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12-04-2017, 09:12
Visit the Pete Brown's Beer Blog site (http://petebrown.blogspot.com/2017/04/why-i-cant-get-too-excited-about.html)
The bad boys of brewing recently sold a 22% stake of their company to an investment firm. So?
First, I have a terrible confession to make. Remember when John Lydon made those butter ads? I'm afraid I was partly responsible for that.
It wasn't my idea or anything like that, but in my role as a planner I was responsible for putting together the research among butter buyers to find out who the best celebrity would be to front the campaign. It was one of the last freelance planning jobs I did before being able to switch to writing and beer consultancy full time.
We tested Lydon against a bunch of other people, and he came out top among Britain's housewives because they felt he was so uncompromising, he'd never just do an ad for the money - he'd only do it if he genuinely believed what he was saying.
In other words, he was the best person to do what we were paying him to do, because he would never do what we were paying him to do, so if he did that, it's OK.
Predictably Lydon got some stick for 'selling out'. Because this is Johnny Rotten we're talking about, he didn't give a shit. Where he deigned to give a response, he said that punk was always about grabbing the filthy lucre from the big guys, and that's exactly what he was doing here.
(If you ever tire of arguing about the definition of craft beer, head over to music and have a go at defining punk. As I witnessed last year at an event to mark punk's 40th anniversary, it makes craft beer look simple.)
So I've witnessed a similar situation before to the one this week where BrewDog announced they were selling a chunk of the company to TSG Investment Partners in San Francisco - the same people who also help finance Vitaminwater, popchips and US beer brand Pabst - and were greeted with cries of 'sell out!'
I can't get too excited one way or the other about this.
Firstly, it's hardly surprising, is it? BrewDog has been on an astonishing growth spurt for ten years. It already has 44 bars around the world and exports to 55 countries, and has double or even triple digit growth every year. The company has always been about rapid expansion, and this is a logical next step, which, if it has any lesson at all, is that, as Martyn Cornell has written, crowdfunding can only get you so far (http://zythophile.co.uk/2017/04/09/the-real-story-behind-brewdogs-sellout-is-that-crowdfunding-will-only-get-you-so-far/).
Second, BrewDog is maturing. Being 'punk' makes perfect sense when you arrive and overturn all the tables in the temple of beer, but they're ten years old now, and that's ancient in craft beer years. Martin Dickie and James Watt are in their mid-thirties with young families, and they employ, at the last count, about 450 people. A couple of years ago they did a re-brand that ever so subtly made them look and feel more grown up, less brash.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--Qqrc3rKQRc/WO3UWihce_I/AAAAAAAAEPc/Bq0dOzegqGY0fUnh7kEPqhZ2MTZTQdO4wCLcB/s400/BrewDog-labelling-1.png (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--Qqrc3rKQRc/WO3UWihce_I/AAAAAAAAEPc/Bq0dOzegqGY0fUnh7kEPqhZ2MTZTQdO4wCLcB/s1600/BrewDog-labelling-1.png)
Before
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NJUtGiEJrZ0/WO3UWhw3p4I/AAAAAAAAEPg/XBNaXPi2o5wLrN0RMJP8iCrPu4GsCtpwQCLcB/s400/Brewdog_New_Labels-018.jpg (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NJUtGiEJrZ0/WO3UWhw3p4I/AAAAAAAAEPg/XBNaXPi2o5wLrN0RMJP8iCrPu4GsCtpwQCLcB/s1600/Brewdog_New_Labels-018.jpg)
After
BrewDog stopped being 'punk' when they grew into a stable, successful business that supports hundreds of people's livelihoods instead of putting their foot through the mash tun and throwing the fermenters into a swimming pool before overdosing on End of History in a seedy hotel room. Behind the image and the increasingly infrequent brash stunts, they employ marketers, PR people, accountants, HR managers as well as brewers who all know what they're doing, because you can't function as a large business if you don't. That doesn't sound very punk, does it?
Thirdly, James Watt individually still owns more of the company than the investment firm he's sold a chunk of his business to. If you insist on going by the US definition of craft beer, the sold stake is less than the threshold that disqualifies BrewDog from being craft.
I doubt anyone can be truly surprised by this move. I'd be amazed if anyone was genuinely upset by it. I think any outcry is merely the satisfaction of being able to say, 'I told you so.'
As this spoof makes clear (https://brewersfair.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/brewdog-bars-refuse-to-stock-brewdog-beers-after-brewdog-buy-out/), the one significant part of this is that BrewDog will find it increasingly difficult to get away with grandstanding '4 real' behaviour (http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Drinks/Beer/BrewDog-ditches-craft-beer-Lagunitas-after-Heineken-buy-out). I've sensed a move away from this over the last few years anyway.
The punk attitude has helped BrewDog build an amazing brand that pays a lot of people's wages and genuinely does encourage more people to enjoy great beer than would otherwise have been the case.
Punk is dead. But the punks won.
Okay, now you can tell me how the Sex Pistols were never really punk anyway.
More... (http://petebrown.blogspot.com/2017/04/why-i-cant-get-too-excited-about.html)
The bad boys of brewing recently sold a 22% stake of their company to an investment firm. So?
First, I have a terrible confession to make. Remember when John Lydon made those butter ads? I'm afraid I was partly responsible for that.
It wasn't my idea or anything like that, but in my role as a planner I was responsible for putting together the research among butter buyers to find out who the best celebrity would be to front the campaign. It was one of the last freelance planning jobs I did before being able to switch to writing and beer consultancy full time.
We tested Lydon against a bunch of other people, and he came out top among Britain's housewives because they felt he was so uncompromising, he'd never just do an ad for the money - he'd only do it if he genuinely believed what he was saying.
In other words, he was the best person to do what we were paying him to do, because he would never do what we were paying him to do, so if he did that, it's OK.
Predictably Lydon got some stick for 'selling out'. Because this is Johnny Rotten we're talking about, he didn't give a shit. Where he deigned to give a response, he said that punk was always about grabbing the filthy lucre from the big guys, and that's exactly what he was doing here.
(If you ever tire of arguing about the definition of craft beer, head over to music and have a go at defining punk. As I witnessed last year at an event to mark punk's 40th anniversary, it makes craft beer look simple.)
So I've witnessed a similar situation before to the one this week where BrewDog announced they were selling a chunk of the company to TSG Investment Partners in San Francisco - the same people who also help finance Vitaminwater, popchips and US beer brand Pabst - and were greeted with cries of 'sell out!'
I can't get too excited one way or the other about this.
Firstly, it's hardly surprising, is it? BrewDog has been on an astonishing growth spurt for ten years. It already has 44 bars around the world and exports to 55 countries, and has double or even triple digit growth every year. The company has always been about rapid expansion, and this is a logical next step, which, if it has any lesson at all, is that, as Martyn Cornell has written, crowdfunding can only get you so far (http://zythophile.co.uk/2017/04/09/the-real-story-behind-brewdogs-sellout-is-that-crowdfunding-will-only-get-you-so-far/).
Second, BrewDog is maturing. Being 'punk' makes perfect sense when you arrive and overturn all the tables in the temple of beer, but they're ten years old now, and that's ancient in craft beer years. Martin Dickie and James Watt are in their mid-thirties with young families, and they employ, at the last count, about 450 people. A couple of years ago they did a re-brand that ever so subtly made them look and feel more grown up, less brash.
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--Qqrc3rKQRc/WO3UWihce_I/AAAAAAAAEPc/Bq0dOzegqGY0fUnh7kEPqhZ2MTZTQdO4wCLcB/s400/BrewDog-labelling-1.png (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/--Qqrc3rKQRc/WO3UWihce_I/AAAAAAAAEPc/Bq0dOzegqGY0fUnh7kEPqhZ2MTZTQdO4wCLcB/s1600/BrewDog-labelling-1.png)
Before
https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NJUtGiEJrZ0/WO3UWhw3p4I/AAAAAAAAEPg/XBNaXPi2o5wLrN0RMJP8iCrPu4GsCtpwQCLcB/s400/Brewdog_New_Labels-018.jpg (https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NJUtGiEJrZ0/WO3UWhw3p4I/AAAAAAAAEPg/XBNaXPi2o5wLrN0RMJP8iCrPu4GsCtpwQCLcB/s1600/Brewdog_New_Labels-018.jpg)
After
BrewDog stopped being 'punk' when they grew into a stable, successful business that supports hundreds of people's livelihoods instead of putting their foot through the mash tun and throwing the fermenters into a swimming pool before overdosing on End of History in a seedy hotel room. Behind the image and the increasingly infrequent brash stunts, they employ marketers, PR people, accountants, HR managers as well as brewers who all know what they're doing, because you can't function as a large business if you don't. That doesn't sound very punk, does it?
Thirdly, James Watt individually still owns more of the company than the investment firm he's sold a chunk of his business to. If you insist on going by the US definition of craft beer, the sold stake is less than the threshold that disqualifies BrewDog from being craft.
I doubt anyone can be truly surprised by this move. I'd be amazed if anyone was genuinely upset by it. I think any outcry is merely the satisfaction of being able to say, 'I told you so.'
As this spoof makes clear (https://brewersfair.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/brewdog-bars-refuse-to-stock-brewdog-beers-after-brewdog-buy-out/), the one significant part of this is that BrewDog will find it increasingly difficult to get away with grandstanding '4 real' behaviour (http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Drinks/Beer/BrewDog-ditches-craft-beer-Lagunitas-after-Heineken-buy-out). I've sensed a move away from this over the last few years anyway.
The punk attitude has helped BrewDog build an amazing brand that pays a lot of people's wages and genuinely does encourage more people to enjoy great beer than would otherwise have been the case.
Punk is dead. But the punks won.
Okay, now you can tell me how the Sex Pistols were never really punk anyway.
More... (http://petebrown.blogspot.com/2017/04/why-i-cant-get-too-excited-about.html)