Having choices are generally considered good things in life, but is there such a thing as too many choices? Most people would say no… but having so many choices can sometimes create a dilemma or even confusion for the consumer as to what brand to purchase.
As the chief cook in our family, I enjoy the art of cooking and weirdly, even like to go to the market and select the items I want to prepare. That said, my time in the supermarket is not all joyful and I am amazed at the number of choices we have as consumers on any given product. How do I choose what brand to buy? Like most things I purchase, there can be a difference in quality, price, locally produced or big brand. That said, and for the obvious reason, I usually don’t have to purchase my beer at the grocery store. I do, however, make a point to visit that area of the market and check to see the Common Roots display and what the competition is doing.
I am always amazed at the number of choices that are now available in the craft beer display! As I stand there…I put myself in the customers shoes and try to imagine…now why would I choose CRBC over some other brands? Certainly taste, style, ABV, label design, and price all likely enter the decision-making process so…what else should matter?
If you are a regular customer of CR, you likely know we made a very deliberate decision early in our business model to use local suppliers and products in all aspects of our business. We’ve also made a substantial investment to reduce our waste stream and carbon footprint as a company and support a variety of sustainable initiatives with other local organizations. To further our mission to strengthen our community, we launched the Common Roots Foundation in 2021 and, with your support, have donated over $50,000 in support of this initiative. While none of these decisions necessarily improved our bottom line, we felt strongly that this was ultimately a more impactful way to do business.
All that said…how would a new or undecided customer know that and would they even care? Does it matter if the company or brand they support is a good community member that supports environmental sustainability and social justice issues? The answer we think is a “hopeful yes.” The question then becomes: “How do we get that message out and not sound like a marketing ploy?”
The answer, we believe, is to just keep doing what we are doing. We didn’t start this idea of building a community around beer because we wanted to monetize it. We saw the value of bringing people together over a beer for the common good and this honestly aligned more with what we value as a family and a business. Even in our little original taproom we saw the importance of gatherings to help one another, and we wanted to grow both the business and our community under that ethos.
Understandably, a critical part of any successful business is their approach to customer engagement. We know that in a competitive market with lots of choices, giving the customer another reason to support our brand will help us grow the business and the foundation. We believe that feeling good about supporting CR, the Brewery and CR, the Foundation is an important part of that engagement.
In that light, we are introducing a new slogan that we will attach to our brand: “Brewed with Passion, Rooted in Community”. Our team felt that this best embodied what we want our customers to know. We love what we do, and we care about our community.
As we move into 2023, we trust this new slogan will also serve as a reminder to keep doing what we love and perhaps, give the consumer another reason to support this idea we call Common Roots.
Cheers!
