Brisbane Brewing Company - Social Media Marketing Plan Through a marketing plan based on a social media platform, Brisbane Brewing Company is targeting consumers of alcoholic beverages of the ages 18 and 25. Due to their unique tastes and individual traits they should not be viewed as your common-place beer drinkers since they are crafty. And because they mainly interact through social media, many firms have now adopted this mode of marketing as an integral tool to their marketing strategies. Apart from being one method of reaching out to consumers, it is now the major means of sending out communication to people. Interestingly, many businesses still do not understand how this affects their bottom line despite the fact that its advocates shout its praises on mountain tops. Many organizations employ its use because everybody else is doing the same.

To distinguish himself from his comic namesake from Bolton, a social media expert called Peter Kay has partnered with one of the best-loved breweries from the West Country known as Bath Ales to introduce both Facebook and Twitter as part of their core strategies of marketing. He has monitored the level of activity from the word go, and this has immediately shown the importance of social media. The consultant, Peter, begun by evaluating sales online in a one span of time and compared this with the results from a second time span during which the company engaged with its clients on Facebook and Twitter (How Bath Ales grew its online sales using social media, n.d).

Improving online sales for Brisbane Brewing Company

He revealed that the outcome indicated an increase in sales online of 56% for Bath Ales. This survey was carried out in the pre- Christmas period on 14th October 2010 and the period after on 4th January 2011.These sales were compared with those of a year earlier with social media activity being the only variable. The secret success of Peter's method was using social media as a communicative tool, and he explained that he taught Bath Ales to employs social media to gauge what their customers thought and to make them realize that their interests were taken seriously. Peter points to Trey Pennington, the social media guru, as a major inspiring force. And despite his sad and tragic death in 2011, he left behind a strong source of inspiration for those involved in social media marketing. He insists that Trey imparted three fundamental lessons and since he met him, he was captivated by his philosophy. His three lessons were: that everyone wanted to believe that his/her life was important, everybody wished to be listened and that everyone expected to be understood (How Bath Ales grew its online sales using social media, n.d).

By adopting this method, the Brisbane Brewing Company can co-opt people involved in social media marketing to assist the company monitor what consumers thought about their services and products on both Facebook and Twitter. In a nutshell this implies that if a consumer tweeted that he/she was drinking Keg Beer from Brisbane Brewing Company then the company would re-tweet to appreciate by saying thank you. Within no time, many would begin viewing Brisbane Brewing Company as an organization that values its clients, and so more and more people would start creating content about the company on social media platforms which would spur its growth. Instead of Brisbane Brewing Company shouting to the world about how fantastic their products were, it is social media users who would do this instead.

Getting closer to customers

The senior marketing managers of Brisbane Company claim that since they started this campaign, the company has never been that closer to its clients. To the company, the impression created by using social media is like a word of mouth spread about their brands by customers in a pub. Through such a social media strategy the company will be able to appreciate what their customer do on Facebook or Twitter, and at the same time mention other brands in their product line which their customers might also like. The key is being appreciative by acknowledging the effort someone takes to tweet about the company's brand.

Just like many other organizations, Brisbane Brewing Company understood the importance of maximizing on the opportunities presented through social media. By identifying the importance of social media, the company felt that they would only ignore it to their disadvantage. And so by partnering with famous social media marketing, the company can initiate sessions for training full of great ideas which are inspirational. Apart from that, these kinds of training need to motivate and to exploit social media marketing experts as mentors...

There is now no doubt that social media is strongly established as marketing and networking tool. In spite of this, the digital forms of communication have not haven't overshadowed other traditional methods of marketing interaction. What is good for businesses now is to engage with their customers in which means they prefer and wherever they are, whether offline or online. By employing social media strategy Brisbane Brewing Company is therefore able to target the 18-25 old range of consumers.
There many businesses that talk about the advantages of social media marketing for business and one of the most outstanding proponents is obviously Brisbane Brewing Company. However not so many can accurately show practical indicators of the opportunities or impact social media tools give to businesses. In one word, none is certain about their ROI or return on investment.

Description of the organization

Brisbane Brewing Company has since migrated to a different location in the middle of West End with a direct link to 124 Boundary Street and Brewing onsite Bar & Deli. This is the perfect seclusion from the madness or hustle and bustle of the city center. Brisbane Brewing Co. always has more than 8 beer brands in production brewed in batches of 1000L. Nearly all the brands are keg beer and are distributed to Woolloongabba place and the other bars located outside so that the locally brewed draught beer can be available all the times for hire by keg party and consistently supplied. The brewing circle determines the availability of all brands. The owners of this particular distribution network are Grant Clark and Michelle of Brisbane's busy Brewhouse. Brisbane Brewing Co. will boast a capacity of 60-70 customers constantly both inside and in the laneways. Food which is likely to include smoked and roast meat besides salads and charcuterie board is part of the fare.

Market analysis

Within the Australian product industry the beer market is gradually but remarkably altering. Traditional, this segment mainly depended on young adults being absorbed into the market. Besides the aging population, the young adults with their shift from heavy beer to mid-strength, light beer, premium and imported have become more important. This is coupled with increased popularity of RTDs, presently rating at 16.1% of consumption of alcohol within the 18-25 age groups. This presents a major challenge to the industry. The 18 to 25 alcohol consumers are not loyal to brands with just about 18% sticking to a particular brand. The simple fact that more than a quarter of the 18-25 consumers of alcohol take more than 6 brands is an indication of their openness to several brands on offer. Because they contribute almost 41% of the volume of all categories makes the multi-brand consumers important. When we consider the characteristics of all these categories, the percentage volume maintained by premium/imported beers at 12%, and ready to drink beverages (RTDs) at 16% becomes of special interest. Both the premium/imported beers and RTDs class have been maintained through brewing of new products and innovations thereby making them constantly relevant this group because of the constant up-to-date offers. And considering that the 18-25 drinkers are ever fashion conscious and want to look trendy, this quality makes them have greater appeal (Morgan, 2003).

Pestle Analysis

The eternal macro environment of the industry is mainly dealt with by the PESTLE analysis. Every industry is affected by the political and legal environment. Laws such as higher taxation to curb alcohol consumption greatly impact the alcohol industry particularly where drivers are concerned. Some unrecognized crime organized gangs and cartels also play an important role or greatly affect the growth of the industry. The brewing industry is also influenced by criteria of waste disposal in landfills, several environmental protection Acts and the environmental criteria on the emission of carbon footprint. The Brisbane Brewing Company is lags far behind her competitors because it entered the market late. However by employing social media as a marketing tool, it has managed to establish itself as a key market player.

SWOOT analysis

Over the past decade, production of Craft beer has tremendously grown. This has largely been due to the change in consumer preferences and tastes, especially with the emphasis on quality as opposed to quantity across the liquor spectrum and the inclination towards premium beer. The…