Tag: new model

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New Model – Customers

Cast your mind back to when you were 21.  How many breweries were there when you hit that newly minted beer drinking age?  For me, it was a whopping 312.  My range of choice was also probably much, much smaller than that so I probably drank more of the same beers or more from the same breweries just due to lack of options.  I don’t remember and no Untappd back then to lean on for historical reference.

My oldest nephew turns 21 in 2021.  By then, there may well be over 10,000 breweries with much, much wider distribution.  How will he make a decision when faced with a bazillion tap and packaged options?  How many bars with over 20 taps were around when you started your beer journey compared to now. 

That is the new model of entry level consumer education that needs to be understood.  Flagships, as lovely as they are, simply cannot hold the same level of attention.  We have trained bars to rotate beers and rotate them hard and often.  We have trained breweries to focus on special releases and multi variants.  How does a new beer drinker navigate that?  

Then factor in the cost.  Will my nephew be able to plunk down $25 for 4 cans?  I am priced out of a lot of stuff right now.  I have to pick and choose and try to find single cans and bottles to keep up a variety and I am in no way close to keeping up with the beer Joneses.

Breweries are going to have to go after some of these youngsters and give them a reason to pick up a beer.  Whether that is through better signage at their taproom to point newcomers to start with a certain beer or to use simple flavor descriptors in the manner of Modern Times with their 3 adjective branding on their cans or some other novel concept to quickly message what the beer will be like.

You can’t expect customers to be of the same mindset and you can’t say that millennials are not drinking beer and just shrug your shoulders as if being a different generation is the only answer.  We all need to put ourselves in other peoples shoes.

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New Collaboration Model

This blog is chock-a-block with postings of collaboration beers. The camaraderie factor gives off positive vibes and sometimes it is the only way to taste a beer from a brewery far away.

But I believe that this needs to be shaken up a bit. Yes, this may sound like one of those team building exercises that everyone groans about but I would like to see a little more randomness involved.

I envision one of those bingo rollers but with brewery logos in it. For instance, the L.A. Brewers Guild members each have a ping pong ball and two at a time, they are pulled out and paired off. Here’s the twist though, add a second group of balls that have a beer style on them so that the style is up in the air too.

Each duo (or trio if desired) can pick a time in the year to brew their beer and go nuts with it. Yes, some groups may be fast friends already and you may end up with some groups that don’t like each other at all but isn’t that part of the fun? Get people out of a comfort zone and get them thinking and behaving differently.

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New Distribution Model

#2 in a semi-regular series, this month, and maybe further, I am going to attempt to think outside the box a bit. Where does craft beer and the world intersect and how can they build together. I want to put some fun, maybe totally un-workable ideas out there. The U.S. has gotten so stuck but maybe one idea can spark another and then we can find one that does make life truly greater.

Distribution of beer was born out of the traumatic ashes of prohibition and worked fine if all you wanted was one type of beer from three companies.  But now, there are rules in every one of the fifty states, rules on the Federal level and laws set that simply do not work for the current landscape of beer.

The main problems, as I see them, are:

  1. SABInBev has too much clout and power – they basically have a firm grip on nationwide delivery and probably would open (or buy) Bud taprooms if they were allowed to obliterate the 3-Tier System.
  2. Distributors have too much leverage over breweries – there are too many laws that restrict brewery movement or profit.
  3. Can Sales – those few breweries that can sell out from their dock is stressing bars and bottle shops.

I think that the new model for distribution is repeal & replace. Send the 3-Tier System to Puppy Lake and remember the good times and replace it with…..

(1)Federal Law.  That’s right.  Even in a time of Drumpf, I think one consistently enforced set of rules on the federal level would make life easier.  It would also promote opening a brewery in any state.

CAPS are the key to my plan.  We can start by separating breweries into tiers of production and with each “level up” there is more scrutiny on payola, tap line buying and exclusive agreements. A cap should be placed on distributors owned and establishments operated based on the tiers without stifling growth by scaring a business away from a tier jump. 

Second, starting a distribution company should be incentivized though as the distributor gets bigger, the “vig” they can take gets capped.  Doing away with franchise laws that tie a brewery to a distributor need to be abolished in favor of signing shorter term deals for three months, half year or a year.  This way the churn will be higher and the distributor will need to be on their toes and can’t just hide a beer in the back without consequence. 

Lastly, a brewery that holds a certain amount special release sales at their taproom can’t make demands that a non-special release beer be carried by a store.  I understand this is an issue for breweries who have clients who just want the rare beer and nothing else but if you are doing a large chunk of business out your door then that trade-off is losing this privilege.

I am sure there are holes in my plan as with all of these new models that I propose but we do need to start discussing the problems and finding simple, easily applied rules.