Targeted marketing/brewing??

[ThinAir]

I'm in the very early stages of putting a business plan together for a brewery and was curious if anyone here had thought about targeting minorities with a micro or not? I did a little searching, and found that a brewery in Chicago had a product they sold to the Black community for a number of years that was contract brewed in Wisconsin. It doesn't seem like anybody is targeting the huge demographic of middle age, middle income Blacks, and Latinos. I'm just wondering if this might be a viable option instead of competing with the already established players in my area. Am I crazy or does this idea have a shred of merit to it?

[CallerFromLA]

Targeting a market

Yeah, I've thought about targeting a market. Specifically, I believe that a craft beer MADE in Los Angeles FOR the Los Angeles Latino market would have a good opportunity. I could list a lot of numbers regarding this idea, but I'll leave it up to you, the kind reader, as homework.

It would go up against some big names. It would have to be TRUE to the culture. That is, no 'La Bamba' commercials - I'm looking at you, Coors in the 1980s. The market for advertising to Latinos in LA is well established with billboards, radio, publishing, and is just WAITING for this beer. Once you establish a base market and brand identity in LA, you could expand into the San Diego, and tear away some of the craft brew drinkers there while introducing new Latinos consumers to 'better beer'.

However, I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction and accomplishment in running a brewpub rather than a brewery, so I dropped the idea. Among other things, I prefer it when buyers come to me, than if I have to travel to each buyer individually. And I love the brewpub, social-gathering place experience.


Cheers,
--CallerFromLA

[tsewong73]

In my humble opinion, it doesn't seem like a terrible idea. But be careful. On one hand, you might get a lot of people from minority communities who respect and appreciate the effort on your part to pay attention to them enough to market your product specifically for them. On the other hand, you might get a lot of people from minority communities who villify you for categorizing them from society at large and trying to exploit them - especially if you're not a minority. It seems like you could be successful as long as you do it right. That part is up to you. It's your local community and it's up to you to research your target market. Consider spending some time in the bars and restaurants where you would sell your beers. Talk to the bar/restaurant owners and get their impressions. The trick, I think, is to capture the essence of the community while staying as far away from stereotype and generalization as possible. That's what'll get you into trouble.

In my situation, I'm not trying to target minorities specifically, but I'm thinking of creative ways to include them in my general marketing plan. I don't want to make beers and brand them for any single group of people, but I do want to market my beers in a way that welcomes and includes all people in our community.

[CallerFromLA]

Marketing to minorities

And for further reading at your local library:
- Advertising and Marketing to the New Majority: A Case Study Approach
- Minorities and marketing: Research challenges
- Minority Marketing
- Garfield: Survival of the Fattest: His Fortieth Book. Really, it took 40 books for him to really hit his stride. A masterpiece. After reading and reciting this tome aloud, you'll be the cat's meow.

Cheers,
--CallerFromLA

[ThinAir]

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm thiniking that if done properly this would be a good way to reach a market that is untapped as of yet. My particular market that I'm looking at entering has a very established brand (Great Lakes Brewing Company), and it would be nice to not have to compete with them head to head if there was a viable demographic to sell to instead. I've got a marketing plan I am working on that would involve a couple of very influential leaders in the Black community as well as in the Latino community. I'm going to do a lot more market research into the model, but I'll let ya'll know what I find out.........

Again thanks for the help,

TJ

[blksabbath]

Interesting. A former member of my homebrewing club is doing something like this. Here's his site:

http://www.rayhills.com/

[knock]

quite interesting ... it seems like a very fine line to walk indeed, but if done right, could be very sucessful .... what exactly would your beer line-up be? i am quite interested.