Buy Alabama’s Best but Not If It’s Beer. Is That Official?

This stuck-off-in-a-corner poster still caught my eye when I stopped in the Alabama State Welcome Center on I-20, on the way back to Houston. (See, dear colleagues – marketing can attack no matter how unexpected the venue.)

Why, I turned to the otherwise lovely woman in charge of the making visitors feel welcome, was there no beer in that poster? Alabama-brewed beer?

The look on her face when she repeated the word “Beer?” didn’t need much interpretation. I feel as though I barely escaped from that center unburnt-at-the-stake. It is possible I misunderstood her reaction. But you know, last time I looked beer is not only a “product,” it’s even the direct result of agricultural produce…along with talent, perseverance and creativity.

I am sure that Commissioner Ron Sparks and the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, along with Alabama Grocers Association President Ellie Taylor, are doing their dead-level best to promote George’s Old-Time Barbecue Products and Golden Flake Snack Foods. You can see the whole list of Buy Alabama’s Best (BAB) members right here and I’ll bet they are good people, every one of them.

The brewers are not on this list.

An actual Alabama brewpub such as Montgomery Brewing Company, which I blogged about here, may not qualify; as far as I know the brewpub makes its beers for on-premise consumption only.

But please let me just mention [1] Huntsville’s Old Towne Brewing Company, whose beers I have not yet sampled, and [2] Back Forty Beer Company in Gadsden (ditto). Also [3] Birmingham’s Good People Brewing, the under-2,000-barrel/year brewery whose products are pretty darn tasty. All the products seem to be available at various restaurants and pubs throughout the state.

Shoppers can actually buy these (though the purchases might have to be consumed on site, tsk tsk).

Without meaning to provoke, let me put the marketing questions to Sparks and Taylor: Why no Alabama beer in your promotion materials – or in fact in your entire BAB program?

One random fact: the Brewers Association notes that sales volume at craft brewers climbed 9% in the first half of this year, during which the US beer industry’s total sales volume fell 2.7%. That, ladies and gents of the BAB, is “craft brewers” like product-makers 1, 2 and 3 named above. They are making fine beers. Riding a wave of popularity. And having to do most of the work using their own funds and their own fans.

Alright. There are difficult demands placed on state ag departments at the best of times. Plus, marketing locally made products against the tide of national consumer brands and heavy advertising budgets is no picnic. But don’t miss the opportunity to tap into a great fan base. Include brewers in the Buy Alabama’s Best marketing campaign.

Please direct just a little state-supported love to advertising and selling Alabama beers.

PS: Signalwriter is in Texas and can’t be fully tuned-in on Alabama’s beer market. One of you “experts” is welcome to guest-post here about the status of craft-beer marketing in the Heart of Dixie. Please ignore, for the moment, the 10+ Alabama wineries whose bottled products also don’t appear in the photo above.

Montgomery Brewpub

On the trip back from Atlanta, it was simple enough to program an address into the Tom-Tom: 12 West Jefferson Street, Montgomery, AL. That GPS thingy took us directly to the door of the Montgomery Brewpub just in time for lunch – with beer.

I don’t want you to think that every time Barbara and I go on the road, we navigate by microbreweries and pubs. Nothing could be further from the truth*. (We actually load the Tom-Tom with the addresses of Starbucks stores – Atlanta and Newnan, GA; Montgomery and Mobile; Slidell, Covington and Baton Rouge, LA…and so on. It’s easy: There’s a mapping function on the Starbucks site.)

Actually, we end up depending on AAA TourBooks more often than not. How come? Well, most microbreweries and brewpubs would rather leverage their “fan base” to build repeat business, rather than use relatively expensive classic advertising. True, this’s a generalization. But word-of-mouth can pay off big over time. Outlasting passing fads is a huge deal; being in the AAA TourBook for Alabama for years does pay off.

The Montgomery Brewing Company opened in October, 1995, in a building right in the heart of the city’s old Central Business District. The structure itself was built in 1913 by the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Railroad to store heavy equipment. We’re coming up on this pub’s 14th birthday…and it’s hung in there.

We’re glad we showed up because we got to try a rarity: “Velvet Elvis” is a dark lager created by brewer Jamie Ray to bridge the gap ‘til it’s time to produce the next batch of stout. Classically, schwarzbier is a medium-bodied, malt-accented dark brew, colored a deep brown, with a chewy texture and a firm, creamy, long-lasting head. That’s what the German Beer Institute says and I’m sticking with it. The Montgomery Brewpub version was real good and so was the food. The staff seemed a bit distracted but served us well.

Sometimes you’ve got to search out the product – it won’t come searching for you. I know, that’s not supposed to be advertising’s role. But so many marcom roles have already shifted over the past decade. With WOM, you can put your advertisements where your (fans’) mouths are. Earlier this week, ours were in central Alabama. Filled with “Velvet Elvis.”

*Why yes, we did stop in Abita Springs for dinner. Why do you ask? Thanks to AAA (again) for roadtripping aids.