OCTOBER 2020 • VOL 4 • ISSUE 8
The Voice of Craft Brands
The world according to craft How Urban South Brewery is preaching the gospel of good beer Jacob Landry, Founder & President; Kyle Huling, Co-Founder & Vice President
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VOL. 4 : ISSUE 8 : OCTOBER 2020
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO CRAFT
How Urban South Brewery is preaching the gospel of good beer
IN EVERY ISSUE: 3 EDITOR’S NOTE There’s an app for that 4 INSIGHTS Industry News
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CHOOSING SIDES The difference between cool and culture
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LIFTING THE FOG 4 ways you can gain clarity in cloudy times
editor’s note
There’s an app for that
W
What if you could have a virtual passport? A ticket to all the beers your little heart desires. Well, guess what? There’s an app for that. At least if you’re in the New York area. Turns out the Empire State Trail, in partnership with the New York State Brewers Association (NYSBA), unveiled a comprehensive new website and app that gives craft lovers quick and easy access to trail information along the 750-mile route. The Empire State Trail Brewery Passport, available through the NYSBA’s existing New York craft beer app, encourages New Yorkers to visit breweries within 10 miles of the Empire State Trail. The app, the country’s first statewide beer app, is available for both Apple and Android devices. What a perfect combination—tourism and recreation, and beer. The program not only satisfies our rapturous appetite for craft spirits, but also benefits local residents and spurs economic activity in communities across the state. The Empire Trail is not only the longest multiuse state trail in the country, but also a conduit for economic activity and tourism for communities across the area. We’re talking reaching out to hikers, bikers, kayakers and outdoor enthusiasts of every variety. In addition, visitors—i.e., craft beer lovers—can digitally check-in on the app along the way, earning a stamp on either the Empire Trail Passport or the “Think NY, Drink NY” one. By visiting New York state breweries and checking in, you earn points that can be used to earn rewards. I mean, how can you beat that? And there’s more—there is even marketing swag, including a branded cooler backpack and T-shirt that states, “I completed the Empire State Trail Brewery Passport.” The only question now is, “What’s your plan?” My take is if you don’t have an app that can do what the Empire Trail Passport can, what are you waiting for? Yes, I’m talking to you. In a these unprecedented and challenging times, building partnerships help bring people and organizations with the same cause together. In this case, it’s scenic state beauty and epically brewed craft spirits. So let’s see your plan.
Michael J. Pallerino
What a perfect combination— tourism and recreation, and beer. The program not only satisfies our rapturous appetite for craft spirits, but also benefits local residents and spurs economic activity in communities across the state.
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insights
Lights, camera, beer me... Documentary sheds light on Tampa craft scene
Few places hold as much love for craft beer than Tampa Bay. Maybe that’s why local videographer James Blankenfeld made an ode to the craft scene with his new documentary, “Tampa Beer: Crafting the Bay.” Currently in post-production, the film traces the history of beer in Tampa to the Florida Beer Company, which incorporated in 1896 and weathered Prohibition by pivoting to other manufacturing processes until it could return to brewing. The craft scene came to life following the release of a beer by the Cigar City Brewing. The Jai Alai IPA even garnered nationwide recognition. Today, the Tampa Bay area has become a juggernaut for craft beer, with a bevy of local breweries regularly winning accolades in national competitions and craft festivals. As Blankenfeld told the local media, “The goal is, people see this (documentary) and it brings them to Tampa to try the beer scene. Or if they’re in Tampa, it kind of opens their eyes to what’s around here that they can maybe stick around for an extra day or two.”
Under the big top British Columbia craft brewery extends season with circus tent Quick: When you think of craft beer, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind? Okay, who had circus tents? Anyone? Guess what? They work. Just ask the folks at the Barn Owl Brewing Company, who set up a circus tent outside to extend its patio season for Kelowna, British Columbia’s upcoming winter rush. After finding success with the patio season during the pandemic’s summer months, Barn Owl, located at an old heritage barn in Kelowna’s Mission area, decided it needed a strategic plan for the cold weather. Using barn wood and trying to carry over the interior decorating inside, the circus tent hit the mark. The strategy will enable it to use the same outdoor space for the winter months, as well allow customers to social distance.
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Just a click away New site showcases the Empire State's favorite beers So you’re in New York and you want some craft beer. What’s your play? Thanks to a virtual passport—the Empire State Trail Brewery Passport, to be precise—you can find any one of the 200 craft breweries that surround the Empire State Trail. The new website—a partnership between the Empire State Trail and the New York State Brewers Association—encourages New Yorkers to visit breweries within 10 miles of the trail, which spans the entire state. In addition, a New York Craft Beer App gives access to a map containing every brewery across New York State, searchable by region, and includes directions to breweries. The app is the first state-wide beer app in the country. For more information, visit https://thinknydrinkny.com/ the-app.
Book Rec
Building a StoryBrand:
Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen By Donald Miller Donald Miller’s StoryBrand process is pretty straightforward: Teach your customers to listen to your story. In his book, Building a StoryBrand, Miller offers seven proven elements of powerful stories that will dramatically improve the way you connect with your customers and drastically grow your business. His proven process is a solution to the struggle businesses face when talking about their businesses. This revolutionary method for connecting with customers provides listeners with the ultimate competitive advantage, revealing the secret for helping
their customers understand the compelling benefits of using their products, ideas, or services. Building a StoryBrand does this by teaching listeners the seven universal story points all humans respond to, the real reason customers make purchases, how to simplify a brand message so people understand it, and how to create the most effective messaging for websites, brochures, and social media. For today’s craft brewery owner, Building a StoryBrand may be your tick to transform the way you talk about who you are, what you do and the unique product you offer your customers.
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The Voice of Craft Brands
The world according to craft How Urban South Brewery is preaching the gospel of good beer
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By Michael J. Pallerino
Jacob Landry’s love for craft came from Europe. While attending college there, the Southwest Louisiana native remembers falling hard for Belgian and English style ales and German lagers. After returning to the States, he worked in the education world, first as a teacher and then overseeing strategy for Louisiana’s largest school district. And then came the call. As a good Cajun and Southerner, he recalls, he knew his future rested in sharing the gospel of good beer. Partnering with Kyle Huling, founder of the Louisiana Craft Beer team, they unleashed Urban South Brewery on the craft world. Urban South’s combination of the heritage of European beer making with the brashness of new American styles set the Cajun beer world on fire. Its mixture of cultural legacy and bold innovation hit the New Orleans market in 2016 with the opening of Urban South’s production facility and taproom. In February 2020, Landry and Huling opened an R&D brewery and taproom in Houston, where they continue to focus on pushing the boundaries of American beer. Their mission is to inspire community and fellowship through the gospel of good beer. Together, they plan to build an enduring company that embodies the values and traditions of the Urban South—while also being a strong community partner. CBAM sat down with Landry and Huling to get their insights on their brand, the market and where we go from here.
guidelines. Social media interactions have gone through the roof. With the increase in remote work, people are spending more time on social media. We’ve had to up our content game while at the same time communicating the ever-changing safety procedures.
How should a brand lead in a distressed market? Jacob Landry: Our fast growth has made us a leader in the craft beer scene here in Louisiana, and with leadership certainly comes responsibility. The pandemic has shown us that all you can do in uncharted waters is fall back on your core values. We have shown our community that we
What are some of the adjustments you made to your business model due to recent events? Kyle Huling: Nearly 40% of our annual sales disappeared with the closure of bars and restaurants, so we needed to pivot quickly. Our anniversary party was scheduled for late March, so we had a bunch of one-off taproom releases in the tank, ready to go. So we canned 100% of those batches and sold them online for pick-up. Some of them sold out within minutes, which showed us that creating regular specialty releases could be the solution to our revenue shortfall. Since then we have done three to five taproom-only releases every Thursday, and continue to see amazing sales.
are committed to its well-being—through our extensive hand sanitizer donations, charity collaborations like “All Together” and “Black is Beautiful,” through maintaining our staff and paying them a living wage, despite the dramatic downturn in on-premise sales, and through the more lighthearted piece of producing a huge variety of special release beers.
What type of conversations are you having with your customers?
What advice you can offer on dealing with today’s crisis?
Huling: So many are asking when they can come into the taproom for a pint. It really hurts to turn away business, but we have to follow the state and city safety
Huling: Be aggressive and make adjustments quickly. During a crisis, some businesses’ strategy is to go into survival mode; reduce costs and overhead while trying to
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Urban South Brewery department head
weather the storm. Our strategy was to take the opportunity to grow our market share in grocery stores. So our sales team, which usually made sales calls to bars and restaurants, instead visited grocery stores to stock shelves and to build displays. The result was a massive increase in off-premise sales that continued even after restaurants began opening. We refined our to-go beer procedures after each week’s release with feedback from our customers. Whether it was implementing limits or creating safer pickup options, we did not lock into a specific process. Our brewing team took the opportunity to experiment a lot with different styles and recipes we had been considering for distribution beers. Since March, our team has brewed over 150 unique beers ranging from heavily fruited sours to hard seltzers. This has helped us build a game plan for new product offerings in 2021. Landry: Hold true to your core values, and use those as your guiding principles—in our case—fearless, welcoming, honest, collaborative, and better every day.
What’s next for the craft beer market? Huling: The re-opening of bars is going to be the next hurdle for our sales team. Our team is going to need to work closely with business owners to create a safe strategy that promotes their business and our products. Additionally, we need to be respectful of their financial woes and not immediately start the sales pitch for a new brand we are launching. This is an opportunity for us to show that our goals are aligned and we can help to drive people (safely) to their bars to enjoy a long awaited pint.
What trends are defining the space? Landry: Beer styles are certainly evolving. We never entered into the traditional IPA game—we jumped on the hazy, New England IPA trend from the start, and it’s still going strong. But we are also seeing a lot of consumer interest in fruited sour beers, and of course you cannot ignore the massive growth of hard seltzers and “better for you” beer. These are two categories that we’ll be entering with the launch of Paradise Park Hard Seltzer in early November and Paradise Park 100—our 100-calorie lager in late 2020.
What is your story from a brand perspective? Landry: We launched at a great time in Louisiana craft beer—one where one brewery stood out as a leader, and no others had emerged as a clear alternative. This wide open space allowed us to start, not as a niche brewery, but one that could really hit across the spectrum with beer styles and distribution. We are also a group of chill, family-oriented folks, and I think our brand represents that. We are the beer for the everyman and everywoman—the one that slides seamlessly into the grocery store shelf and the festival beer booth. We aim
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Urban South Brewery department head
to be that every occasion brewery, and I think our growing customer base appreciates that.
Walk us through your branding strategy. Landry: We loved our initial branding. We intentionally created it to show the juxtaposition between old and new, and highlight those elements of the urban south that excite us—where fast-paced meets laid back, where cobblestone streets sit outside of tall glass office buildings. So in thinking about an update, we wanted to keep those elements that people are familiar with, while bringing more uniformity across our core lineup. We were able to draw upon our favorite elements from the
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“We launched at a great time in Louisiana craft beer—one where one brewery stood out as a leader, and no others had emerged as a clear alternative.” — Jacob Landry, co-founder & President
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hundreds of label designs we’ve done to create one cohesive look that was fresh, but that people would still recognize as Urban South.
What’s the biggest issue today related to the marketing/sales side of the business? Landry: The sheer volume of options. The consumer today has an environment of 8,000-plus craft breweries. When we started business planning just six years ago, there were only 2,500 in the US. In the early days of craft beer, if you brewed it, people would come, as it was novel and local. Today, not only does the product have to stand out in style, quality and consistency, but the brand also has to hit. We have
Urban South Brewery department head
understood this from Day 1, and this was a critical part of our decision-making in this brand refresh.
What is the secret to creating a branding story consumers can buy into? Landry: Authenticity is key. The brand has to match the story, which has to match the liquid. We’re regular folks, most of us born and raised in Louisiana. We are taking our kids to T-ball games, fishing on the weekends, camping with extended family. If our branding, beer styles or pricing didn’t match who we are, I don’t think we could pull it off. Our customers would see right through it.
“ I love to see the professional development of our team. There are numerous examples of people who started out in one area of the company, but over time, we have given them the chance to follow their passions.” — Kyle Huling, co-founder & VP
What is the one thing every brand should do in the way of marketing? Landry: When people buy craft beer, their dollar hits small businesses, and in most cases, their own communities in a much greater way than when they buy macro products. Craft beer brands should more effectively make this case. It is got to be backed up with quality and consistency, but we need to show our communities that not only can we make beer as good as those larger brands, but we invest in our backyard in a way they could never do.
What are some of your biggest opportunities moving ahead? Landry: As uncertain as these times can feel, I’m optimistic about a number of opportunities. I’m bullish that our brand can carry beyond
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Louisiana—and we will be aggressively looking to open other distribution markets in the Southeast over the next two years. I am also confident in the model of the brewery as a “third place.” We opened our Houston taproom in February of this year, and we are exploring other opportunities to create retail-focused taprooms in cities that match our brand story.
What is the biggest item on your to-do list right now? Landry: Deciding what’s next from a location standpoint. We are pleased with how things have unfolded for our Houston taproom, and we think that model has legs in some other Southern cities.
Sitting down with … Urban South Brewery Kyle Huling & Jacob Landry What’s the most rewarding part of your job? Kyle Huling: I love to see the professional development of our team. There are numerous examples of people who started out in one area of the company, but over time, we have given them the chance to follow their passions. For example, Oliver Phillis and Murphy Fleenor started on the packaging line, and now are engineering and building some of our equipment for expansion. Or Abby Perkins, who started out as a marketing intern, and now she is leading our brand refresh and new product launches.
What was the best advice you ever received? Jacob Landry: I recently listened to a podcast with Danny Meyer, who said, “Stop complaining about your problems. Problems are the definition of business. The real question is who do you want to solve them with, and how can you have fun doing it.” This resonated with me and with the journey of entrepreneurship. There are a million headaches, but as entrepreneurs, tackling these are the essence of what we do.
What is the best thing a customer ever said to you? Landry: It may be simplistic and cheesy, but it never gets old when a customer tells me that XYZ is their favorite beer. These are the folks that keep us going. We do a ton of experimenting and innovating, but it’s the lady buying a six-pack of Paradise Park each week and picking up a 15-pack for parties that keep our lights on. We know those folks exist, but it is so refreshing and reassuring to hear it firsthand.
What is your favorite brand story? Landry: I’m a big fan of the “How I Built This” podcast with Guy Raz. One that I have gone back to a couple of times is the story of Jeni’s Ice Cream. I still remember the first time I stepped into one of their retail stores and was struck by how spot on the brand was, and how well the story came through. The podcast filled in a lot of the story for me, and I love the struggle, persistence, and how well the brand is executed at the store level.
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culture
By Aaron McClung
Choosing sides The difference between cool and culture
Let me start by saying this: I am not against foosball tables, videos games or espresso machines. But, here’s the real truth: No amount of cool things you can offer will get a true buy-in from your team and bring them together. It makes me think of the stereotypical absent father who shows up every few weeks with some new toys to win the kids over. We all know how that story ends. So, how do you stop this race to the bottom? I believe it helps to think about culture differently. So let’s start there.
Conversations create culture Strong work culture is not new. Companies have been connecting with their employees and generating true buy-in for centuries, so don’t
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believe the notion that modern toys are the catalyst for culture. In fact, true culture begins with conversations. The perks are just a band-aid. It is best to think of it as a progression. You need to know your employees—their hopes, fears, and living situations—before you book that company trip to the ballpark. Otherwise, they will see your efforts
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for what they truly are: Simply trying to check the “culture box” without actually putting in any effort. I will offer up some advice below on how to have meaningful conversations with your employees, but first you need to understand that these conversations are essential. If you are an owner, have these conversations with your team. You must
take time to understand the people you lead, and it will pay off at every imaginable level.
You must give something up Going back to my “absent father” analogy, you generally see the situation resolved when the father realizes his kids do not want toys, they want him. As a business leader, it is incredibly important to remember this. While you may not necessarily be a father-figure, you are their protector and provider in many ways when it comes to their work life. Your team needs to know that you actually care about them as people, and generally that involves some sort of sacrifice. And, I do not necessarily mean capital-S sacrifice; I am talking about the daily stuff. Instead of eating lunch at your desk or sneaking away for takeout, try eating lunch with your team. Ask about their kids. Stay a few minutes after-hours to hang out and get to know them. There is no better way to instill faith in your team than by giving them some of your time and attention.
Here’s where to start: > Expect a mutually beneficial learning opportunity. As I mentioned, meaningful conversations are a two-way street. Approach them with humility, expecting to learn something valuable, and you will be off to a good start. > Be honest and vulnerable. Your team will feel more comfortable being honest if you are willing to let down your guard and open up. You need to be willing to show that you are human if you are going to have a human conversation. > Don’t try to solve problems. Sometimes people just need to talk, and they will see a conversation as disingenuous if you are simply trying to address problems right away. Jot down any issues, but save the advice and lessons for later. > Listen more. Speaking of which, don’t use this as an opportunity to spout wisdom or talk about yourself. Listen to your team and ask them questions about what they’re saying. > No electronic devices. This is a simple step you can take to keep distractions at a minimum and show that everyone can have real, human interaction. In business, nothing is more valuable than your people and this realization is the foundation of strong culture. More than anything, let them know that you’re in this together and they’ll come to work with a new-found purpose ready to give their all. Keep all of the office perks and fun in their rightful place, as icing on the cake.
It’s a two-way street Once you begin to make these little sacrifices and take the time to get to know your team, you will make a powerful realization: It is not actually a sacrifice at all. Company leadership, when isolated, can trick themselves into thinking that only they can offer advice, wisdom, and realizations to their team members. But, meaningful conversations are meaningful because they’re a twoway street. Once you approach these conversations with humility, you will begin to learn more than you ever thought you could about company culture. You will learn what people really want out of their jobs. You will learn what people really do not want out of their jobs. Both parties involved will begin to hone in on their purpose by sharing stories with each other. Incredible things begin to happen when people approach each other from a level playing field.
Aaron McClung is the founder and principal of AM, a full-service branding, marketing, and technology firm in the Dallas/ Fort Worth area. Its proprietary Ovrflo™ process helps businesses discover and apply their purpose and vision.
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business
By Jill J. Johnson
Lifting the fog 4 ways you can gain clarity in cloudy times Today’s business climate continues to be exceptionally complex and volatile. Even as we move into this “new normal,” we no longer have the luxury of being able to take for granted that shifting trends will be visible or that customer needs will be stable. Now is the time to clarify what is required to ensure your future success. Take advantage of any emerging opportunities and insights you have gained from your strategic triage efforts. Reassess your strategic investments in all of the assets of your enterprise. Most importantly, shift your focus from a reactive planning mode to one that takes a more proactive planning approach that pivots around your customers and those you want to bring into your sales cycle. Here are four suggestions for getting you there:
No. 1 — Your Shifting Planning Focus Many owners are experiencing planning fatigue. The intensity of operating
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in a continual planning mode has been stressful and has taken its toll. Some say it is impossible to keep engaging in strategic planning every three months. They are exhausted. You do have strategic objectives. These are the overarching goals you are trying to achieve. The time horizon most organizations use for achieving strategic objectives typically is three years. The reality is you are not actually engaging in strategic planning. Rather, you are engaging in evaluating your strategic execution, which focuses on assessing the effectiveness of your tactical implementation. While the circumstances of the past year have required many organizations to engage in a major
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reassessment, as your situation has stabilized, much of the activity going forward is on reevaluating the tactics. This is how you will achieve your desired or readjusted longer-term strategic objectives. Just recognize that your planning horizon has shifted. We often are more focused now on short-term tactical execution that builds profitability and stability. By recognizing that you can continually adjust your tactics to achieve your strategic goals, some of the planning pressure can be removed.
No. 2 — Evaluating Your Tactical Effectiveness Establish regular meetings, typically on a weekly basis, to evaluate the
data and information you are tracking. This allows you to review and discuss which tactics are working and which are not. Engaging in micro adjustments to some tactics allows for more rapid assessment of what works best to meet your customer needs. This can help maintain team morale as new ideas are brought forward. By engaging with your team and involving them in discussing the evolving situation, you are building both their strategic thinking and critical thinking skills. Both skill sets will be exceptionally valuable as you strengthen your strategic effectiveness. You continually can implement new ideas and identify pilot projects that will enable you to test new opportunities without making a major investment. This lets you tweak new ideas so that you can find the best match for your enterprise and your customers. Evaluate your streamlining efforts. What has worked well and what has limited your ability to operate efficiently while meeting your customer needs? Re-examine your budget and spending patterns to identify any expenses you may have cut too deeply. If remote working has been effective for your team and for your enterprise, reconsider how much physical space you actually need to run your organization. If you closed physical locations, will not reopening them fundamentally alter the relationship you have with your customers? If you shifted to virtual customer support and interaction, you may gain significant cost efficiencies that allow you to drop bigger profitability to your bottom line, even if your revenues stay static.
No. 3 — Reconsider Your Strategic Investments Your enterprise has many assets. These include your staff, your financial reserves and your product inventory or intellectual property. Review each of these assets to identify how
Few strategic approaches are ever perfectly executed. The complex marketplace we operate within ensures that some adjustments will be required. a new course for your future. By you can better leverage them for drilling down into who is buying revenue or profitability in light of your from you and why, you have a revised strategic assumptions. Can new foundation of insight to use you use the knowledge you have going forward. gained in the past year to redeploy Get close to your customer. Unyour assets in a more cost-effective derstand how much their decision or profitable manner? criteria may have shifted during the Have new opportunities past year. Are you prepared with emerged that you have not acted your marketing messages, sales on yet? If you need additional reteam, and social media strategies sources to take advantage of these to match these criteria and build opportunities, identify the strategic (or rebuild) relationships with your investments you need to make. customers? Understanding exactly These can include investing in the where your customer’s mindset is education of your team, buying today provides you with new insight new equipment or diverting current on what it will take to remain comexpenses into new opportunities petitive and drive revenue consisthat will provide you with a better tent with your strategic vision. return on your investment. Gain emerging insights from your If you need additional team vendors about what others in your members, but are not ready to sector are successfully implementinvest in full-time positions, identify ing. Can you glean any new ideas to opportunities to expand your relaincorporate into your enterprise or tionships with vendors who can fill help to better meet your the gap. Or find sub-concustomer needs? tractors or contract staffFew strategic aping firms who can provide Jill J. Johnson, proaches are ever perfectyou with the flexibility MBA, is founder ly executed. The complex you need as you make a and President marketplace we operate spending transition. of Johnson Conwithin ensures that some sulting Services, adjustments will be a highly accomNo. 4 — Back to Basics required. By realistically plished speaker, Focus on your customer assessing the marketan award-winning and the activities that place and evolving trends, management condrive revenue. Identiyou exponentially expand sultant, and author fy the key information your potential for longof the bestselling you’re going to track term strategic success. book Compounding and the data sets that Just continue to adjust Your Confidence. will help you identify the your tactical execution For more micro trends that have and deepen your value information, visit emerged in the last six to those you serve. www.jcs-usa.com. months which may set
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It’s easier to sell during a pandemic if everyone on your staff is selling Every one of your employees, from the brewmaster to the cellar workers, can and should be selling for your craft brewery. Does your team know how to spot an opportunity to sell? Do they know what to say when the opportunity presents itself? In the Wall Street Journal best-selling business book Every Job Is a Sales Job, Dr. Cindy—also known as the First Lady of Sales—motivates your entire team, even non-sales employees, to bring in new business and nurture the customers you already have.
Visit www.DrCindy.com and get Every Job Is a Sales Job for your employees today. Use promo code CRAFT to get a special bonus with purchase. To contact Dr. Cindy for a personal consultation, visit www.OrangeLeafConsulting.com.
Dr. Cindy McGovern