Women and Beer

[Ginger Johnson]

Hello ProBrewer readers -

It's been a while since I've 'thread'ed so today's a good day. Just touching base per women and beer.

There's lots of conversation going on about this topic which is great. One of the key things to keep in mind is that by authentically attracting women to your beer, you create totally new market share without cannibalizing your existing share of enthusiasts.

Raise your hand if you'd like more market share...say 10%? What would that mean to your brewery and business? How about 20%? How about way more than that? Is your hand up in the air?

Women comprise the majority of the population and the majority of that majority don't engage in beer - recent polls show 70%, give or take. Wow! What an opportunity to engage new craft beer enthusiasts in your brand.

When you're ready to talk to the right person about how to go about this, planning, strategizing, and seeing results, call me. Women Enjoying Beer specializes in developing and serving the female craft beer enthusiast through research (focus groups), events, on premise and long distance consulting, presentations, education and training. This research then serves the craft beer community by providing voluminous and useful information you can act on to increase your patron base. When we have educated consumers, we all win - including the consumers.

Women Enjoying Beer believes strongly in supporting and assisting the craft beer community by this market development that has long been overlooked and undervalued.

Cheers to craft beer -

Ginger Johnson, Women Enjoying Beer founder and operator
515.450.7757, based in Southern Oregon, will travel worldwide

[Rob Creighton]

We were discussing the role of our Raspberry Pils in our sales plan and the topic of beer consumption amongst 50% of our population was bantered back and forth. Considering that males not only dominate the beer drinking populace but also are significantly higher volume drinkers in comparison, it would be interesting to know a volume comparison for the sexes. Are we focusing products on 1% of the volume drank, 2% or 5%. I lean toward the first number as I rarely see a woman drink more than 1 and that includes some of my beer geek female friends but I wonder whether this changes regionally?

[wildcrafter]

Women and Beer.

Here's what I learned on this topic and it wasn't on purpose.

We grow and breed different H. L. var. neomexicana hops. We have to brew with the hops and give them away for taste testing. We brew very simple ales to highlight the difference in flavor of the hops. The brews are always simple light dry malt, hard well water, our hops and Safale S-04 yeast. 1 hr boil with a quick crash, 3 additions of hops, and a SG of 1.050. Rack twice. Serve in kegs in about 20 days. 1.0 oz of hops per gallon or 0.5 oz of hops per gallon for comparisons.

The upshot here? Women go gagga for these brews.

We've had nuns, young women, older women, and all kinds of women that tell us they hate beer, but they really want to taste the homebrews as they see the hops here up close and in person. They want to know more,,,so they try a small bit of the homebrews. Heck,,,the most non-alcohol or beer drinking women are quickly drinking bombers of homebrews at 10am and loving them,,,asking for more.

The number one question of all these new female beer drinking converts?
"Why have I hated beer my whole life as this is really good!!??"

I answer them, " I don't know".

I wonder if all these easily obtained converts are attracted to the low alcohol, simple sugars, yeast choice, quick brews,,,,,that anybody can do.

OR,,,,are these women attracted to the H. L. var. neomexicana hops???

I'd advise,,,cheat this learning curve by brewing simple ales with some kicking hops!

Citrus is queen.

[Ginger Johnson]

Women & Beer responses

Rob & Wildcrafter - thanks so much for the thoughts and comments. While this topic is as deep as it is varied, I'll offer a couple comments (of hundreds of directions this could go) in return based on women and beer research that WEB does for precisely these queries:

Rob - cheers to a potentially highly refreshing crisp Raspberry Pils - what a great idea. Market it to everyone. Playing off the crispness of a good Pilsner with tart raspberries - mmmmm. Make sure you don't make the mistake of thinking that fruity beers should be marketed towards women (not that you are saying that). Women AND men like a variety of flavors. Period.

Men certainly currently and historically drink the majority of beer which is exactly why WEB exists - to help breweries and beer community members learn how to develop more authentic female market share. You're only going to get more share when you learn how to develop it properly and sustainably. What I'm saying is for you to market all your beers to all beer enthusiasts. Women happen to be 50.9% of the population and only 27% partake leaving an enormous untouched market share available for those who do it right - attract and serve. Gender is secondary really. It happens to be the market segment that has been grossly underserved and ill served by traditional beer marketing in the Western world (USA, UK)- hence the low participation by women.

Tons of reasons why way too few women engage in beer - one being that when any group is pandered too with inaccurate assumptions and insulting images, they draw back from the product. Why should they participate when they are misrepresented in marketing, pandered to (pinkwashing, etc.), and treated as second class. It'd be like marketing baby blue beer to men - of course both women and men like fruit beers - so market to the beer enthusiast in general. Least we forget women control and influence 80% of spending the US. That's a huge opportunity right there - to tap into some of that $$ influenced by women. Do you want more sustainable market share?

As far as your 1/2/5% figure, with 27% of the market being women beer drinkers, I think that may be slightly off base. And while it may (or may not) be true that women drink less volume wise, you have to look deeper than the simple figure; you have to look at why (caretakers, not as much time, not traditionally invited to partake with sexist ads, etc) when you extrapolate data. Face value is 1 dimensional. Be careful of that possibility.

You also have to look at volume in the glass - are you serving beer in glasses too large for everyone? Does everyone truly want or need a whole 16 oz glass of beer? Have you asked? If you offered a half pint as well as a pint I guarantee you'd increase sales - by women and men. More choices in smaller quantities = more trying by all = more beer sold and more educated consumers which is better for all, yes?

Lastly, Rob, you have to look past existing beer geeks. They're not the ones you are trying to reach; they're already engaged. Yes, you have to give them good reasons to stay engaged. And they aren't the 70% that aren't already involved now.

Wildcrafter - and I don't know if you're male or female by your profile - Once again, hops can make flavors that EVERYONE loves. Again, make sure you market the variety and specific flavors to all beer enthusiasts. It's not the point of making a beer that women like. That'd be a huge mistake.

It's making a quality beer and making sure you invite women and men in to drink and savor. Gender specific events are great ways to learn more about both segments of the population, both of which offer great and usable insights, depending on who you really want to develop as market share. No market share started big - so putting an appropriate dedicated well thought out effort forward to capture and develop more new market share in the form of female drinkers will garner results you'd be pleased with.

And to answer the "I've hated beer my whole life " lament - most people who don't like a specific variety of something their whole life until they try a variety of that very thing that appeals to them. Fruit, veggies, beer, wine. It's that they haven't liked the kinds they have tried. Here again, you have to reach out and learn from them (do or buy some real research) and you'll find, from women and men, what they like - then you can get some real traction.All assumptions are bad assumptions unless you do some research to back them up and /or correct them.

Okay - there's clearly an enormous amount of info surrounding women and beer conversation that people need to learn about. Call on me any time I may be at anyone's service.

Cheers -

Ginger, WomenEnjoyingBeer.com 515.450.7757