Market Outside the Box: Two Beer Stories

January 16, 2008

Quick, what do you think of when I say the word ‘marketing?’ Does advertising come to mind? Maybe a strategic marketing plan? What about beer? No?

Here are a couple of stories about marketing that you probably won’t forget anytime soon. Both deal with the age-old marketing problem – how do you set yourself apart from other players in an already overcrowded market?

These two stories are about beer. Why beer? Well, because beer is as common a product as any. If these companies could crack the marketing nut, so can you.

Blue Moon

If you are a new beer brewer, what would you do to stand apart from the competition? While I’m not sure it was a marketing slam dunk, Blue Moon’s presentation ended up being a huge stroke of luck for the Denver, Colorado brewery.

One of the ingredients in Blue Moon’s signature beer, Belgian White, is orange peel and coriander. It gives the beer a slightly citrus overtone (hey, I’m no connoisseur, so if I have this term wrong, forgive me). The creator of the brew, Keith Villa, suggested to bartenders that the beer be garnished with an orange slice. Imagine a tall glass of amber with a full round orange circle stuck over the edge of the glass similar to how a lemon slice adorns a glass of lemonade.

Legend tells that distributors attribute this curious custom to the wildfire take off of Blue Moon where patrons would see the strange drink and would say, “Hey, give me one of those!”

What could be better than creating a spectacle of your product and increasing sales in the process?

Pete’s Wicked Ale

Another micro brewer that came from humble and award-winning beginnings is Pete’s Wicked Ale. The Pete in “Pete’s” is Pete Slosberg who began brewing as a hobby back in 1979. At the time, Pete was really more interested in making wine, but the five-year fermentation process discouraged him. Over the next several years Pete became more passionate about beer, and in 1986, Pete’s Brewing Company was formed. His love of beer and taste for variety sparked a WICKED revival in brewing which has continued to flourish.

Pete’s marketing is almost legendary. I recently saw an interview with him where he said one of the company’s primary strategies was to have ultimate reverence for the product and irreverence for everything else.

This tongue-in-cheek attitude allowed him to create branding that built in notoriety. The cornerstone of his advertising was him – an almost cartoonish character that was committed to becoming world famous while poking fun at how not famous he was (at the time), and, oh yeah, he introduced the ultra different Wicked Ale beer that has now grown into one of the national leading brewers with distribution in all 50 states.

Pete’s out of the box marketing was a smashing hit and allowed Pete and his partners to cash out at a cool $70 million. Go Pete! To learn more about Pete’s branding philosophy, check out this great article.

In the world of marketing, many argue that if you can’t go all in, you might as well go home. These stories show how you can keep a focus, commit to it, and watch it grow. How can you add a twist to your marketing? I bet you have at least one opportunity that would rev up your marketing engine!

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