"This beer tastes good enough but the packaging is so great" -steve kream

I saw an ad tonight for Sam Adams on MSNBC right before the women’s hockey final. It was basically 30 seconds of folks from the company telling us that we are mistaken when we think they are a big company. They are actually really small. In fact, they are less than 1% of the U.S. beer market.

How big is that beer market again? According to IBIS World Americans spent just over 26 billion dollars on beer in 2009. So they are telling us that their gross revenue is somewhere south of like 260 million dollars? I still want to give them the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to post the ad up so I went online and spent some time on the Sam Adams site and then youtube. I came across all kinds of nicely produced ads but I couldn’t find this one. Whatever the actual revenue is, if you have this many nicely produced ads and nice media placement, you aren’t that small. I don’t think anyone is really fooled by Sam Adams so I won’t belabor the point but it does broach the subject of how success is tough on a beer brand.

Success for a small brewery can be a double edged sword. It brings the sales that the company deserves but it threatens to isolate the company from its core demographic that appreciates a smaller brand and helped them through the fledgling start-up phase. This is especially tough in the alcohol market. A lot of consumers are willing to wear Levis but won’t be see with a Budweiser.

This is true of spirits as well. New Deal Vodka, a small distillery in Portland, Oregon, has a particularly novel approach the success “problem.” New Deal Vodka’s packaging and marketing really focuses on the local angle. The company sources locally and has organic vodkas as part of its product portfolio. So after all this stress on the craft element New Deal writes on the back of the label “Of course, eventually, we plan to rule the world.” Seriously, just tell people that someday you hope to expand and do well. I think it’s crucial to be honest with folks and let know your intentions and who you are. You really can’t fake the funk.