On Monday, Detroit's NPR station had a story about one of the terrific Michigan microbreweries, Michigan Brewing Company in Webberville. They are bidding on a new contract to produce and sell a new beer for ... ugh... Kid Rock. As Rex Halfpenny of the Michigan Beer Guide points out, these kind of celebrity brews are a bit of a folly: "Remember Billy Beer, capitalizing on a past president? There’s been Grateful Dead beer, sports stars, Lenny Bruce, Thelonius Monk, Cole Porter... Elvira had a beer." But hopefully Bobby Mason (owner of Michigan Brewing Company) gets that this celebrity brews won't be his golden goose, but the contract may work to finance expansion. Especially thanks to Michigan providing tax breaks that will allow Mason to "invest about seven million dollars to buy the equipment and hire the people [160 people] he needs to brew the beer at his 76-thousand square foot facility."
Here's a link to the audio of the story
This is interesting (and perhaps good) way to finance expansion, if (and this is a big, fat, bold if) he's got an outstanding plan in place to capitalize on this publicity stunt. Because let's face it, that's all this is. It's got branding implications, but its publicity. The contract may be big enough to build the brewery and sustain it for a year or two, but what then? Does Mason have a plan to leverage this publicity to increase distribution or increase awareness? Will the folks pounding the Kid Rock Beer really make the move to another MBC beer?
I hope so, but even more, I hope Mason has a plan and not just a hope.
Photo (c): CelebrityRoyale.com
2 comments:
I wonder if this investment will allow him to produce additional brews to the Kid Rock swill. Maybe he's hoping to piggy-back other more marketable beer onto this endeavor?
I hope so, but that's really my point. Hopefully he's put together a killer plan for what to do when Kid Rock Beer is either drawing new demographics or (more likely, in my opinion) has run its course leaving extra capacity in its wake.
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