” and—who would have thought—hamburger, pretzels, and fries (!)…such is the august advice from a culinary “expert.” To me this is proof that there is still a huge wall of ignorance about good beer out there that we must not tire to tear down!
Horst Dornbusch
Cerevisia Communications
West Newbury, Massachusetts
Tags: Beer is not wine, CBS gaff, Horst Dornbusch, Julia Herz
Terroir
Jul 7, 2010 Myth Busting, Something To Think About, education
All About Beer has a really informative, good to read article this month entitled How Does Your Beer Taste? And How Do You Taste Your Beer?
Terroir in our beer
Part of what we taste involves terroir.
Terroir has been a term long used in the wine world. It’s starting to be applied in the beer world too – as it should be.
Terroir is defined by dictionary.com as, well, it’s not there. Heck, the spell check in Wordpress doesn’t even offer it. Hmmm…so let’s go to Wikipedia (there’s a message right there).
Wikipedia states, according to its aggregate style information:
“Terroir (French pronunciation: [tɛʁwaʁ]) comes from the word terre “land”. It was originally a French term in wine, coffee and tea used to denote the special characteristics that geography bestowed upon particular varieties. Agricultural sites in the same region share similar soil, weather conditions, and farming techniques, which all contribute to the unique qualities of the crop. It can be very loosely translated as “a sense of place,” which is embodied in certain characteristic qualities, the sum of the effects that the local environment has had on the manufacture of the product.”
It goes on:
“The definition of terroir can be expanded to include elements that are controlled or influenced by human decisions.”
Finally I’ll clip this snippet “Terroir in other drinks”. Yet – alas!! No even a hint of a mention of beer.
Curious since terroir is all about the influence of where the ingredients were grown or raised. Beer has 4 primary ingredients. The water, grain, hops and yeast will all contribute so many flavor characters, and arguably all 4 could plainly exhibit their own terroir. Is that terroir to the 4th power?
Julia Herz has talked about Terroir per beer. We should all be listening to these ideas.
Tasting goes well beyond the obvious. That’s why you should savor your beer.
Even if it’s hot and you have a great session beer in front of you. It has its own terroir so take at least a few sips and give it the opportunity to expand your thinking and please your taste buds before it simply quenches your thirst.
Tags: All About Beer, Julia Herz, reapply, redefine, terroir in beer
Opera & Beer
Jun 30, 2010 Something To Think About
Mirella - come join me in OR for a beer!
I’m a later comer to Opera – perhaps. In the last – oh – say 4 years, I’ve become interested in it. Interested in the musicality of it (I have a big history and appreciation for singing), the performance aspect of it, and the sheer passion that it exudes. The music is moving, lively, engaging, and beautiful.
Don’t take my word for it though. Start listening to whatever kind of Opera music you like and go from there.
Here’s a fun article about Mirella Amoto and her path of passion to beer.
Mirella – let me know when you’re in Oregon next, pints on me. You sound like the kind of person I’d like to hang out with.
p.s. Canada is a favorite destination for me as well…
Tags: Canada, Mirella Amoto, Ontario, opera, passion
Accessory Benefits
Jun 24, 2010 Something To Think About, education
Beer has “many accessory benefits.” – John Hickenlooper, 2009
Mr Hickenlooper has some beer roots – he helped found Wynkoop Brewing, wherein this effort started the rejuvenation and refurbishment of Lower Down Town Denver, Colorado. He tells us beer is in [Denver's] DNA.
I’ll buy that. And the beer too.
So what are some of these accessory benefits?
1. Employment - the small brewers of the country (2m barrels produced per year or less) employ 100,000 people. Never mind the ancillary employment (liquor stores, retailers, suppliers, etc.)
The wages are the tip of the iceberg – what of supplies, crops, building materials, transportation; employment benefits like insurance, medical, and training all trickle too.
2. They help anchor the communities they are in. They give back – generously – and are genuinely invested and interested in their ocmmunities.
3. They’re passionate about their beer. However it manifests, I’d bet big money that the person who helped found the company (brewer, operator, investor) is passionate about beer. Passion moves things forward.
4. They’re fun loving, smart, engaged folks. They come from all kinds of background – technical (brewing or otherwise), law, education, public service, white collar, blue collar – you name it. Great diversity = great information melting pot for the good of the whole.
This is a shorter list that could be greatly lengthened. Hopefully you get the idea.
Supporting your local brewer goes way farther than your own back yard.
Avoid myopia. See and share the vision.