Excerpted from Get Slightly Famous: Become a Celebrity in Your Field and Attract More Business With Less Effort (Second Edition)
Pete Slosberg’s career in beer began by accident. In 1979, as an executive with IBM, he attempted to make wine in his kitchen, but grew impatient with the long wait for wine to mature. He turned to beer instead, brewing a variety of exotic beers and enlisting friends as tasters. His prize creation was Pete’s Wicked Ale, a brown ale that carried an image of Pete Slosberg himself emblazoned on each bottle.
When Pete’s Brewing Company was founded in 1986, Slosberg was determined to make Pete’s Wicked Ale a respected national brand, but he faced entrenched national brands and a public with limited knowledge about craft beers. Rather than mimic larger brewers’ gimmicky advertising campaigns, Pete positioned himself as the spokesperson, educator, and ambassador for the fledgling microbrew industry.
Don’t just push your product, push your category. As one of only 33 craft brewers in America in 1986, Pete knew that beer consumers had little knowledge about craft beers. “We promoted our product by raising awareness for the entire craft beer category,” recalls Pete. “I did extensive ’missionary work for my industry, operating equally as company spokesperson and as the voice of craft beer education.”
Pete’s branding strategy centered on craft beer education. He targeted consumers, distributors, wait staff, and anyone with a stake in promoting his product. A centerpiece of this effort was Pete’s Landscape of Beers™, a simple reference tool that could make anybody a beer expert in 10 minutes.“We used this simple chart as a consumer brand awareness tool in bars that carried our product,” says Pete. “Moreover, the beer chart would show retailers, carrying mostly middle–of-the-road, mass production beers, that they weren’t offering their customers enough beer choices.”
Develop a personal connection. Pete got personally involved in the branding process, spending 100 days a year on the road promoting Pete’s Wicked Ale. He educated his marketplace about craft brews, connecting with wholesalers, retailers, and consumers through numerous public appearances, while linking his persona and passion for beer with public perception of his product.
Pete courted beer wholesalers by organizing “brew on premises” events, inviting wholesale employees and salespeople to learn how to brew their own beer. “These events established a personal connection between our company and key salespeople and differentiated us from the big guys,” says Pete. “I got to know our wholesalers and their people on a personal level, and the events were a lot of fun. Each person left with a personalized six-pack of beer they made themselves, and many left a bottle on their desk as a memento. This created great mindshare and a personal connect to our company.”
Pete’s Brewing Company’s sales grew from $130,000 in 1988 to $5.5 million in 1992, a 3,967 percent increase. Inc magazine later ranked Pete’s among its 500 fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States. “You can enter a crowded market by demonstrating a compelling point of difference,” says Slosberg, who wrote about his beer adventures in his book, Beer for Pete’s Sake. “When companies connect personally with their marketplace, they form deep, loyal connections with consumers that you can’t buy through advertising.”
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