By lbrowning@hubspot.com (Laura M. Browning)

When actor Tom Holland made the late-night rounds last October to talk about his new company, BERO Brewing, he said that he’d “find myself in these boardrooms” surrounded by experts spouting unfamiliar terms.

The once and future Spider-Man told Seth Meyers, “thank God I found acting,” because it took “every bit of acting chops I’ve got to convince them I know what I’m talking about.”

Today’s master of marketing is one of those boardroom experts, and her marketing wisdom will help you hone your Spidey senses — whether you’ve got a celebrity-founded brand or not.

Meet the Master

Jackie Widmann

VP of marketing for BERO Brewing

• Fun fact: Holland‘s self-deprecating humor isn’t entirely founded. Widmann has learned from him, too — “he knows his audience so well,” she says. “We take his lead on the best way to announce new things for the brand.”

Lesson 1: Don’t market to everybody.

Your product or service isn’t for everybody. And trying to market to everybody will dilute your message like a watered-down beer.

“We know that every person who likes a beer isn’t going to try a non-alcoholic one,” Widmann says. So “remembering that you can’t be everything for everyone is really important, and it’s something I’ve tried to bring into the ecosystem of what we’ve built at BERO.”

For instance, extensive consumer testing found that people — whether they’re sober, participating in Dry January, or just want a night off — are frustrated with the taste and look of other NA beers they’ve tried. Widmann says that rather than trying to persuade beer drinkers to pick up an NA can, BERO’s focus has been on elevating its products to address those grievances.

Don’t pour your resources into marketing to the wrong audience; you might as well be pouring a beer down the drain.

Lesson 2: Reframe your brand as an addition to the market, not a substitution.

Widmann says it’s been important from the beginning that BERO is “an additive to your drinking and social consumption behaviors” — not a substitute.

“One of the biggest things we’ve noticed about the non-alc space is that a lot of brands are speaking to non-alcoholic options as a substitute. We want to create a product that’s the gold standard.”

The more I thought about it, the more I realized: This is great advice, non-alcoholic beer or no. Chances are good that whatever you’re marketing, you’re not the only product or service in that space.

NA beer isn’t new, but good NA beer is another story. “People often say that the non-alc beer options they’ve tried feel like a lesser version of beer,” Widmann says. “It’s a little watered down. Maybe the carbonation is not quite at the level it needs to be.”

Plus, “a lesser version of beer” doesn’t exactly make for a great marketing slogan. So focus on what you can add to your customers’ lives and be the gold standard in …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron