Winning in your local market may be the most important business strategy you can set for your craft brewery in 2018. At Craft Beverage Expo 2017 in Portland, Oregon, the word “local” was on everyone’s lips, followed by words like “community,” “relationships,” and “partners.” It’s how you become as essential a part of your town as Main Street.
Brewers of a certain size have lately been selling their breweries to larger companies. Whatever your feelings on that, it seems the problems that come with scaling up can be mitigated by having a crack corporate office on your side. Many craft brewers have rightly gotten the idea, then, that to remain independent and keep close to their revolutionary craft values they should focus on staying small—and local.
What do the marketing experts have to say about how to do local well? Well, the brief answer boils down to three key concepts:
- Host great events
- Leverage area tourism resources
- Find creative ways to get your social network involved
Notice how none of those begin with elaborate advertising or marketing. That all comes later as a way to promote your cool events and such.
To get a fuller sense of what each of those means, read my full coverage at CraftBrewingBusiness.com. To start strategizing ways to engage customers within 10 miles of your brewery, contact me.
Photo: CC0/Public domain via GoodFreePhotos.com
