In the alcohol business, there are three camps: spirits (a.k.a. liquor), wine, and beer. For some years now, the first two have been growing nicely while beer has been challenged. There's big money at stake, so, when beer guys see their growth erode while liquor and wine enjoy heady days, well, they get annoyed. And they go after the other guy's business, sometimes in odd ways.

Not many years ago, the marketing brain trust at MillerCoors figured that if liquor was growing (and it was), the way to steal some of that juju was to sell a beer as though it was a liquor... sort of. Enter Miller Fortune (subsequently referred to as Miller Mis-Fortune by many). A beer slightly higher in alcohol, its ads all showed Fortune being served in... cocktail glasses! In hindsight, it's hard to believe professional beer-marketing people at MillerCoors all agreed to this, with no one breaking down into uncontrollable fits of laughter.

The embarrassing and total failure that followed was due to faulty marketing intelligence. The new brand answered questions no liquor drinker ever asked. Namely, "Gosh, how come I can't find a fizzy beverage kinda like beer, but with just a fraction of the alcohol as in my Manhattan? And could it please be served in a rocks glass?" Put another way, the marketer's "vision" was actually a delusional mirage. It was created when lust for revenue blinded managers to sound marketing research.

Fail to ask the right question, and all answers will be wrong

Taking sales volume from wine has also long vexed beer marketers. Like beer, wine is relatively low in alcohol, but unlike beer, wine attracts female customers in droves, just the opposite of beer where men vastly outnumber women drinkers. But beer marketers have generally found no good way to break wine's hold on the ladies. (Thirty years ago, then-new light beers captured some wine volume, but only by accident since beer marketers never seriously pushed light beer against wine.)

​Enter Michelob Ultra, the fastest-growing major beer brand in the country on the strength of its consistent pitching of low-carbohydrate content in fitness-themed ads. Alert for growth opportunities in keeping with the brand's positioning, some bright person in the Ultra team must have looked over at all that tantalizing female wine volume, and asked a very good question. Something like: "Do women know wine is really high in carbs?" 

The result is the best ad we've ever seen for bringing new female drinkers into the arms of the beer guys (figuratively speaking, of course). It delivers a key product fact, one that is probably news to most folks, male or female. It will change behavior in Mich Ultra's favor. 

This Mich Ultra move is smart on another level. Sooner or later, the fast-growing alcohol seltzers will discover a lower-carbs-than-wine angle could work for them, too. Of course the brand that's "first-est with the most-est" usually gets the biggest return.

Don't listen to "the experts"

One more instructive point here: The ad-agency creative folks will almost certainly vent their disdain for this Ultra ad. They'll say it's pedestrian, not funny, not expensively produced, and not going to win any ad-industry awards or free tickets to the Cannes festival. The glass-crashing-through-the-bar device, they'll sneer, is old-fashioned clunky and too in-your-face. It's just not SuperBowl stuff.

Truth is, it's all of that, but so what? This Michelob Ultra ad--with its time-tested and perfectly effective simplicity--will drive more beer purchases than will any other beer ad you'll see on this year's Super Bowl. (Or, for that matter, on any Super Bowl in the past dozen years or more.)

​Screw Cannes. Here's to selling more... cans!

There was a time when the craft brewers were all about inclusiveness and kindness to their fellows. Back then, craft beer was so new and appealing, virtually every brand was growing. Often, demand exceeded supply. "Marketing" meant picking a funny brand name and some sort of odd graphic for your label. Heck, almost anyone could have been a successful craft-beer marketer back then. 

Standing out means standing... for something

Nowadays, craft beer is no longer posting easy, heady growth numbers. Many large craft brands are declining. And that means real competition has arrived. Say goodbye to the days of "we're all in this crazy craft beer business together" bonhomie. To grow now, a craft brand needs to take business away from another craft brand. That calls for marketing; for deciding on what basis you'll sell your brand as better and distinctive versus the others. And here's where craft brewers, many new to marketing, have run into difficulty.

A few years back, when Budweiser launched its "Made the Hard Way" ads on the Super Bowl making fun of many craft beer selling points. Pumpkin-peach flavor, "sipping," and the like. In response, a group of craft beers funded a spoof-ad response. Take a look...

What's interesting about this video is that it presents the many characteristics that craft beers share. Yes, it does show how, as a group, the crafts are distinctive relative to Budweiser. But it also shows how as individual brands, they're all very much alike. Claims like "full flavor," "brewed by hand,"and "lots of styles," or visual depictions of ingredients, bearded brewers, funky brewery location, copper kettles and the like simply do not differentiate one craft brand from another. So, if you're out to sell your craft beer over another, how will you stand out?

Ballast Point was just like lots of craft brewers

Like many craft brewers, Ballast Point enjoyed a good deal of early success largely on the strength of brewing very good beers. The San Diego-based brand grew rapidly, ultimately attracting the interest of Constellation Brands (Corona, Modelo, etc.) who purchased the small craft brewer for a staggering $1 billion price. Timing is everything. Very little time passed until Ballast Point was suffering from the proliferation of craft brands. The easy money was no longer easy. The brand stalled, and then began declining.

Choosing a selling strategy means choosing not to pursue many others. To succeed, Ballast Point needed marketing to establish a distinctive premise, one to set them apart from other craft brands. One that would appeal to a great many craft-beer shoppers. Said another way, Ballast Point needed to be, not just a craft beer brand, but a craft beer brand that stood for something.

Marketing = selling

In a classic marketing move no doubt driven by Constellation's marketing team, Ballast Point placed their bet on offering an exceptional flavor experience. "What's distinctive about that?" you ask. The distinctiveness comes from the explicit statement--the "reason why" in marketing speak--supplied to support the implicit "We taste best" claim. And while craft brewers often turn their noses up at mainstream marketing, this "rated best" claim is one that has worked in countless competitive categories...

Simple. Clever. Understated. Honest. Most of all, distinctive.

​Will this "close to perfect" distinctiveness claim based on Beer Advocate ratings bring every craft-beer drinker to Ballast Point?

​Wrong question.

​Will it make Ballast Point stand out in a crowded marketplace and, as a result, win more than its share of buying decisions?

​Bet on it.