11 August 2010

The Trouble With Alcohol Marketing

Ask anyone in the business.  It's entirely true.

(Link takes you to today's edition of the comic strip The Other Coast by Adrian Raeside, a New Zealand native.  Alternative link here.)

2 comments:

Jay Zeis said...

The Label is the only reason I buy Stillwater.... i guess the beer is good too

david.m. said...

I hate to admit it, but labels can make or break my interest in a beer. Once I open the bottle though it has to live up to expectations. I would never buy a beer a second time for the bottle design alone.
That said, interesting and unique labeling is not hard. The vast majority of craft breweries accomplish it to one degree or another. It doesn't have to be complicated, either. But it does have to be interesting.
Pub Dog is a good example of not achieving this. I've never picked up any of their bombers despite being local and cheap. The labels are just to easily lost amongst the Stone, Dogfish Head, Smuttynose, etc... Even other simple designs like Ommegang look well thought out and therefor you assume the beer inside is as well.