Few things are as American as Mom, apple pie and beer. Unfortunately, American beer, in particular craft brewing, is now the latest example of inauthenticity in marketing, all to mislead consumers and drive sales.
In recent years, the business of craft brewing has exploded. In cities and towns across the country, small brewers with a yen (or yeast?) for creating a unique beer have sprouted up, enjoying great success.
According to the craft brewers’ trade association, craft brew sales were up 13 percent in 2011, while overall beer sales in the U.S. were down 1.3 percent. So the small (about 5 percent of overall beer sales) craft brewing market is a lucrative segment in an industry that, overall, is stagnant.
For small brewers, the story behind their beer is as much a part of the experience as the taste. Their evocative names beg for explanation, whether it’s the story behind Monday Night Brewing in Smyrna, Ga., or Wild Bunch Brewing of La Grange, Tex., or Round Guys Brewing of Lansdale, Pa.
But if you’ll forgive the pun (and even if you won’t): There’s trouble brewing in craft beer paradise, and it has to do with that uniquely American business desire to consolidate everything into huge conglomerates. We’ve done it with cars, defense, food, etc., etc.
Now the major brewers want to do the same with craft brews. Recently, the Brewers Association called out Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, America’s two largest beer conglomerates, as well as United Brewery Holdings of India, for “crafty” positioning of some of their labels as craft brews.
According to the association, a craft brewer is “small and independent,” with production of fewer than six million barrels annually and no more than 25 percent ownership from a non-craft brewer (in other words, the partial ownership of a big brewer or food conglomerate, etc.).
So even though some may think Blue Moon is a craft beer, it’s actually brewed by SABMiller, much as Anheuser Busch InBev brews Goose Island and United Brewery is behind the Kingfisher Brewing label.
As the association put it, “The large, multinational brewers appear to be deliberately attempting to blur the lines between their crafty, craft-like beers and true craft beers from today’s small and independent brewers. We call for transparency in brand ownership and for information to be clearly presented in a way that allows beer drinkers to make an informed choice about who brewed the beer they are drinking.”
Regardless of which brew may be your personal favorite, this whole affair leaves a bad taste for those of us who believe in the power of authentic stories, fluently told. If, as the brewers association contends, a craft brewer is defined by certain criteria that an international brewing conglomerate cannot meet, then why are the big brewers developing cute craft-like names and selling them to craft brew lovers?
The answer seems pretty obvious to me, and just as clearly, seems pretty disingenuous.
It’s yet another great example of why, across the globe, the public perception of traditional advertising and marketing is at an all-time low. Regardless of whether we’re buying a brewski or a big machine for our company, we hold on to our wallet and view marketers with skepticism and distrust because they lie to us so often.
It’s beyond time for a new marketing and communications paradigm, one that’s based upon ageless and powerful concepts that have proven successful over the centuries. If you want to know more about WordWrite’s take on authentic stories, fluently told and continually improved to meet audience needs, download our whitepaper here.
_____
Paul Fuiga is president and CEO of WordWrite Communications. 
You can find him on Twitter @paulfuriga.
