12 December 2011

Survey Mania, or Indecision?

Let's see.  In the past couple days, I've been mulling a request by the owner of a particular bar, who wants to survey the readers of this blog readers for which beer(s) he would add next to his rotation of multiple taps.  (Still thinking.  Need to catch up with him in person and talk it over.)

Next, Heavy Seas announces a survey asking what hops and spices should be added to a cask of Loose Cannon for their upcoming Oyster Fest.

Next comes Burley Oak Brewery of Berlin, Md. asking on their Facebook page, "What type of beer would you like to see us create?"

Hmmmm.  What do you think?

2 comments:

Andrew said...

Seems to me like a bunch of small businesses falling victim to the prevailing wisdom of today's Social Media Marketing Experts of Great Importance that says, in some combination of jargon and corporate speak, "today, more than ever before, it's imperative that companies connect with their customer base on a personal level, and leverage their social media profiles to achieve this connection. Don't market to people, connect with them!" they say, as a means of marketing to their own customer base.

Luckily I've moved on, but I previously worked at a company that had a revolving door of social media experts coming in to evangelize this brand of nonsense.

It's always been important to show your customers you appreciate their business and rely on them. That's nothing new. Similarly, it's always most important to produce a product that people want, and contrary to what might seem logical, people very rarely know what they want.

That said, polls like these are completely harmless. I'm sure no brewer would ever make a beer that he didn't expect to be good, or that didn't fit within what he perceived to be his brewery's style.

Jay Zeis said...

As with all TV voting reality shows, it doesnt really matter what the public votes for, they should just use what they think will be best. But what it does do is connects the public, me and you, with what they might be thinking.

I like to look at things like HS survey and think, hmmm, I wonder what a dry hopped Amarillo cask with Lemon Basil would taste like. It spurs my interest in that combination, as well as it may convince someone to attend the Oyster Fest to try some crazy beer.