marketing foundations for craft brewers · 2019-05-10 · overview problem craft brewers are ......
TRANSCRIPT
MARKETING FOUNDATIONS FOR
CRAFT BREWERS🛠 10 TOOLS TO BUILD YOUR MARKETING SYSTEM 🛠
CAMBRIA GRIFFITH
OVERVIEW
Problem
Craft brewers are often short on time and resources for building
and executing a marketing plan. Marketing is a big beast that spills
into a lot of areas. Where do you start?
Solution
Build out a marketing foundation that you can customize and
scale to your brewery’s needs. As your size, budget, and growth
model evolves, so will your toolbox.
CLEAR THE RUNWAY
Your toolbox will be most effective
when:
• You have a sound business model
• Departments outside of marketing are
clicking along
• You have a company org chart with clear
roles and chain of command
• You know your audience, or desired
audience
• Your guiding vision is clear and stable
TAKE IT FURTHER
You can have exponential improvement
when:
• Your staff are doers and brand ambassadors
• Your company culture is bonded to your
marketing vision
• You consciously and consistently focus on the
long term goal
• You customize your toolbox
• You dedicate time and resources to data-driven
marketing
• You have a budget for marketing
THE TEN TOOLS
🛠
1. Brand Bible
2. Policy Guide
3. Product Calendar
4. Product Database
5. Libraries
6. Data
7. Contact Lists
8. Go To Market Method
9. Communication Channel Mix
10. Working Calendar
1. BRAND BIBLE
• Your expanded “ABOUT US” document
• Should include basic info / FAQs
• Back story on your “faces” of your brewery
• Your company’s vision and guiding principles, way of doing things
• Standard contact information
• Rules and guidance on logo use, colors, digital assets
• Links to or contact for general photography
• Can be shared with media contacts and used a staff onboarding tool
• Update it annually
2. POLICY GUIDE
• Events, donations guidelines
• Events code of conduct for staff
• Promotional and advertising compliance standards for
marketing staff
• Social media ground rules for all other staff
• The CCBA has your back with resources for this!
• Confer with your legal, HR, compliance
• Update annually or as advised
3. PRODUCT CALENDAR
• Proposed > Production > Sales
• Do these beers carry your
message?
• Are you balancing volume
drivers, specialties, loss leaders,
brand builders, new items?
• Do you have too many focus
releases? Too sparse?
• To SKU or not to SKU
• Refresh biannually if needed Visual example sourced from: PorchDrinking.com
4. PRODUCT DATABASE
• A shared compendium of your products’ basic details, used
company-wide
• Include basic details that don’t change too often
• Have the right people responsible for writing and editing
• Update weekly to monthly
5. LIBRARIES
• Digital assets – all your existing content and assets
• Design files, photography, documentation, packaging files, etc
• Dropbox, Google Drive, Brandfolder, or your own shared external drive
• Select one naming system
• Consider privacy levels, archiving
• Physical product library – for creating future content
• Actual products, print proofs, and props
• Use for content generation, print proofing
• Use for historical reference
6. DATA (IS LIFE)
• Log your baselines today
• Free – SocialMention, native social, Mailchimp,
Google Analytics
• Paid plans – Sprout Social, Meltwater
• Purchased reports – Armadillo/IRI, Picodash
• Collect your own data:
• SWOT analysis and post-mortems
• A/B testing
• Surveys
7. CONTACT LISTS
Staff
• Entire organization
• Investors/Ownership
Consumers
• Tasting
Rooms/Taprooms
• General
• Events
• Regional
Brand
• Distributors
• Accounts
• Media – national, regional,
VIPs
• Industry pals
• Vendors
8. GO TO MARKET METHOD
• Start with the end goal in mind
• Know your lead times for each
moving part
• Establish the important dates
• Establish who is responsible, points
for handoff
• Have weekly/monthly touch base
discussions
9. COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
• Prioritize your channels
• Tailor content to your different channels
• Make a content calendar
10. WORKING CALENDARS
• Dates for filling your channel mix
• Relevant production & packaging dates
• Events, festivals, award result dates
• Milestones from your Go To Market plans
• Recurring meetings with key stakeholders
• Morale boosters
NOW THEY ARE YOURTEN TOOLS!
🛠
1. Brand Bible
2. Policy Guide
3. Product Calendar
4. Product Database
5. Libraries
6. Data
7. Contact Lists
8. Go To Market Method
9. Communication Channel Mix
10. Working Calendar
CLOSING THOUGHTS
• Embrace structure
• Proactively maintain visibility
• Record data early on
• Don’t neglect internal marketing
• Depending on your business model and staffing, you likely
need more tools!
RECOMMENDED READING
• Traction – Gino Wickman
• The Designful Company – Marty
Neumeier
• Confessions of an Advertising Man
• Art & Fear – David Bayles
• Managing Up – Mary Abbajay
• Anything You Want – Derek Sivers
K.I.T.
• Mentor is in session: Tuesday
@ noon
• linkedin/cambriagriffith
And join me at Lagerville in Buellton
on July 13th! >>> Lagerville.comTHANK YOU!