Marketing Beer To Women, Part 2: Know Your Market
Sep 14, 2011 Education & Training, Something To Think About, Women and Beer
Yesterday we launched what will surely be a long series about Marketing Beer To Women. Yes, it’s different than marketing to ‘everyone’ or marketing to men. You don’t market tampons to men and you don’t market elder care to teenagers. While beer is universal, marketing is not.
Today’s topic is Knowing Your Market. Marketing isn’t a difficult concept to understand, yet you do in fact need to understand it to market effectively. Marketing is marketing. Marketing ISN’T advertising, sales or anything else. Just as brewing isn’t distributing or reselling beer.
Know Your Market
One of the resources that helped me understand that marketing isn’t advertising is Sam’s book, Brewing Up A Business. I’d highly recommend this read. Sam is straight forward and on target.
Another primary resource I’d absolutely recommend reading, if not require for all marketers, is Marti Barletta’s Marketing to Women. Anyone selling anything that does not yet understand that women make 80% of all purchasing decisions across category lines needs to get up to speed.
Here are some of WEB’s research based guidelines for you to follow in marketing beer to women:
KNOW YOUR MARKET
- If you don’t know your market, get to know it First – THEN market to it
- All this applies to both genders
- Assume nothing
- It’s an equal and different playing field
- No sexism is ever necessary or appropriate (any -ism for that matter)
Market research to me used to be an “out there” term. Now I totally understand it and can help any business, particularly the beer community, in properly marketing to women based in research.
Let me put it another way, if you’re not researching your market before opening your doors, you’re setting yourself up to go backwards. Building it assuming they will come is naive and short sighted. And it’s not only disrespectful to the market you think you’re trying to encourage, it could be fatal.
Set yourself up for success: Know Your Market. Market research does just that.
Tomorrow – Part 3: General Guidelines to help you Market Beer To Women
Yesterday – Part 1: Three Universal Truths
Tags: Brewing Up A Business, know your market, market research, marketing is not advertising, Marketing to Women Book, Marti Barletta, Sam Calagione
Know Thy Market (#1 of Series)
Aug 4, 2009 Brain Stew
This may seem like stating the over obvious. However I wouldn’t be specializing in marketing beer to women if there weren’t a need.
Knowing the market you are after, BEFORE you introduce your product to market, is a true basic of marketing. Like the word (marketing ) or not, it’s what you are doing – trying to sell something to the market that will buy your goods.
- Did you spend time on the front end, prior to opening your brewery, in deciding and identifying your market?
- If so, what is that market share?
- Do you pursue them accurately and authentically?
If you answered yes, please continue to read for enjoyment and reinforcement.
If you said no to any one of these inquiries, keep reading. You must know your market – it cannot be incidental – to survive and thrive. To make beer just because you love beer – if you are hoping to make it a successful business – is foolish (unless you’re independently wealthy).
Women tell me over and over in focus groups they feel like (most) beer companies aren’t even trying to reach them. T & A of days past, too young ‘girl’ type females, and all the surrounding traditional advertising is not applicable. Why should a segment (women) listen when they aren’t even trying to be accurately reached?
Be passionate by all means. Be smart about knowing your market. Market research is pretty straight forward stuff. Hire the right person to help you develop and address it properly. it
Know Thy Market.
Tags: accuracy, authenticity, know your market
What Are You Doing?
May 4, 2009 Brain Stew
What are you doing to authentically attract female market share to your beers?
Here are some questions and pointers to get you going in the right direction today.
1. Above all, be yourself when you do any kind of marketing. Sounds like a no brainer? Well, don’t change your colors, your tagline, your ‘youness’ – be you. Authenticity is enormous and critically important.
2. Where is your brewery or brewpub located? Where can women find your beers? Who lives in the neighborhood? Who are you trying to attract and why? Does the ‘who’ align with the ‘how’ you’re doing it?
3. What do you have available? Are your staff really knowledgeable and up to date on what the heck you make? When’s the last time you had refresher training?
4. Do you know your market? (this should be number one ALL THE TIME.)
When you have figured out your market share, then you can pursue it. Before that, get to know it. There are multiple ways to do this. Find someone (like a consultant who specializes in this area for instance) who can help properly id your market, or what market share you want to pursue and how it aligns – or doesn’t – with you.
I’m guessing you didn’t choose to buy inferior beer ingredients. So do your homework on earning female market share. Now.
Get it right from the get go.
Tags: beer, female share, know your market, training
