I read an article in Adage about the big-brand beer industry losing ground to spirits. I don’t have access to the data, but I think there is a completely different component to this. Big-brand beer is losing ground to small-brand beer. And social media can help.
I’ll take this opportunity to present what I believe social media is: At its core, social media is a fundamental shift in consumer behavior that, when used correctly by brands, can help those brands to improve their product offerings to increase sales. Social media is not play time online – it’s consumers voicing, at any and every opportunity, which products and services they like and don’t like, and why. This is the real value to brands, if they’re open to changing their products based on what their consumers tell them.
I don’t think the big-brand beer industry has been listening or paying much attention. If they had been, they would be focusing on revamping their product instead of creating new messaging to go up against liquor.
Is craft beer as big as spirits? No. But there are two main reasons to watch it as a serious competitor to big-brand beers:
1. The local movement. More and more people are paying attention to where ingredients are coming from and to supporting their local, small businesses. Craft and micro breweries fit well in this movement and are gaining traction against the big brands.
2. Quality ingredients. In addition to wanting local, there is a shift happening towards taste. Craft breweries satisfy the local movement and are made with tasty, quality ingredients while big brand beers tend to have lots of fillers – who wants corn in her beer? Ew.
Now, IPAs may not be for everyone, but the increasing popularity of European lagers like Stella Artois and Heineken should not be underestimated and are a huge step up from the lackluster flavor and style of the big-brand beers.
So, where does social media come in? It’s on social media that much of this change is happening. Each and every beer festival, IPA day, events happening at local breweries, etc. are signals that people want more from beer than the big brands are currently offering.
Yet, in spite of all this digital chatter that not only pushes another product but highlights purcahse intent, big-beer brands are not talking in the least about changing their product, just their marketing.
This is an approach that is far outdated. We consumers are smarter than that now. If sales or market share decrease, advertising alone will not bring it back. Word of mouth is powerful, it travels fast, and people have a newfound sense of community and austerity that affect everything they’re doing and how they’re spending money.
Craft beer may not be the most immediate threat, especially compared to spirits, but it would be wise for big-brand beer companies to start using social media to really understand what customers want.
Related articles:
http://adage.com/article/news/losing-spirits-brewing-industry-aims-revive-beer/236229/
http://www.ajc.com/news/transportation-referendum/should-atlanta-follow-portland-1482443.html