Company Analysis of SweetWater Brewing...

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Company Analysis of SweetWater Brewing Company By: Lauren Briggs July 25 th , 2013 Introduction If you are in the South Eastern region of the United States then you know about SweetWater Brewing Company. SweetWater Brewing Company is located in Atlanta, Georgia and is the largest beer distributor in the South East. SweetWater Brewing Company offers a quality beer at a reasonable price; the best part of the beer brewed by SweetWater is that it is brewed by clean water from the Chattahoochee. It is one of the only breweries that offers non- pasteurized beer, giving it a smaller shelf life of 90 days, but also giving it a bolder and smoother taste. Even though SweetWater is a privately owned company, it is all over social media. Whether it is people commenting on their beers, or SweetWater themselves, you can find out what is going on in the brewery. I will show how involved SweetWater Brewing Company is in social media, as well as where I feel that should improve their efforts. Target Market SweetWater Brewing Company was started by two guys that were less interested in school and more interested brewing beers, Freddy Bensch and Kevin McNerney. They learned all about the brewing industry on the West Coast and ended up in Atlanta with the help of the Olympics. When visiting the boys realized that the East Coast was in some serious need of a West Coast style beer; and thus, the idea of SweetWater Brewing Company was born. Growing up in Colorado, Freddy and Kevin are best described as the outdoorsy and mellow kind of guys. They love the idea of preserving the environment and having a “guys beer.” So it is no surprise that the target market for SweetWater Brewing Company is a southern male between the ages of

Transcript of Company Analysis of SweetWater Brewing...

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Company Analysis

of

SweetWater Brewing Company

By: Lauren Briggs

July 25th

, 2013

Introduction

If you are in the South Eastern region of the United States then you know about

SweetWater Brewing Company. SweetWater Brewing Company is located in Atlanta, Georgia

and is the largest beer distributor in the South East. SweetWater Brewing Company offers a

quality beer at a reasonable price; the best part of the beer brewed by SweetWater is that it is

brewed by clean water from the Chattahoochee. It is one of the only breweries that offers non-

pasteurized beer, giving it a smaller shelf life of 90 days, but also giving it a bolder and smoother

taste. Even though SweetWater is a privately owned company, it is all over social media.

Whether it is people commenting on their beers, or SweetWater themselves, you can find out

what is going on in the brewery. I will show how involved SweetWater Brewing Company is in

social media, as well as where I feel that should improve their efforts.

Target Market

SweetWater Brewing Company was started by two guys that were less interested in

school and more interested brewing beers, Freddy Bensch and Kevin McNerney. They learned

all about the brewing industry on the West Coast and ended up in Atlanta with the help of the

Olympics. When visiting the boys realized that the East Coast was in some serious need of a

West Coast style beer; and thus, the idea of SweetWater Brewing Company was born. Growing

up in Colorado, Freddy and Kevin are best described as the outdoorsy and mellow kind of guys.

They love the idea of preserving the environment and having a “guys beer.” So it is no surprise

that the target market for SweetWater Brewing Company is a southern male between the ages of

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21 and 34 who laid-back environmentalists, enjoy going hiking, kayaking, mountain climbing,

etc. and are pub goers (SweetWater Brewing Company Fact Sheet). When in an interview

Bensch described the SweetWater market as “someone who’s looking for something better,

something tastier, something American. We’re supporting the gateway drinker” (Ventiera).

SweetWater Brewing Company is not just about brewing a quality beer and shipping it

off to the stores, it also provides a tour of the brewery where they focus on having a fun and

unique experience. Everywhere that SweetWater is on the internet, the hours of their brewery

tour is right there. This company wants customers to visit their brewery because they are proud

of what they are creating. Whenever asked about his success with SweetWater Bensch states that

it is not about how much beer they produce or how fast they grow but about how high of a

quality beer they produce.

Current Social Media Platforms

Corporate Website

SweetWater’s website is exactly like I would have imagined it to be, there were pictures

scrolling of the different events at the brewery. At the top of the page were tabs to learn about the

different beers, about the brewery as a whole, how to schedule a tour, a tab called “Vibe” which,

when clicked on, is a page dedicated to the news

that SweetWater was creating, and finally a

“Schwag” tab that sends you to another website to

order various SweetWater Brewing Company

apparel. Next to the scrolling pictures is

information on the latest things that are happening

at SweetWater as well as the ability to connect to

the brewery’s Facebook, Twitter, Newsletter, and

something called “The Fish Wrap” which I later

discovered was their blog. Below the scrolling

pictures is a section called “What’s on Tap” where

you can click on the images and see what beers are

on tap for the month. At the bottom of the page is a

bar to connect to SweetWater’s other social media

outlets. What I think is best about this website is

that there is no fold so they do not have to worry

about having the most important things above the

fold and having social media links below the fold.

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Facebook

SweetWater Brewing Company has 62,911 likes and

1,146 people talking about them. They post at least twice a day

every day and are constantly commenting on what people are

saying about them, good and bad. They do an awesome job of

posting pictures, informative posts, and reminding consumers of

the tours and apparel available to them. On most everything that

SweetWater posts there is a like, a comment, or a share; this is

exceptional because their brand is being spread with the help of

others as well as boosting their edgerank. SweetWater knows that

their Facebook page is popular which is why I believe they used

their Facebook page on their Father’s Day competition instead of

their other platforms.

Twitter

SweetWater Brewing Company’s Twitter

page has 30,006 followers, 1,214 people that they

are following and 7,333 tweets to date. I believe

that as far as interacting with followers Twitter is

where SweetWater is most effective. SweetWater

posts every day, sometimes multiple times in one

hour. Almost every tweet is a conversation

between SweetWater and a follower. The tweets

that aren’t a conversation are retweets.

SweetWater appears to be utilizing Twitter as

their main connection to consumers.

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Pintrest

Because SweetWater prides itself on being a “guy’s beer” I was shocked to see that they

not only have a Pintrest, but they are actively on it with 16 different boards and 456 pins.

SweetWater is not as popular on Pintrest as they are on Facebook and Twitter with only 609

followers and following only 50 people. What is cool about their Pintrest page is that the boards

are not just about their beer but about other things to do in Atlanta, tasty recipes to go with

SweetWater brews, other breweries, crafts that you can make with beer bottles and even different

bands that they like. However, they do have a board dedicated to the events that are at

SweetWater, SweetWater schwag and the different beers that are available.

Instagram

Instagram seems to be a growing social

media platform for SweetWater with 6,598

followers and 226 posts. SweetWater uses this

outlet mostly to let followers know what is going on

in the brewery they are utilizing the new video tool

quite a bit to show how the bottles go through the

brewery, a good move to get people to want to

come check it out in person if you ask me. They are

also using Instagram to show off the newest apparel

arrivals. Again, SweetWater is active in

acknowledging their fans, liking every picture that

they are tagged in or that are put into the

#sweetwaterbrewery. With the content being

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displayed at the frequency it’s being posted at, it won’t be long before this is one of

SweetWater’s top social media outlets.

Google+

SweetWater has 895 people using the +1 page. This is not one of the more utilized pages

of SweetWater which is a bit disheartening for me because this is where SweetWater’s passions

are. The information in this outlet is about their Save Our Water campaign information is; it has

information that no other page has. They do continue to utilize this page for brewery tours and

information on their newest brews, but the main posts are about how to donate to the Save Our

Water foundation.

YouTube

YouTube is obviously not on the top

priority of social media outlet for

SweetWater Brewing Company because they

only have 97 subscribers and only 38 videos

but joined on August 11, 2008. The videos on

the SweetWater channel range from brewers

giving information about the newest brews,

information about the brewery expansion that

was just completed, videos from different

tours and some are of the employees playing

different games involving SweetWater, none

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of the videos have high view numbers. This is a social media platform that I feel is severely

underutilized for SweetWater. I feel that they could open YouTube up to be subscribers to make

their own videos about SweetWater as a contest, show better videos about the brewery to interest

people and make them want to come to the brewery.

Vine

Because Vine is a newer application I am not

surprised that there are only 20 posts. It is a testimate to how

popular SweetWater is though to already have 1,584

followers. This application appears to be run by Zak Ray,

I’m assuming one of the social media employees. Vine

seems to be used to show what is going on in the brewery,

similar to how Instagram video is being utilized, which

makes me think that Mr. Ray is in charge of Instagram as

well. It is also being used by consumers to show their love

for SweetWater and tagging SweetWater in their videos.

Flickr

This social media outlet was the most confusing for me to figure out because there was

no corporate page, however there was a woman who was repeatedly posting pictures for

SweetWater which makes me think that she was an employee of SweetWater. If this woman is

indeed a

representative

for SweetWater

I feel that they

need to create a

corporate page

for SweetWater

to give

followers more

confidence in

the pictures that

are being

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posted.

Spring Social Campaigns

There were no definite campaigns that were happening with SweetWater however there

were posts on behalf of SweetWater for the 4th

of July and there was a contest for Father’s Day

for people to win some free SweetWater apparel. The biggest thing that is going on with

SweetWater right now is the release of the Waterkeeper Hefeweizen which is the beer that

SweetWater is using to support their “Giving Our Livers” Foundation in connection with the

Save Our Water campaign that is constantly going on. SweetWater teams up with the

Waterkeeper Alliance for the past 7 years to raise funds and awareness to keep the

Chattahoochee river clean. SweetWater brews a special beer for the foundation, has a special pint

glass that donates $3 towards the foundation with every purchase, and special “Save Our Water”

t-shirts that sends a portion to the foundation (SweetWater Brewing Company). Because this is a

year round campaign, SweetWater has made it a big part of their social media outlets. If you

know about SweetWater, you know how involved they are with keeping the water clean.

Sweet Water in the News

SweetWater Brewing Company has found a way to constantly keep itself in

the news. Whether it is the expansion that just took place, announcements of new

beers, or new ways they are raising money for the “Save Our Water” foundation,

SweetWater finds a way to keep their name out there. Because of this SweetWater

keeps a page on their website of the different articles that are written about them as

well as a spot for their own announcements. Right now SweetWater’s page is

focusing on national IPA Day on September 1st. SweetWater is of course having a

tour on this day and is showing fans where they can pre-order their tickets for the

tours and announcing the beers that they will have on this day to get people excited

(SweetWater Brewing Company). There has also been news about how

SweetWater has just recently expanded to Kentucky and now just six hours ago

SweetWater announced that they plan to move to Louisiana starting August 19 of

this year. With SweetWater constantly expanding I expect to see them in the news

even more (Brewbound.com).

Sweet Water’s Promotions

Because SweetWater is a brewery, there are no real promotions that they

hold, however, the deal that SweetWater offers during the tour is unlike any other.

For $10.00 you can go on a tour of the brewery, receive a pint glass and 6 tickets

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for beer tasting (1 ticket per beer, 2 tickets for high gravity drafts). When looking

on sites such as Yelp, Atlanta Restaurant Blog, or any other review site you will

read about the fact that this price is so much more reasonable than any other

brewery, beside the fact that SweetWater tends to pour more per glass than any

other brewery. With a 4 star average on Yelp, this is a tour for beer lovers to

experience (SweetWater Brewing Company-Buckhead).

Social Responsibility and the Community

As previously stated, SweetWater

Brewing Company is heavily involved in

the Waterkeeper Alliance and the “Save

Our Water” foundation. SweetWater is

always striving to bring awareness to all

breweries and beer lovers that the key to

good beer is clean water to encourage

everyone to do their part in keeping the

waters clean. SweetWater is involved in

several year round campaigns that

involve saving the water such as “Save

the Hooch,” “Save the French Broad,”

“Save the Black Warrior” (their newest

campaign), “Save the Neuse,” and “Save

the Savannah.” Their website has links to

all of these campaigns for more information on what their goals are and how to

donate to them as well as their slogan “We’re not here for long time; we’re here for

a good time” (SweetWater Brewing Company).

Social Media Engagement-Strengths

SweetWater Brewing Company does a great job in making sure that their

fans, followers, etc. know that they are being heard. Whether the comments are

good or bad SweetWater will respond in a positive manner. Because of this I think

that they are spoken about more because people actually feel important when

dealing with SweetWater Brewing Company. They also have strength in posting

frequency. Because they are always posting something on multiple social media

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outlets they are constantly being seen which I think is a factor to their massive

growth over the past years. SweetWater has shown double digit growth since

opening, I think this is because of two reasons (Martin). Reason number one being

that they remain modest and focused on producing quality beer over everything

else, and reason number two is their involvement in social media.

Social Media Engagement-Weaknesses

Although SweetWater is involved in several social media outlets, some get

more attention than others. Because they are putting more effort into outlets like

Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram; they are leaving out potential followers in

Pintrest, Google+, Flickr, and Vine because there is less activity on these pages,

they will more likely be forgotten about on those outlets.

Suggestions

Social media is a key to the success of a business, however, if a social media

outlet is setup but not being used it tends to give a negative connotation to the

brand. Some people may feel that they are not making time for their consumers

because they never or rarely post on the social media outlet. Therefore my

suggestion to SweetWater Brewing Company would be one of two options. Option

one is to close down their less utilized social media outlets. This would not be a

negative action, but instead a decision to give 100% to the outlets that are most

effective for them to give themselves a better brand image. Option two would be to

start better utilizing the social media outlets that are lacking attention at the

moment to let followers on all outlets know that they are important to SweetWater

Brewing Company.

Although they really cannot do things like buy one get one free beers,

SweetWater could do a better job at making it known what a great deal their

brewery tour is. They have the days and time available for a tour all over the place

but nowhere does it really brag about how people think that their tour is one of the

best in the south.

Conclusion

SweetWater Brewing Company prides itself on brewing a quality beer while

maintaining clean water. While every company has some outlet of their social

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media that can be improved, SweetWater is no exception. However, SweetWater is

one of the most engaged companies I have ever seen on social media in relation to

their followers. Their engagement is what I feel is leading their unprecedented

growth in the beer industry. I believe that if SweetWater continues to be engaged

with their followers on social media, and even work to be more involved in their

less popular outlets they will continue to see growth in beer sales and activity

online.

Resources

"Craft Breweries, Jump on the Social Media Bandwagon | The Wit of a HopHead." The Wit of a

HopHead. http://thewitofahophead.com/2012/03/30/craft-breweries-jump-on-the-social-media-

bandwagon/ (accessed July 18, 2013).

"Facebook." Facebook. www.facebook.com/sweetwaterbrew (accessed July 18, 2013).

"Flickr." Flickr. www.flickr.com/sweetwaterbrew (accessed July 18, 2013).

"Google+." Google+. plus.google.com/+sweetwaterbrewery/posts (accessed July 18, 2013).

"Instagram." Instagram. http://instagram.com/sweetwaterbrew (accessed July 18, 2013).

Martin, Jill. "BBC News - Small beer: US brewers with big passion to succeed." BBC -

Homepage. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22853487 (accessed July 18, 2013).

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"Opinionated Beer Page - Reviews from Sweetwater Brewing Co." Opinionated Beer Page

Home - beer reviews with a punch. http://www.tobp.com/review/brewery.asp?b=182 (accessed

July 19, 2013).

"Pinterest." Pinterest. pinterest.com/sweetwaterbrew/ (accessed July 18, 2013).

"SweetWater Beer." rachel the berge. racehltheberge.com/SweetWater-Beer (accessed July 18,

2013).

"SweetWater Brewing Company." SweetWater Brewing Company. http://sweetwaterbrew.com

(accessed July 18, 2013).

"SweetWater Brewing Company - Atlanta, GA - Beers - BeerAdvocate." BeerAdvocate -

Respect Beer.. http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/273/?view-beerfly (accessed July 18, 2013).

"SweetWater Brewing Company - Buckhead - Atlanta, GA." Manassas Restaurants, Dentists,

Bars, Beauty Salons, Doctors. http://www.yelp.com/biz/sweetwater-brewing-company-atlanta

(accessed July 19, 2013).

"SweetWater Brewing Company Fact Sheet." SweetWater Brewing. sweetwaterbrew.com/wp-

content/uploads/SweetWater%20Fact%20Sheet (accessed July 18, 2013).

" SweetWater Brewing Company to Launch in Louisiana : Brewbound.com." Brewbound.com –

Craft beer top stories, newswire, insight, data, and analysis + Industry conferences :

Brewbound.com. http://www.brewbound.com/news/2013/sweetwater-brewing-company-to-

launch-in-louisiana (accessed July 25, 2013).

" Sweetwater Brewery Tour Review, Atlanta, GA | Atlanta Restaurant Blog." Atlanta Restaurant

Blog. http://atlanta-restaurantblog.com/2009/08/sweetwater-brewery-tour-review-atlanta-ga/

(accessed July 18, 2013).

"SweetWater Brewery - YouTube." YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SweetWaterBrewery (accessed July 18, 2013).

"Twitter." Twitter. www.twitter.com/sweetwaterbrew (accessed July 18, 2013).

Ventiera, Sara. "Sweetwater Brewing's Freddy Bensch Wants You To Drink 'Something Fresh,

Something American' - Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach - Restaurants and Dining - Clean Plate

Charlie." Broward Palm Beach Blogs.

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/cleanplatecharlie/2013/05/sweetwater_brewings_freddy_be

nsch_wants_you_to_drink_something_fresh_something_american.php (accessed July 18, 2013).

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