The Punk Rock Beer Brand Rocking The Industry

BrewDog doesn’t care what you think. And they are making waves in the wacky world of indie beer.

Here is part of a memo they wrote to an alcohol regulator:

In a combative statement James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog, said: “On behalf of BrewDog PLC and its 14,691 individual shareholders, I would like to issue a formal apology to the Portman Group for not giving a s*** about today’s ruling. Indeed, we are sorry for never giving a s*** about anything the Portman Group has to say, and treating all of its statements with callous indifference and nonchalance.”

“Unfortunately, the Portman Group is a gloomy gaggle of killjoy jobsworths, funded by navel-gazing international drinks giants. Their raison d’être is to provide a diversion for the true evils of this industry, perpetrated by the gigantic faceless brands that pay their wages. Blinkered by this soulless mission, they treat beer drinkers like brain dead zombies and vilify creativity and competition. Therefore, we have never given a second thought to any of the grubby newspeak they disseminate periodically.” [ Source ]

Takeaways:

–many brands talk about being different. These guys are living it.

–create products that reflect world events and your point of view. Example:

“Ahead of the 2012 Olympics, BrewDog released a special edition beer named Never Mind the Anabolics, containing steroids and other substances allegedly popular – though most certainly banned – among athletes.

“When we were putting steroids and other banned substances in beer, the initial reaction from the media was shock, disdain and disgust,” Myers recalls. “But then we were able to talk to them about the chemicals that are in beer – that started a whole discussion.”

Topics which would be deemed off-limits for most mainstream beer brands are lapped up by BrewDog. In typical challenger brand fashion, it is a natural champion of the outsider and the oppressed.

Hence ‘My name is Vladimir’, the beer released earlier this year to mark the 2014 Winter Olympics and protest against President Putin’s archaic laws around homosexuality. With tongue firmly implanted in cheek, the label instructed that this beer was ‘not for gays’. This one did give Myers a degree of trepidation.

“We weren’t just talking about other breweries. We were talking about one of the most powerful men in the world.

“And I’ve got to say there was a point where we’d developed the idea, we’d written the copy for the bottle, established the whole story and had the product ready to go on the website, and you pick up the phone to a journalist and you think ‘what the f*** are we doing? Is this actually going to work? Is everyone going to think we’re insane? Is anyone going to believe us?’”, he admits.”

–take on industry “authorities” if you feel you are right, not just for press. Otherwise it rings hollow.

–position yourself sharply against “boring” giants in your industry.

–use controversy and publicity to gain attention for your brand. Example:

“One of the first controversial campaigns Myers worked on with BrewDog was dubbed ‘The End of History’. “That was the first big project that we did that caused a little bit of controversy, and we began to understand the potential of that to build BrewDog’s reputation.

“The End of History was the world’s most alcoholic beer at 55 per cent, the world’s most expensive beer at £700 a bottle, and it came packaged in taxidermied animals – we had seven stoats, four squirrels and a hare.”

The point was to make people reassess the value of beer and how it should be drunk, and ultimately start a movement away from the “four per cent tepid lager” which dominated pubs. The stoats, squirrels and hare ensured the message was heard. “We still get coverage for that day in day out.””