Hi Omar, Todd, and the rest of the crew:
I’m writing this letter because I’m a huge fan of your beers. From Coffee Bender to Cynic, they are all delicious. I’ve introduced a few friends to Furious, a couple to Bender, and one or two to Cynic and I intend to continue this. You have a rabid fan base, and a growing market share. I know there is a big waiting list for liquor stores that want to carry your beer. I’m happy for you, you’re local, a good company, and very much not mainstream. All of which make you awesome.
But you have a problem. Your public relations or lack of PR is hurting you. You may not notice it, and you may not notice it for years to come, but it will come back to bite you if you want to grow. In the last few months, I’ve had three experiences that would have possibly kept me from continuing my patronage of your beer if you weren’t local and didn’t brew such good beer. Now neither of these directly affects the quality of the product, but it does impact the perception of your company. In a few years, if you want to continue to grow, this may be important.
The first happened a few months ago, around the time you released Hell for the second time. First, at the time I, a new Surly drinker, thought this was your first release of this beer. I headed off to Moto-i, excited to try out this new brew. Well my friend and I walked into the bar, and it was apparent from the start that no one quite knew what was going on. Only one bartender really knew what the plan was, the signage was minimal, and things just didn’t seem organized. Things went smoothly overall, thanks to some great staff at Moto-i, but I was disappointed in the event, I expected a bigger deal to be made of the beer, maybe some giveaways, or at least some effort to make it a party. Again, maybe I should not have had these expectations, but when an event is billed as a “Release Party”, the party aspect seems like a legitimate expectation.
The second thing that happened followed this very closely. I’ll admit I was disappointed in Hell. I wrote about it on my blog, and then commented on a post written over at The Captain’s Chair. I stated that though I liked Hell, I was disappointed because I had expected something crazy and instead got a light, though tasty, beer. During a back and forth on the Captain’s Chair’s post though, we continued to get defensive responses that seemed to complain about the perception we all had and that it’s not fair to you for us to have this perception. Those of us commenting really wanted to give you advice to help and instead we got defensive answers. Of course, the readers of Captain’s Chair are going to be big fans so I doubt you lost any drinkers, but an exchange like that with less enthusiastic fans might lose you a few customers.
Finally, Monday night I went to the Darkness Release Party at Hell’s Kitchen. From the moment I walked in the door, it was obvious that at yet another release party, no one really knew what was going on. Our bartender only knew he was selling Darkness, from what my companions said when the Surly reps came in the door you seemed confused and didn’t know how the bar was laid out. Other than a band in the restaurant side, you wouldn’t have known anything was going on. Also, like at Moto-i, no one from your brewery stopped by to say hi, even though I was at a table of six people all enjoying Darkness.
So, here is what I recommend. Hire someone who knows a thing or two about public relations and event planning. Your events should be exciting. When you bill something as a release party it should feel like a party. Giveaways are not necessary, but at least make those who set aside a Monday night to enjoy a glass of your beer feel like they are not just there to buy your product. You also need to work on your public responses. It is great that you do your own PR and you want to keep you voice as inline with your company culture as possible. Just try and do this without sounding defensive.
I also think you need to look at your marketing. As I mentioned when I wrote about Hell, I had a misperception due to the name that caused me to be unimpressed with Hell. This would have been easy to avoid had you either named it something differently, or just spent a little time promoting what you were trying to do with the beer. You are a company that has built itself into a box by brewing big beers. You can get out of that box, just make sure your customers know when you step outside of that box so we aren’t surprised.
I am no expert so my advice may be complete crap, but I hope it’s not. Keep up the good work and keep making great beers, just pair it with some better events and public relations.
Warmest Regards,
Conner McCall
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Excellent points. I’ve tried a couple of their beers, but am not familiar enough to have noticed any of these things, but your observations seem sincere and thought out. Also? If I worked for Surly and read this, I’d probably be knocking on your door to offer some kind of PR job.
You should probably look into that.
“What do you do?” could be answered by “I drink beer. And plan parties. About drinking beer”
See? Go.
I don’t understand why they have “release parties” at all, they don’t really need to. The beer speaks for itself. This company has not done much in the way of traditional beer marketing and they haven’t really needed to – it caught a buzz without it.
This is not a company that’s going to do things in the Summit mold, for sure.
Doniree – Thank you. (and if anyone from Surly does read this, I’d love to chat.)
Bill – They don’t need release parties, but I think they are a great idea if done right. It promotes your brand and rewards your customers with something out of the ordinary.
As far as marketing, it’s important to realize marketing isn’t advertising. Marketing is not only about promotion, but also being sure your image is the image you want, and currently Surly isn’t doing a great job managing their own image(imo). They don’t need billboards, they need beer tasting sessions and more beer education on their website.
Hey Conner,
I think you make some good points, but as a PR person, I wanted to defend Surly a bit. While I’ve tried a couple of their beers, I’m not a huge Surly follower like you are, so maybe I don’t know enough to really say, but as someone who works in marketing and PR and has done bar events, I can say that bar events are hard. Usually the bar and the people working there have no idea what’s going on, regardless of what they’ve been told or who is there to represent the company. Majority of people in the bar don’t care about what promotional event is happening, even if you slap signage everywhere and give away awesome prizes. I do think that if they are promoting the event as a “party” they should throw a party, but in my experience with promotional bar events, they usually just don’t go that way. Maybe they just need to stop doing them all together? Or have one huge party a year instead of several release parties?
On a second note, I read the linked conversation from The Captain’s Chair and I didn’t actually think that Surly’s responses were that defensive. It can be very difficult to defend your product without coming across as defensive and I think he did a pretty good job. Also, mad props to any company that actually responds to their customers and speaks for themselves.
Ok, sorry for the novella. Just wanted to put in my two cents! Again, I do think you make good points and I think it’s important for consumers to leave feedback for companies. Well done!
I guess my point was that it seems to me that Surly should be working on their supply problem, I don’t think there’s any question on the demand side. As it is, I drink it in bars, but I have to go a little out of my way to find it in stores given where I live, and I would surely buy it more often if I could find it in more liquor stores.
Marissa – You make some good points, especially about bar events being difficult. But from what my companions on Monday said, it looked as though no one from Surly had even been to Hell’s Kitchen prior to the release. Of course I have no idea if this is true, and I didn’t make the observation, but if it is, that seems a little ridiculous.
And as far as the comments on the Captain’s Chair, it is great that they do their own feedback, but every comment was to rebut what we were saying and put the onus on us a beer drinkers to know that the beer was going to be different. At least that’s how I took it at the time, maybe I’m overly sensitive.
Bill – That makes sense. Though I think the supply problem can actually be a benefit. And it’s getting to the point where it’s pretty widespread, at least in Minneapolis and St. Paul. But, my concern is for the future, once they get the supply problem figured out. But again, I’m no expert, just an fool with a keyboard