Why BrewDog's latest move is winning over people’s hearts

BrewDog, we just can’t figure you out.

You’ve got a multinational brewery going strong, a booming e-commerce business, an airtight sustainability mission, and you’ve even managed to grow your revenue in 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic.

As you can probably tell, ProQuo is BrewDog’s biggest fan, and as we’re a company made up of brand enthusiasts, that really means something. We’ve decided to delve into BrewDog’s fascinating brand journey to help shed light on how, if you are proactive in interests that go above and beyond your own brand, there are gains to be had when it comes to deepening your customer relationships and building engagement.

Why Marketing is crucial to BrewDog’s success

First thing’s first, let’s explain our 14 Marketing Levers. When it comes to your brand, there are thousands of things you can do, each day, to improve its performance. The Levers are the actions a Brand Manager can take to ensure their brand grows. If you were struggling to grow your user base, for example, you could focus on Communications, ensuring your tone of voice and the channels you use are right for the audience you’re trying to target. Another option could be to focus on Product, launching a new product into market or enhancing an existing product within your portfolio, to steal share from your competition.

We’ve noticed BrewDog is hot on Partnerships and has been using ‘collab culture’ to its benefit. BrewDog has been selective with its partnerships, focusing only on brands that are in line with its own company mission and causes (eco-conscious, forward-thinking companies). Staying true to its core DNA, this has strengthened BrewDog’s brand identity and connection to its target audience.

How Partnerships have boosted BrewDog’s Integrity

BrewDog’s collaboration with CloudWater will help to promote marginalized voices in the brewery industry. Together, BrewDog and Cloudwater are promoting four minority-owned brewers to propel the progression and growth of the craft beer market: Queer Brewing, Eko Brewery, Good Karma Beer Co. and Rock Leopard Brewing. All are launching exclusively in Tesco and all profits go directly to the 4 micro-brewers, as an investment to drive their growth.

This is a huge opportunity for BrewDog to give back to its community, growing the awareness of smaller, locally owned breweries that may need help to get their businesses off the ground. BrewDog is embracing the Integrity Driver, one of the 16 Drivers of Relationships, which determines the strength of a brand’s relationships with its consumers. Integrity is all about how a brand is seen to be doing the right thing. By setting its business goals aside and doing what it can to help others, BrewDog is putting people ahead of profit, and by doing so, strengthens its customer relationship.

How collaboration has made BrewDog more Innovative

No one could forget the iconic duo that was unleashed into the world earlier this month, Tony’s Chocolonely and BrewDog. They shocked the internet with their new product release, a raspberry and white chocolate milkshake flavored IPA. The unlikely pairing has caused quite a stir online, resulting in mass brand awareness and Popularity for both BrewDog and Tony’s.

Here, BrewDog is using the Innovation Driver to invoke a reaction in its consumers. It is setting itself apart from other competitors through a unique, and unexpected product release, which has been effective in capturing audience attention and boosting the brand’s memorability in market.

And if you want to differentiate yourself from the crowd… why not go into hotels?

In an even more surprising move, BrewDog has decided to enter the hotel market. The brand is planning on launching a new hotel in Scotland, with ‘beer on tap in all the rooms… and fridges in the shower for shower beers’. If that doesn’t hit the Differentiation Driver nail on the head, we don’t know what does.

BrewDog are constantly shocking us, with new collaborations, innovative product releases, and now, an entry into a completely unforeseen market. According to our ProQuo platform, the brand is currently leading its competition in the majority of the 16 Drivers, including Innovation, Integrity and Attraction.

We’re not surprised by this feat, and can’t wait to see BrewDog's brand journey unfold this year.

If we’ve piqued your interest and you’d like to learn more about our other 14 Marketing Levers, take a look around.