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

• cambriagriffith@gmail.com

• cambria@figmtnbrew.com

• linkedin/cambriagriffith

And join me at Lagerville in Buellton

on July 13th! >>> Lagerville.comTHANK YOU!