Beer Wars - The Movie. Seen it?

[TomHanx]

Marketing IS pushing people to buy a certain product. There is a reason companies spend the amount of money marketing their products. Because it works.

agreed, so maybe Sam Calagione should quit trying to villainize A.B. and the other bigs for being good at what they do (make and sell beer). They realize that the vast majority of American's don't want a beer with a lot of flavor and they cater to that. And yes brand awareness, not any body else's fault you don't have the budget to play with the bigboys. No reason to get all pissy and say "oh well they take up all the shelf space so we can't sell our beer".

Bullsht! If it was as hot a commodity as he thinks it is, it'll work out. Right now though they simply out sell everyone else. So increase your marketing budget, come up with a better product, or whatever you can.

 

[TomHanx]

A better documentary is American Beer, if you can find it. NOT the movie about the canadians that come to the US.

It's five guys from NY that travel to different states sampling the beer.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0372140/

sounds good. I'll have to check it out. I'd rather just actually watch a documentary about beer itself anyways

 

[jbrookeiv]

agreed, so maybe Sam Calagione should quit trying to villainize A.B. and the other bigs for being good at what they do (make and sell beer). They realize that the vast majority of American's don't want a beer with a lot of flavor and they cater to that. And yes brand awareness, not any body else's fault you don't have the budget to play with the bigboys. No reason to get all pissy and say "oh well they take up all the shelf space so we can't sell our beer".

Bullsht! If it was as hot a commodity as he thinks it is, it'll work out. Right now though they simply out sell everyone else. So increase your marketing budget, come up with a better product, or whatever you can.

The big guys also have lobbyists on their payroll to make it as difficult as possible for craft breweries to exist. Goes a little beyond fair business IMO.

 

[motobrewer]

also, it kinda pissed me off how the sam adams guy went on and on about how wonderful and instrumental rhonda was during the building phase of boston beer company, but when she asked for his help with marketing money for moonshot (i too think it hokey), he pulled the same political sidestep reminiscent of the BMC crowd. That really turned me off of his "im all about the passion," bullcrap.

this is wrong. just because she did a good job when she worked for Jim, doesn't mean he should fund every ridiculous business proposal his former employees come up with. and this is a very bad proposal.

him not funding it shows more dedication toward craft beer than if he had funded it.

 

[pnj]

They realize that the vast majority of American's don't want a beer with a lot of flavor and they cater to that.

I would say most people that drink BMC do so because that is what they've been told to drink by the marketing they see on TV, etc. What if, from the dawn of time, they marketed 'quality' beer?

So increase your marketing budget, come up with a better product, or whatever you can.

Exactly.

 

[Bashiba]

As someone with 20 years on the retail side of beer, I couldn't disagree with this movie more. If the 3 Tier system was broken it would allow giant chains like Walmart to buy directly from Bud and Miller and undercut everyone one else in the market. This would lead to many of the places that are going to be more craft brew friendly struggling to compete. There aren't to many markets where good independent stores can survive on craft beer alone. If you take away their domestic business they won't survive, so there won't be places for the craft breweries to take their beers.

There are craft brewery driven small distributorship's now covering most of the country and doing a good job making the stuff available. Plus realistically most craft breweries don't have the resources to do it themselves beyond a very small region. Breaking the 3 tier will just make it worse for all of us, I absolutely believe this 100percent.

 

[JBrady]

As someone with 20 years on the retail side of beer, I couldn't disagree with this movie more. If the 3 Tier system was broken it would allow giant chains like Walmart to buy directly from Bud and Miller and undercut everyone one else in the market. This would lead to many of the places that are going to be more craft brew friendly struggling to compete. There aren't to many markets where good independent stores can survive on craft beer alone. If you take away their domestic business they won't survive, so there won't be places for the craft breweries to take their beers.

There are craft brewery driven small distributorship's now covering most of the country and doing a good job making the stuff available. Plus realistically most craft breweries don't have the resources to do it themselves beyond a very small region. Breaking the 3 tier will just make it worse for all of us, I absolutely believe this 100percent.

Good post.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I beg to differ on this. I do not see a disadvantage if breweries could deliver their products themselves, AND/OR go through the distributorship, at their choice. Small brewers that want more exposure could use the distributor, while local breweries could deliver to local accounts.

Brewpubs would be much more inclined to serve local accounts if they didn't have to setup with a distributor. And that's not even to mention that their profit margins would be increased and likely (or at least possibly) the price at the tap would be lower.

Bud of Columbia is a distributor here in SC, and I find it extremely crass when a brewery is also the distributor. They can pretty much dictate whatever price they want to distribute your product, and downright even refuse to carry it. They can also increase the final price so much that they're driving your product out of the market.

M_C

As someone with 20 years on the retail side of beer, I couldn't disagree with this movie more. If the 3 Tier system was broken it would allow giant chains like Walmart to buy directly from Bud and Miller and undercut everyone one else in the market. This would lead to many of the places that are going to be more craft brew friendly struggling to compete. There aren't to many markets where good independent stores can survive on craft beer alone. If you take away their domestic business they won't survive, so there won't be places for the craft breweries to take their beers.

There are craft brewery driven small distributorship's now covering most of the country and doing a good job making the stuff available. Plus realistically most craft breweries don't have the resources to do it themselves beyond a very small region. Breaking the 3 tier will just make it worse for all of us, I absolutely believe this 100percent.

 

[Bashiba]

I beg to differ on this. I do not see a disadvantage if breweries could deliver their products themselves, AND/OR go through the distributorship, at their choice. Small brewers that want more exposure could use the distributor, while local breweries could deliver to local accounts.

Brewpubs would be much more inclined to serve local accounts if they didn't have to setup with a distributor. And that's not even to mention that their profit margins would be increased and likely (or at least possibly) the price at the tap would be lower.

Bud of Columbia is a distributor here in SC, and I find it extremely crass when a brewery is also the distributor. They can pretty much dictate whatever price they want to distribute your product, and downright even refuse to carry it. They can also increase the final price so much that they're driving your product out of the market.

M_C

Some very nice points, I totally agree the manufacturer cannot be allowed to own the distributor - Then its not 3-tier anymore its 2-tier.

Also many states have exceptions for small local brewiers and wineries, in fact Illinois just added one to allow up to 7,500 barrels worth of self distribution before needing to go through a distributor.

My points are there are small ways to make the system better than just blowing it up and watching walmart and other big chains destroy the industry and take all those jobs right with it.

 

[Brewphish]

@TomHanx - I find it mildly amusing that the picture you used has a big Miller Lite banner in the background.

Like most, I enjoyed the film. I thought the Moonshot chick was a ******, and I was disheartened/surprised by how many smaller breweries got bought or put out of business by AB-InBev. It did also help set my mind to finally start homebrewing.