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So, I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe during this pandemic. I'm lucky enough to still be working, for now. We've been able to be flexible and keep sales at an acceptable level, luckily we have very little overhead, so even at 40-50% of our normal revenue we're doing ok. As such, we are continuing to plan for the future and one thing we are going to do is a rolling reboot as soon as the taprooms can be open again.
Our place has been open 5+ years, I've been the head brewer here since last summer, and it's been middling in terms of sales. We're not totally scraping, but we're not growing. We have a very loyal base, and we used to have a lot of out of town traffic, we are close to an airport. Our biggest issues are:
1) Perception- The brewery had a lot of quality issues starting out. Infections, only plastic fermenters, no real quality controls. They lost a lot of customers who swore us off indefinitely. I've been able to secure jacketed fermenters and get us up to industry standard on QA/QC, and the beer is much better and consistent since I've been able to bring the equipment in.
2) Advertising- The owners have done most of the advertising. They have been good about posting on social media everyday, but it was a lot of old and reused images. Well intended, but not super engaging. I've started taking over some of the daily posting and taking pictures everyday, trying to get our hashtag game on point.
We have 10 taps and offer red and white wine. We just started offering customizable seltzer, which will take one tap, and I'm looking to get some perry on another tap eventually. I guess my question is what is the best way to overcome the perception issue? Address directly through a marketing campaign? Just rely on word of mouth and push harder on the marketing end to make ourselves more appealing? We don't have a kitchen, but we do have occasional pop ups, and a few places that deliver for free. Our city also just lifted an injunction against food trucks in our area, so we'll be able to have one a few times a week but not every day.
Obviously its hard to predict how things will play out, but currently we are positioned well to stay open throughout this crisis. Just wanted to pick your brains on the best way to get the word out that the beer is on point and attract more people to the tap room. I'd like to be aggressive about it rather than just hope the product will speak for itself. We're pretty small, under 300 bbls a year. Thanks for your advice in advance! Take care of yourselves.
Our place has been open 5+ years, I've been the head brewer here since last summer, and it's been middling in terms of sales. We're not totally scraping, but we're not growing. We have a very loyal base, and we used to have a lot of out of town traffic, we are close to an airport. Our biggest issues are:
1) Perception- The brewery had a lot of quality issues starting out. Infections, only plastic fermenters, no real quality controls. They lost a lot of customers who swore us off indefinitely. I've been able to secure jacketed fermenters and get us up to industry standard on QA/QC, and the beer is much better and consistent since I've been able to bring the equipment in.
2) Advertising- The owners have done most of the advertising. They have been good about posting on social media everyday, but it was a lot of old and reused images. Well intended, but not super engaging. I've started taking over some of the daily posting and taking pictures everyday, trying to get our hashtag game on point.
We have 10 taps and offer red and white wine. We just started offering customizable seltzer, which will take one tap, and I'm looking to get some perry on another tap eventually. I guess my question is what is the best way to overcome the perception issue? Address directly through a marketing campaign? Just rely on word of mouth and push harder on the marketing end to make ourselves more appealing? We don't have a kitchen, but we do have occasional pop ups, and a few places that deliver for free. Our city also just lifted an injunction against food trucks in our area, so we'll be able to have one a few times a week but not every day.
Obviously its hard to predict how things will play out, but currently we are positioned well to stay open throughout this crisis. Just wanted to pick your brains on the best way to get the word out that the beer is on point and attract more people to the tap room. I'd like to be aggressive about it rather than just hope the product will speak for itself. We're pretty small, under 300 bbls a year. Thanks for your advice in advance! Take care of yourselves.