Craft Brew Alliance Social Media Audit and Conversation Analysis
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Craft Brew Alliance Social Media Audit and Conversation Analysis Stephanie Haisley Austin Hall Sarah Leavers Mackenzie Walker Purpose Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) is a beer brewing company with headquarters in Portland, Ore., that brands its beer under the names Widmer Brothers, Redhook, Kona and Omission. CBA was formed in 2008 with the merger of Widmer Brothers Brewery and Redhook Ale Brewery. Expansion took place in 2010 with the acquisition of Kona Brewing company, as well as the launch of a new brand in 2012 under the name “Omission”, a beer crafted to remove gluten. Based on 2012 sales volume, CBA is the ninth largest beer brewing company in the United States. According to its website (craftbrew.com), CBA was formed “with an eye towards preserving and growing one-of-a-kind craft beers and brands.” Widmer Brothers and Kona were formed within their respective families, thus CBA brands itself as one family that displays an inviting, transparent and family-oriented theme. CBA strives to build a trustworthy relationship with each other and their customers with the motto “Made True.” To CBA, “Made True” means that they brew true, sell true, stay true to their roots, and stay true to their customers. The purpose of this social media audit and conversation analysis is to assess CBA’s social media presence internally between its brands and externally against two of its competitors: Deschutes Brewery and Full Sail Brewing Company. By examining the social media channels of CBA, valuable information can be provided to CBA that will give insight to its consumer relationships through social media with the goal to analyze its strengths and weaknesses. With our recommendations, CBA will be able to focus on their strengths and strengthen their weaknesses to fully utilize its social media channels to build relationships with consumers. Method We examined three channels throughout our social media audit: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Breweries use these channels due to the widespread use of social media among the core demographic of 25 to 34 years olds. This predominant age group engages most in social media with breweries. Key terms found through Twitter include hashtags such as #beer, #cheers and most importantly #thanks. The latter shows the dynamic gratitude-based relationship brewers have with their beer-drinking publics. 2 Our research began Oct. 17 and concluded Nov. 1. During this time we examined the months of August, September, and October. We used tools such as TweetStats to compile Twitter analytics and TweetLevel to discover what relationships each brewer has with its public. During our research, we utilized Facebook’s built-in analytic tool to discover the page’s popularity, successful or eventful days, and age demographics. Instagram and Facebook monthly posts were hand-counted for each brewery. Results Craft Brew Alliance shows inconsistencies in its social media strategies due to a lack of organization and parallel structure. When looking at CBA’s social media outlets, we found that three out of the four companies utilize Facebook, Twitter and Instagram; however, Omission Beer only uses Facebook. CBA owned breweries remain consistent with their logos, but lack identity and voice. When comparing the graphs of the three brewing companies, we see an evident difference in Facebook presence. This could be due to the fact that CBA’s companies are widely distributed. Surprisingly, the smaller competitors we analyzed had higher consumer interaction on their daily posts; whereas, CBA’s companies did not. CBA Facebook Likes 3 Competitor Facebook Likes CBA’s Twitter handles do not have a strong following. When comparing CBA with Deschutes Brewery and Full Sail Brewing, Deschutes Brewery has 55,654 followers and Full Sail Brewing has 19,216 followers; while Red Hook Brewery, CBA’s most popular twitter handle, has 4,185 fewer followers. This is important because Full Sail Brewing is a small and localized brewery; whereas, Red Hook Brewery is more widespread through out the country. This suggests that CBA lacks communication in comparison to smaller brewing competitors. Omission’s lack of social media usage stands out among brewers within CBA. Omission demonstrates the least focus on social media of the four major brewers. The lack of a conformed social media presence reinforces a trend of inconsistencies for CBA and its brewers. The Twitter follower comparison between Deschutes and Full Sail reflect a difference in size. Deschutes, a large organization with breweries throughout the Northwest, has many followers due to its geographic reach. On the other side of the spectrum, Full Sail is a beer born and raised in Hood River, Oregon. Though both companies come from small towns, Deschutes success benefits from its social media fluency. 4 CBA Twitter Followers Competitor Twitter Followers When comparing Instagram followers, Deschutes Brewery has twice as many followers than the most liked Instagram account of CBA, Kona Brewing. Omission Beer lacks an Instagram account. 5 CBA Instagram Followers Competitor Instagram Followers 6 Social Media Audit Competitors: Full Sail Brewery Irene Firmat, CEO and founder of Full Sail, takes pride in her local business model based out of Hood River, Ore. Although the smallest competitor, Full Sail’s social media presence develops a loyal and close-knit group of consumers. Full Sail creates a Northwestern feeling through its Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts. Facebook and Twitter make up the focal points in the social media strategy. Full Sail falls short in the use of Instagram, as most posts parallel to Facebook posts. Full Sail updates its Facebook at least once a day with a post relevant to its local voice. Posts most commonly pertain to launching new beers, hosting local events and partnering with local organizations. Full Sail always includes either a graphic or an actual photo in every post because of the extremely receptive community. Twitter’s update rate ranges from one to seven times a day with community interactions such as retweets, responses, interactions and announcements including release events and other beer-related events. All updates align with the image of Full Sail Brewery due to the use of a colloquial voice to match with its Northwestern vibe. The infrequent use of Instagram can hurt Full Sail’s social media growth, as more developed breweries such as Deschutes and Kona demonstrate extensive Instagram use. Full Sail mostly reposts images from its Facebook, unlike Kona, under the Craft Brewers Alliance, which has over 5,000 Instagram posts. The human interaction of Full Sail drives its social media use. Many posts to Facebook and Twitter show reposts of consumer-created content, interactive responses or announcing new products. The most popular posts to Facebook reinforce the local Northwest community, or the reposting of what others say about the brand. This creates brand loyalty and strengthens a company’s relationship with its publics. Craft Brewers Alliance presents a looming, almost 7 ominous, umbrella corporation that encompasses many breweries. A single human voice can help Craft Brewers Alliance personalize their organization. Two posts represent the typical amount of Facebook comments each post receives. Comments show a trend of positivity and always relate to the beer itself or the Northwest. Twitter usually consists of one or two retweets from local sponsors, beer drinkers or interaction between those who tweet about Full Sail. Posts on Instagram focus more on likes than comments, receiving an average of 60 likes per post, but little comment interaction. User-created content generates the highest amount of likes, comments and positive mentions for Full Sail. A recent Facebook post from Arizona generated 113 likes and five comments. Posts about the recent harvest this fall received 81 likes and three comments. Beyond this, affiliating with local businesses and organizations brings positive mentions to the brand as well. Twitter follows a similar trend akin to Facebook. Full Sail retweets @GorgeGuide and @Oregonbeer most frequently, with 15 retweets each. Once again, this points to the importance of local relationships and the fact that Full Sail connects most with the Oregon and Northwest public. Full Sail represents the most local brewery out of both the clients and the competitors. With this in mind, some obvious numerical differences between the cumilated data shows a clear difference among breweries. Full Sail not only represents the smallest and most close-knit community, but it also represents a brand that knows its public and embraces it through Oregon- centric posts that demonstrate its love for local community. Craft Brew Alliance could learn from Full Sail and how it can translate love for where you’re from into love for beer. Competitors: Deschutes Brewery The Deschutes Brewery is an Oregon grown brewery located in Bend, Ore. Gary Fish established the brewery in 1988 as the Deschutes Brewery and Public Brew House. In 2012, Deschutes Brewery came out as the fifth largest craft brewery and the twelfth largest brewery in the U.S. 8 Deschutes Brewery uses eight social media outlets to portray their obsession with beer and the valley it comes from. Here we have analyzed Facebook, Twitter and Instagram because they show as the most used outlets by the brewery. Deschutes Brewery has a consistent brand logo and name throughout all the social media outlets. Twitter is their most used outlet, with Instagram and Facebook behind that. Deschutes Twitter feed posts between two and eleven times per day. Facebook and Instagram show updates on an average of one post per day; however most Instagram posts always show on Twitter. Photos are a central focus of its entire social media plan. Every Facebook and Twitter post has a photo, link or video to supplement the message. Twitter and Facebook update the public about events, new beer, and the expansion of the brand nationwide.