BrewDog: yet another hip company using 'rebel' language to sell its stuff
- Thread starter treelover
- Start date
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
8ball
Decolonise colons!
Being fair, I think the people at the place he was at didn't get where they were going with the product.
However, if it was made clear that the reduced price was their way of creating awareness of the gender pay gap, I think the claimant was being a bit of a tit.
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editor
hiraethified
Fairly scathing for the FT:
Remember BrewDog, the Scottish beer-for-people-who-think-they-like-beer company that's managed to raise money from over 110,000 "equity punks" (AKA ordinary and really quite un-punky retail investors) around the world?
Well, it's raising again. Or trying to, anyway. In the company's latest "Equity for Punks" crowdfunding raise -- its sixth such round -- it's aiming to raise another £7m, with a "stretch goal" of £50m. The £7m would bring the total amount of money BrewDog has raised via crowdfunding to an impressive £74m. (Although it should be noted that it also raised £213m from a somewhat less punky US private equity fund back in 2017.)
The offer had been open between April 6th and July 5th, per its prosectus. But on July 4th, with the £7m goal not yet met, the company appears to have suddenly been overcome by an even-more-punky-than-usual urge.
Suddenly, BrewDog decided it was time to accept crypto.
Simulaneously, BrewDog announced it was launching a new beer called Cryptonite: Intergalactic Liquid Currency" -- which anyone buying with crypto would receive six cans of -- and that it was extending the fundraising period until April 2020. The extension, of course, wasn't about not meeting the fundraising goal though. Rather, it was "to celebrate this milestone" of accepting crypto.
In a press release, the company said:
This is the natural next step for us as a business. James and Martin started BrewDog to be an alternative to the status quo; to challenge perceptions and revolutionise their industry. The developers, miners and users of cryptocurrency are exactly the same. Joining forces to link the old and new financial systems is a perfect fit.
Status-quo-challenging cryptocurrencies accepted by BrewDog include the three main versions of bitcoin (bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and bitcoin BSV), thinking-bro-coin Ethereum and XRP, the banker-coin once known as Ripple that's trying to replace SWIFT.
Other ways that BrewDog gets people to invest -- or to "join the revolution" -- include referral schemes, a ticket to the annual "#punkAGM", and membership to an "exclusive social network just for equity punks". There is also a "tiered benefits" system depending on your level of investment, and anyone who invests is entered into a draw to become a "BrewDog Millionaire".
So this all makes sense right? I mean, we would have thought the BrewDog-bro-to-crypto-bro venn diagram would show a significant overlap already, but there's surely no harm in trying to make that still more more significant. And crypto does, after all, have a remarkable capacity to get people to part with their cash, with no certainty on future returns. So go on, if you think you're punk enough. Artisanal coins for your artisanal beer.
kenny g
Sheeple Awake!
My aldi ghost dance Ghost Dance Ale mixed with shepherds neame bishops finger costs £2.49 and provides 830ml of heavily hopped beer experience at 5.4% abv. Sometimes mix the finger with aldi coffee stout at 99p. Makes a great black IPA style drink. Take that BrewDog
billy_bob
Air of bewilderment model's own
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
The FT does not sound surprised. Now, considering they raised £100m from a US private equity firm not even 2 years ago, why aren't they raising more money from current investors?
There was a 2018 article that reckoned their costs had spiralled, so their burn rate must be high.
I wonder how much the negative publicity around the tribunal for disability discrimination has affected this equity round.
Obviously I'm very sad about their equity raise problems. Very very sad.
There was a 2018 article that reckoned their costs had spiralled, so their burn rate must be high.
I wonder how much the negative publicity around the tribunal for disability discrimination has affected this equity round.
Obviously I'm very sad about their equity raise problems. Very very sad.
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
It's not like the stuff they sell is cheap and it's everywhere. Even the little one stop on my estate. I mean Punk isn't bad beer. But they have done some dam good marketing. I even saw it in France.
skyscraper101
0891 50 50 50
A 50% vegan burger. Genius.
Rosemary Jest
Wrong and Unstable
Look at the head on that 'pint' 
equationgirl
Respect my existence or expect my resistance
What's the point of that? It's not 50% vegan, it's a burger with less meat in it. And those green buns look rank.
Fucking brewdog.
Rosemary Jest
Wrong and Unstable
Has anyone ever been in a Brewdog bar? I mean, I've been in plenty of hipster places, but these just look so shit.
Passed plenty in various cities, but never had the urge, or even a slight pang, to wander in, even out of morbid curiosity.
I'm sure they used to sell Punk IPA in wetherspoons, so why wouldn't you go there and pay half the price, instead of paying twice the price to drink the same pint in somewhere that looks like and has all the atmosphere of a wetherspoon's kitchen?
Passed plenty in various cities, but never had the urge, or even a slight pang, to wander in, even out of morbid curiosity.
I'm sure they used to sell Punk IPA in wetherspoons, so why wouldn't you go there and pay half the price, instead of paying twice the price to drink the same pint in somewhere that looks like and has all the atmosphere of a wetherspoon's kitchen?
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Many possible reasons but probably because PE firms take board seats as well as equity in the investment and the owners will want to control the amount of shares and influence that individual investors accrue. The company and its capital raising strategy has been tremendously successful. In less than 10 years they've gone from one bar in Scotland to over 70 all over the world, have 5 breweries in different countries, and a hotel.
I've been to the one in Paddington basin. It's ok if you like that sort of thing. Beer's pretty good but expensive, food's ok but expensive, but this is London. What did annoy me was having to pay extra for chips with my 10 quid burger. Chips should always be included with burgers.Rasemary Jest said:
Oh, and Brewdog didn't let my dog in.
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marketing engagement, clicks and outrage generating free adverts
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Spot on. These guys know exactly what they're doing and they're doing it very well. Very few businesses have 35 page threads on U75 dedicated to them.
billy_bob
Air of bewilderment model's own
OK, 35 pages of disengenuous corporate twattery, but I think that's /THREAD right there.
billy_bob
Air of bewilderment model's own
Hmm - maybe, but I'm not sure. They're the advertiser, not the ad host: they don't get revenue just from clicks. And if this thread really is an example of their strategy at work, I'm not convinced it's one that's effectively netting them new customers. Their appeal rests on the type of people (broadly speaking) who frequent this site having a not very well thought-through 'that looks like the kind of beer people like me would like - I'll give it a try' reaction, and this thread will surely have stopped more of those knees jerking that it's started.
(E2a: I say 'maybe' rather than 'no' though because clearly something's netting them new customers, so something's working... I'm just not sure it's working for the demographic that's slagging them off in discussions like this one.)
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Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
One of their major strategies has been based on inflamatory marketing. It's free advertising and for every person who thinks "twats" there'll be one or two who'd never heard of them who look at their websites, perhaps be attracted to some other aspect of the offering, and give them a go. There are ad agencies that specialise in this type of "provocative marketing". Granted, your average Urb is probably not likely to read this thread and rush down to a Brewdog, but then this isn't their target market anyway so they settle for just being talked about. Look at what they've achieved in the last 10 years. Possibly the most successful new bar group in Europe?
Do a google news search for brewdog hybrid burger and tell me that the above tweet doesn’t have an 1000% ROI.
People who buy beer in Tesco get brand awareness and that they are “edgey”.
believe it or not a load of middle aged cynics on a message board isn’t the target audience.
Plus tweet views, likes and forward cause twitter to promote it more.
Every time someone here posts a brewdog tweet, they are schilling for them.
Alex
yes, the bloke who thinks he is the coolest guy in Runcorn drinks brewdog.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Introducing vegans back to meat. It's like tapering off drugs but the other way round.
Monkeygrinder's Organ
Dodgy geezer swilling vapid lager
TBH I think the reason that stuff like this thread is helpful to a company like Brewdog is that it treats all their marketing stuff incredibly seriously. Way more seriously than practically anyone drinking in their bars or buying a few cans of their beer from Tesco. All the rage against everything they do treats it all as something real, something that matters. That's the sort of thing that's incredibly hard for a marketing department to buy.
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
There's nothing at all wrong with the concept if you consider it as a business designed to appeal to 20-40 somethings with decent disposable incomes, rather than a social service. Some of the beers are pretty good and they're nice comfortable big spaces with passable food in popular locations. As Alex says, the very things that us Urban farts rail against are what have made them successful and they couldn't give a toss that a handful of middle aged, middle class, ex hippies, aren't going to be queuing at the door!
Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Fair play but we're far from their target market. I always seem to be the oldest bloke in the Paddington Brewdog but I suppose that might have something to do with me being one of the oldest blokes in Paddington.
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Spymaster
Plastic Paddy
Sure. Another point is that even on threads like this it's not all bad. Skim through the thread and there are a fair number of actually quite complimentary posts. All in all, Urban75 is doing a grand job for them.
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