Flying Dog Will Grow through Word of Mouth

I had a great meeting with a very smart marketer - Neal Stewart from Flying Dog Brewery. We connected in his hometown of Denver where he was nice enough to take me out to the premier joint for craft brews in LoDo.

Neal has been driving sales of the Hunter Thompson/Ralph Steadman inspired brew for almost three years now. The craft brew racket is challenging. The beer afficionados rarely settle down with one favorite. Meanwhile you can imagine across town in a pub some guys  a died in the wool Coors or Bud drinker. Flying Dog is built on more than a great and distinctive taste. It's built on story and reminds me of Rohit Bhargava's thesis on personality and how critical that can be for a brand. Neal knows this intuitively. Flying Dog is irreverant, playful in a curse word kind of way and is the kind of brand that raises the pirate flag like the mystique of the Hunter Thompson era. (I think the "evidence bomb" in Thompson's hand in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas might have been a Bud  but that was well before Flying Dog's time.)

The Walmart of Beer

I met with another brewer that day. A big, giant multinational collection of houshold name brands. As they pondered their own global expansion, I asked them their thoughts on the InBev acquisition of AB. One thing seems clear, like most transitions, there will be a clash of cultures in the beginning. InBev is a machine with a head for operational effiencency and an expense discipline that rides in coach and stays at the Marriot Courtyard. AB on the other hand is Four Seasons all the way. The folks at the top of AB are about to be absorbed by the Walmart of beverages.

And then there's Flying Dog. I can't tell you how many barrels but it's in teh video. But they operate in a whole other business than AB and InBev. Neal works both social media and affinity groups in the real world. He has courted bike messngers and chili fans. He knows how to authentically celebrate his customers even if it as simple as handing out some cool perks at the local brew pub. His budget will never allow for a meaningful advertising-driven marketing approach. So debating whether the brand's fans would sneer at such an approach is moot.

Three Things on His Side

1. He gets word of mouth and so do his customers - he wants the beer bloggers to talk about the brand. While I am sure he would love to have them buy cases, that's not the point. He needs lots of WOM to raise awreness and get more people to try and buy.
2. Neal is fundamentally acclimated for innovation - he is trying new things all of the time. he is courageous by necessity (no $10m ad buy to save him!)
3. He has a small and nimble team - there is no bureaucracy of the big org to slow him down. He just does stuff and learns from each experience.

play the video to hear what he is doing with social media, digital marketing and word of mouth (what we call Digital Influence)