Company Analysis of SweetWater Brewing...
Transcript of Company Analysis of SweetWater Brewing...
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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