If you’re a marketer like me, your job is to keep pounding out content. But in the beer industry it can feel disingenuous or trivial to tweet a picture of your beer sitting on a picnic table or beach towel when we’re reading news about hate group protests, violence and killing, and racial unrest in Charlottesville, VA, and other parts of our country.
But what are you, as a commercial business, supposed to do? Aren’t politics best left for your private social media accounts?
There are plenty of reasons to want to hold the course until things blow over—stability is good for business, after all. But in this Digital Age of ours there are, I think, better reasons to acknowledge what’s on everyone’s minds.
Why You Should Still Speak Up
I do think there are valid reasons a business ought to speak up in moments like this—that’s why I’m using this space on my own site to say it.
In fact, I think breweries have even more reason to speak up than other business, because my reasons have a lot to do with what defines craft beer as a community and a market.
Craft Beer is About Authenticity
Craft drinkers value transparency and authenticity. They’ll even put up with errors and faux pas when folks own up to them and make honest attempts to rectify the mistake.
If you as a business owner feel that the hateful rhetoric of the extreme right is damaging to our shared sense of national unity, you should feel free to express that.
If you grieve with your fellow Americans that violence keeps erupting at these protests and that people are getting injured or killed, you should feel free to express that, too.
Shoot, if you agree with the extreme right, it’s your right as an American to say so. My guess is you won’t have a large share of the craft community’s sympathy, but it’s still you’re right.
Craft Beer Values Community Involvement
One of the coolest things about craft brewers is that so many of them get quickly involved in their local communities. They invest in local fairs, in baseball teams, in conservation efforts—any number of things that represent their values.
Supporting a brewery that has a social justice or environmental angle is about the easiest way for the consumer to support a cause without actually doing much, but it’s still supporting a cause.
Yes, it may be controversial, but here’s the thing to remember:
You can’t believe in anything without someone somewhere having some problem with it.
You will necessarily alienate some potential customers by any stand you take.
Guess what? Those people are not your people. Let them go. You didn’t take a stand because you wanted to alienate anyone, but you can’t control what other people do or think.
More importantly, plenty of people will respond positively, and you’ll have created an important emotional connection with them. They’ll look at you as a community leader and appreciate that you spoke up.
Silence Can Be Misinterpreted. Leaders Speak.
You may not want to get involved because you don’t want to deal with the potential backlash of saying something politically charged.
I think that’s totally legit.
I think, too, that silence is much more easily misinterpreted than speech. I certainly wish some people would keep quiet longer before they spoke, but I’m usually glad when my most thoughtful friends or the most thoughtful leaders do, finally, speak.
Beer is a social beverage. People tend to like to drink with others. Tap rooms and pubs are places to congregate, to meet others in the community. This is why it’s so natural for brewers to give back to and be leaders in the community.
A thoughtful response will show your customers that you are living in the same world they are and concerned with the same things. It will also show them you are using your role as a community business owner to speak up for what you value.
Opposing White Supremacy is Not Even Controversial
The single biggest reason you should feel free to say something about the events in Charlottesville is that the racist beliefs of the KKK, the neo-Nazis, and the like are not American beliefs.
Yes, they’re tied up with our American history, but they do not represent the values of our democracy as enshrined in our founding documents or in the grand sweep of our politics, like
- individual dignity,
- political and moral equality,
- the rule of law,
- government by and for the people—i.e., for the mutual care and protection of both weak and strong.
To argue that some people should be arbitrarily excluded from our country on any grounds other than that they will not abide by our laws is simply not American.
It shouldn’t really be a controversial opinion.
What You or Your Brewery Can Do
If you’re moved to speak up or do something, maybe you’re wondering just what to do. I won’t claim to have all the answers, but I’d like to offer some guidance, at least so far as things look from my perspective.
Don’t Get Bullied by the Thought Police
To begin, don’t let anyone tell you you must do x, y, or z. And people of both left and right extremes will make you feel like you’re supposed to say or do such-and-such in order to demonstrate that you have the right beliefs or attitudes.
Don’t let yourself be bullied. Remember, you’re acting as a leader, not a toadie.
Instead, reflect on your beliefs, feelings, and values, and seek a creative means of using your business that align with those values.
Emphasize the Positive
Focus on the positive values where the craft beer community and our broader national culture overlap: friendship, hard work, the freedom to be fiercely loyal to one brand or to constantly explore new beers, the constructive tension between tradition and innovation.
To me, the “big idea” craft beer has to offer is that we can all come together around it. Meeting people around a meal or a drink is the most common thing in the world—much more common than any crime or act of division, I dare say.
Embrace Small Acts
We get impatient to see change now, as if the arc of the moral universe wasn’t long but just around the corner. Small acts aren’t dramatic, but they can be more effective at reaching people’s hearts, and they have a way of rippling outward.
Talk to Your Team
Start with your team. Convene a meeting or send an e-mail blast where you let them know you’re thinking about what everyone’s thinking about, and remind them of your core values as a company.
This will help keep work continuous with the rest of their lives, and it will affect how they treat your customers because they will be reminded that they not only benefit from being employed with you, they believe in what you’re about.
You can convene an additional meeting to discuss as a team some ways your brewery can affect positive change in your community.
Post a Response on Social Media
Go simple and just post a short verbal statement, or use Canva or PicMonkey to create a simple image with a few words expressing your breweries response.
Unless you’re doing something specifically related to current events, you should probably leave out any links. Keep it social, not commercial.
E-mail Your List
E-mail is an intimate and powerful way to communicate with people, and if they’ve given you their address, it’s okay to use your list to say, “Hey, we’re all hurting or scared, but we’re not alone. Let’s come together.”
This e-mail should be a brief statement about your brewery team’s response to the violence and rhetoric and a brief review of what you as a company believe and value.
Then invite your readers to take small actions like inviting people different than themselves out for a beer.
Use Your Bar’s Chalk Board
Your tap room or pub chalk board is premium space which you probably fill with info about what’s pouring and what else people can buy during their visit.
How much of a statement will it make, then, when you use some of that space to say, “We grieve with the family of So-and-so” or “We believe in an America for Everyone”?
Host an Event
If you want to take bigger steps, host some kind of event that creatively counters what we’re seeing. Position the event explicitly in opposition to the un-American values of hate and exclusion so people can come with a specific intention.
The event does not have to be a social justice event. It only needs to be thematically relevant. So, it could be about unity, some specific common value, building community, etc. You should have a featured speaker, or perhaps a cause toward which you charge a cover fee. Maybe you run a promotion wherein customers get a discount on their pints when they order one for someone else.
Brew a New Beer
This is a longer-term idea, but if you believe in a cause deeply enough, why not create a beer in support of it. You commit to dedicating some portion of your profits from that beer to the specific cause. This is what North Coast does for the Marine Mammal Fund with their Steller IPA.
Maybe it’s a new year-round, or maybe it’s a seasonal you use to get a boost in sales and donations. Maybe the cause changes quarter to quarter. It’s really up to you.
Point Customers to a Cause You Believe In
If you’re not poised to contribute to or partner directly with a cause, you can still use your communications channels to point your customers to a cause you believe in. It’s a simple but meaningful way for you to say, “We know you want to help, and here’s who we think you should support to do real good.”
This kind of thing will be most effective if you are also able to make some contribution of your own, as it shows your commitment. But even the mere act of providing your customers with a name and a link demonstrates some leadership and will therefore be meaningful.
Photo by Oscar Keys on Unsplash
