American Hop Convention
Jan 25, 2012 Beer, Events, Good People
Goschie Farms
An open letter of thanks to Ann George and the Hop Community that was present at the American Hop Convention last week. It was my honor to get to give the banquet talk. Mixed crowd of farmers, brokers, brewers and more engaged folks, all for the pursuit of hops.
I’ll be posting the talk soon, which will be accessible to anyone who wants to download it.
Cheers to the growers, producers, breeders, researchers, and brewers who are ensuring high quality hops for our delicious beer. Thank you.
Tags: American Hop Convention, Ann George, farmers, hop breeders, hop growers, Newport Beach CA, researchers, scientists
Survey Feedback Requested: The State of Women & Beer
Jan 21, 2012 Beer, Something To Think About, Women and Beer
If you’re a woman who has an opinion or two about beer, then we want to hear from you!
Women Enjoying Beer is creating a report that will be delivered to and available to various professional audiences all over to help them address women and their relationship with beer.
Background info requested: specific state and country where you live (city is fine if you want to share it too), estimated length of time you’ve enjoyed consuming beer, number of people in your household, pastimes and affinity groups you’re part of. This info will be kept private, and never shared or given to any parties. Ever.
We’re looking for representation from all 50 United States, U.S. Territories and Associated States including: American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Midway Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, Republic of Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands
We welcome and encourage all women around the globe to contribute. This is a viral invite: feel very free to forward it to women you know, wherever they may be. (thank you)
Please consider these queries carefully. While flippant answers are funny, what we’re asking for are thorough true responses to the posed ideas. You can write as little or as much as you wish – we’ll edit and compile regardless of what we get. Note: The more thorough the response, the more insight you provide the more powerful and useful insight WEB can bring to the professional beer community to properly address women as a powerful voice and market, promoting respect and progress.
Women Enjoying Beer is the only business that is focused on women and beer starting with the female consumer first. “Consumer” can mean the buyer and or the actual drinker. WEB collects qualitative psychographic information; suffice it to say – we’re looking for the reasons why you do and don’t do things; in this case it’s in relation to beer as a woman. (If you’re a man please forward this to the valuable women in your life – thank you).
We’d ask that you please return your responses for this specific project by February 29th (yes, it’s a leap year!). Of course we’ll accept them after that point as well yet we want to set the pace and there will be a lot of compilation to be done. You can reply via email (Ginger (at) WomenEnjoyingBeer (dot) com, cut and paste in the body of an email, or create a separate document.
Scale of ROS (Return On Survey). We want to thank you for making time in your day to respond. If you include an accurate mailing address, here’s what we’ll send you as a token of our thanks:
- Complete responses to 10 – 15 = 3” full color WEB sticker
- Complete responses to 16 – 25 = 5” full color WEB sticker
- Complete responses to 26 – 40 = 5” full color sticker and WEB (recycled) pencil
- Complete responses to all 50 = 3” & 5” full color WEB sticker and (recycled) pencil
Even if you’ve answered these before, opinions and habits, practices and thoughts evolve. Please consider contributing again. I realize it’s a lot to ask. Know we are extremely grateful for your contributions, however extensive or minimal they are. We understand you’re busy – we are too. We’re working to shift culture and you can help.
Settle in with a delicious beer and have fun with it. Our sincere thanks for all contributions. It’s truly an honor to amplify your voice.
With much gratitude,
Ginger Johnson, Founder, Women Enjoying Beer
- Why do you drink beer?
- Why do you like beer?
- What kinds of beers do you like?
- How often to you drink beer and what helps dictate that pattern (however varied)?
- What would compel you to try a beer you haven’t tried before?
- What dictates when you choose what beer?
- What do you want from your beer? Conversely, what don’t you want from your beer?
- What kind of beer education or social beer opportunities would you like to take advantage of?
- How do you want the beer companies to address/acknowledge you as a female beer drinker?
- What kind of atmosphere do you prefer when you drink beer?
- What are some elements of atmosphere that turn you off, even to the point of not patronizing a place because of them?
- What do you think about present beer marketing and advertising as it relates to you as a woman?
- Does size matter for your beer?
- If I use the word “craft: beer, what does that mean to you?
- If you use the term “craft” how do you define non-craft beer?
- Do you drink any combination of beer, wine and spirits (please specify if so)?
- Do you find learning about beer to have any roadblock for you? If so – what are they?
- What kinds of establishments do you patronize to drink beer and why do you choose them?
- What kinds of establishments will you avoid when you want to drink beer and why?
- What would you say is a rough percentage breakdown of drinking beer in your own home, drinking beer out, and drinking at friends’ (non public establishments)?
- Does weather affect your beer habits and if so how?
- Have you ever homebrewed?
- If you’re a home brewer or live with one, will you take those beers with you to places and people? Tell us about why you do or don’t.
- If you have homebrewed, tell us why you tried it or why you currently do it (however sporadic).
- What other factors affect your buying and or consumption of beer?
- Will you travel to try a beer and if so why; if no – why not?
- How far will you travel to get a beer and what are the factors you consider in doing so?
- What do you drink when you travel?
- Have you ever expressly taken a trip with a focus on beer in any way? Tell us about it.
- Where do you shop for your beer?
- If you’re a cross drinker (drink beer, wine and spirits) what is the breakdown percentage wise of how often you choose each of the 3 drinks?
- Are there any beers you won’t try or buy? Why?
- Please tell us what you think or know what beer distributors do.
- What kind of beer marketing do you notice and why?
- Where do you notice beer marketing, in any formats (billboards, TV, magazines, online, posters, packaging, etc.)?
- Why do you notice the beer marketing you do?
- Tell us if you think current beer marketing is inclusive of women and why (or why not).
- What kind/s of marketing – in any category – gets your attention and why?
- How do you want to be marketed to as a woman who enjoys beer?
- What can a beer oriented company do to get your attention?
- Do you use any social media platforms – if so which ones; if no why not?
- When are you likely to buy a beer solely based on an advertising campaign or marketing effort?
- What does a beer company, restaurant, bar or distributor have to do to get you to buy from them more than once?
- Are you loyal to any brands (or any sort) and if so why? If not why not?
- Do you want to know the story of the beer business and why or why not?
- How does knowing anything about the beer company influence your purchasing of their products?
- Do you want to know about beer company’s fiscal, social, and environmental practices – why or why not?
- Are you the primary caregiver of your household? Do you buy the majority of all products for the household?
- Does a care giving role influence your relationship and consumption of beer? If so how so, if not, please explain.
- What about your lifestyle and family (however large or compact) affects or influences your beer consumption?
Additional comments and ideas welcome.
More Quotes II
Jan 20, 2012 Beer, Something To Think About
“Every point will lead you somewhere.”
“Start one way and it can take you somewhere else.”
- Jason Oliver, Devil’s Backbone Brewing, GABF 2011 Media Luncheon
More Quotes
Jan 19, 2012 Beer, Good People
[Nebraska Brewing is an] “experiment gone well.” – Kim Kavulak, Nebraska Brewing Company, GABF 2011 Media Luncheon
Quotes
Jan 18, 2012 Assumptions & Myth Busting, Beer
“A recession …doesn’t mean you can’t build a business. It doesn’t mean you can’t make a great beer.” – Governor John Hickenlooper, 2011 GABF Media Luncheon
Tags: GABF 2011, John Hickenlooper
Do Something Spontaneous For Women Enjoying Your Beer
Jan 12, 2012 Beer, Celebration Worthy, Marketing, Women and Beer
Are you stagnating in your idea swirl? Do you want a boost of creativity in getting women excited about your beer? Here are a few to get the juices flowing today – use them as you wish.
- Surprise her with a birthday party. Every time you hear of a patron with a pending birthday, be at the ready to help celebrate her. Have some hats on hand and a small birthday gift to give out.
- Even if it’s not her birthday, throw her an unbirthday party – the White Rabbit was onto something.
- Keep some kazoos or a drum or whatever kind of basic instruments available to play to rev things up. Sing a few silly songs that everyone knows – be they camp songs, beer songs or simple ditties we all know. Crowd singing gets everyone smiling.
- Randomly give female patrons a free beer.
Randomly give out a free goodie she will like and use (FYI – if you have shirts to give, make SURE you carry them in women’s fit & sizes – they’re not men and you don’t give men women’s shirts)- Surprise her with a gratis plate of snacks to complement the beer she’s enjoying.
- Take her picture and post it (with her permission of course) on your site as the chosen Patron of the Day; great blog/twitter/facebook fodder. People like to see themselves in publications.
- Give her the best seat in the house with a sign saying as much.
Fun, economical and slightly goofy customer recognition moves like these engender fun, encourage repeat business from her, and will give everyone something to talk about. And that means they’ll be talking about your brand.
Tags: birthday parties, celebrations, free goodies, fresh ideas for marketing beer to women, taking pictures
Stats and Information from the Brewers Association
Jan 10, 2012 Beer, Celebration Worthy
What associations and organizations are you supporting? What groups claim you as a member?
One of the organizations that we are members of is the Brewers Association. One thing I like about them is that they provide plentiful and easily accessible information. Yesterday I got a mailer with updated ‘good stuff’ so I want to share some of it today.
Not a member yet? It’s worth while if you are a consumer who enjoys beer, a business in the beer community, a brewery, or a distributor. As with any membership, you get out of it what you put into it too.
- US Beer Market = $101 Billion
- 203,576,450 Barrels of Beer
- 1753 breweries in operation for some or all 2012, the highest number since the late 1800′s
- Well over 100,000 jobs surround the beer community in the USA (including the fabulous service staff of pubs)
Other Beer Related Resources We Recommend:
Tags: American Homebrewers Association, Beer Goddess, Brewers Association, Civilization of Beer, Lisa Morrison, resources, Sam Merritt
Gender and Age Shouldn’t Matter for the Cicerone Program
Jan 9, 2012 Assumptions & Myth Busting, Beer, Education & Training, Something To Think About
There’s a line in the sand for marketing the successes of women and progress and then there’s the unnecessary advertisement of a women succeeding because she’s a woman.
Here’s one example. The well reputed Cicerone program, which I believe to be of very high value, has recently announced the successors of the recent round of Master Cicerone certification. To be sure, this high level achievement is notable for anyone to pass.
Why then did Cicerone choose to highlight the recent graduate as a female? It should be a ‘who cares what gender’ situation, especially in light of the fact that the beer community seems to think itself non sexist.
What color is her hair? How about her eyes? Should that be noted – that she is perhaps the first graduate to have a XYZ breed of dog too or is of a specific heritage that we feel we must bring to the surface?
Highlighting gender and age diminishes the true news here: successful attainment of a difficult goal hard won.
When you highlight something like this (gender, age) you unfortunately do everyone a disservice: you send the message that it’s important to point out that a woman can in fact attain this kind of progress. However well intended, it’s the wrong thing to do. It’s focused on gender as a “wow - she made it” instead of “wow – this person made it.” Focus on the brain and intelligence, not the plumbing.
Did they announce the first certified MC’s as “The First Men To Pass The Test”? I bet you a few beers they didn’t.
This post is not meant to malign the program. I like and respect Ray, founder of the program and endorse what’s he’s created. We’d be first in line to talk about the import of beer education for everyone. This time it includes the professionals too.
Point out the successes and leave gender out of it. We shouldn’t be caring about what gender is succeeding at beer. We should simply be nudging those forward who want the assistance and celebrating their wins with nary a gender reference in mind.
This pushes everyone back into the score keeping mode.
And unless age has any relevancy with success in this world that we are trying to constantly improve, negate the age reference “youngest”. It’s like you’re saying the longer you’ve been on the planet the more we should expect you to achieve in societies expected patterns. Pointing out age, whether it be young, old and everywhere in between, perpetuates the ridiculous focus that age has anything to do with success.
Let’s get over it and get on with it, shall we?
It’d be a good move for them to change the news on their page to simply highlight the latest graduate of the program.
Tags: ageism, gender shouldn't matter for success, mistake by the cicerone, sexism
Festival Enhancement: Invite Women Enjoying Beer
Jan 5, 2012 Beer, Education & Training, Events, Good People
Our New Years glass is up to those who see the value of having WEB at their events and festivals. A few of those individuals include: Chris Crabb, Chewie Burgess, Steve Bahr, Patti Araas, Tasha Butz, Gayle Chisholm, Mary Ridderbusch, Hilary Kemmling, Stevie Caldarola, Nancy Johnson, Eriel Hoffmeier, James Book, Kristen Muraro, Ken McMullin, Lucy Saunders, Bradley Latham. I am most likely forgetting some. Know we’re grateful for everyone who’s in this arena.
Thanks!
They see WEB as a contributor, as the educators we are, as the researchers that we are – all feeding the beer community. And they’d be right. Thank you to them.
Educated consumers are good consumers for everyone. We’re your specialists to call for all kinds of crowds: female, male, mixed.
As marketing specialists as well, we can help advise and guide, augment and make your efforts go further with many previous successful past events to drawn on.
Even if you have staff members that do this planning, bringing in a fresh perspective and burst of energy can help them refresh, rethink and plan for an even more successful event.
For those who are looking to enhance their beer focused events, WEB is an excellent choice. We’ll speak, teach, conduct crowd pleasing tastings & pairings, and further enlighten the world about the incredible and simply amazing beverage we know as beer. The enthusiasm we bring and positive energy, diplomacy and good humor is worth every penny.
Find out what some have said about having WEB involved.
One Festival at a time.
When you’re interested in talking to us about how we can enhance your success, call soon – 2012 is filling up fast!
Tags: bradley latham, chewie burgess, chris crabb, eriel hoffmeier, gayle chisholm, hilary kemmling, james book, Ken McMullin, kristen muraro, Lucy Saunders, mary ridderbusch, nancy johnson, patti araas, steve bahr, stevie caldarola, successful festivals, tasha butz, WEB at events, WEB at festivals
