Moment 106 - Marketing Principles That Made Brewdog Billions: James Watt
This episode features James Watt, co-founder of BrewDog, discussing his unique marketing thesis. He shares principles for achieving disproportionate returns, gaining share of voice with limited budgets, and lessons learned from controversial campaigns.
Deep Dive Analysis
10 Topic Outline
Brewdog's Unique Marketing Principles and Tests
Strategy for Winning Share of Voice as a Challenger Brand
Early Provocative, Low-Budget Marketing Stunts
Challenging Industry Regulators with 'Tokyo 18' Beer
Diageo's Attempt to Suppress Brewdog's Recognition
Viewing Competitor Copying and Attacks as Success
The 'Elvis Juice' Name Change Publicity Stunt
Truthfulness and Intent in Provocative Marketing
Lessons from Marketing Mistakes: The Pink IPA Example
Importance of Clear Context in Marketing Messaging
5 Key Concepts
Brewdog's Marketing Thesis
A set of principles based on two tests: whether another business could replicate the marketing action, and if it yields a 10x return compared to a competitor's spend, aiming for superior effectiveness against larger rivals.
Challenger Brand Marketing
A strategy for smaller brands to gain market share and voice by being intentionally bold, provocative, and utilizing new platforms to secure headlines and attention, especially when lacking large marketing budgets.
Low-Budget, High-Impact Stunts
A marketing approach focused on executing unconventional, often controversial, actions or campaigns designed to generate significant publicity and brand awareness without requiring substantial financial investment.
Portman Group (as described by Brewdog)
An industry regulator perceived by Brewdog as a 'thinly veiled cartel' funded by large drinks businesses, designed to protect incumbents and prevent the success of smaller, disruptive companies.
Marketing Message Context
The principle that any marketing campaign, especially one that is nuanced or potentially controversial, must have its full intended meaning and context immediately apparent in any brief exposure or 'snapshot' to avoid misinterpretation.
7 Questions Answered
Brewdog's marketing is guided by two tests: first, whether another company could easily replicate the action, and second, if the action will yield a 10x return compared to a competitor's equivalent spend.
They engaged in intentionally provocative, 'on the edge' stunts and communications that garnered significant media attention and headlines, ensuring these actions were always tied back to their core beliefs and passion for beer.
Brewdog lodged a complaint about its own high-ABV beer to the Portman Group to expose what they saw as a 'thinly veiled cartel' of big drinks businesses using the regulator to suppress smaller competitors and make a meta-statement about the system's absurdity.
According to James Watt, it's a positive sign that you are doing well and are a significant threat to the competition; if you're not being copied or challenged, it indicates you need to improve your game.
Yes, James and Martin Watt legally changed their names to Elvis for a few weeks in Scotland, using an official declaration, as a publicity stunt to counter a copyright infringement claim from the Elvis estate over their 'Elvis Juice' beer.
Brewdog considers a stunt truthful if they later disclose the full context and their involvement, such as revealing they were the ones who complained about their own beer to expose a flawed system.
A notable mistake was the 'Pink IPA' campaign for International Women's Day, which aimed to highlight the gender pay gap but was misinterpreted as a sexist product due to people only seeing a 'snapshot' of the message. The lesson was that the full context of a campaign must be immediately clear.
9 Actionable Insights
1. Maximize Marketing Return on Investment
Aim for a 10x return on every marketing pound spent compared to competitors, ensuring your efforts are significantly more effective to close the gap with larger businesses.
2. Differentiate Marketing Strategy Uniquely
Only pursue marketing activities that other businesses could not or would not do. This ensures your brand stands out and avoids generic approaches.
3. Be Bold for Share of Voice
Employ provocative and extreme tactics to win headlines and gain attention, especially when operating with a limited budget against larger, established players.
4. Ensure Message Clarity in Snapshots
Design marketing campaigns so that the full intended message and context are immediately clear, as most people will only see a brief snapshot and won’t dig deeper into the details.
5. Ground Marketing in Core Beliefs
Ensure all marketing stunts and campaigns are genuinely tied back to the company’s core values and passions. This prevents the messaging from appearing hollow, fake, or false.
6. Leverage New Platforms Strategically
Focus marketing efforts on new and emerging platforms rather than traditional, expensive channels like TV or newspapers. This avoids direct competition with large budgets and finds new avenues for reach.
7. View Competition as Validation
Interpret being copied or targeted by competitors as a sign of success and an indication that your strategy is effective. This mindset encourages you to keep improving and confirms you are a threat.
8. Maintain Transparency in Stunts
If using controversial marketing, be prepared to disclose the full context or intent afterwards. This maintains honesty and can expose systemic issues, rather than being perceived as dishonest.
9. Elevate Product Perception
Create high-value, specialized products for connoisseurs to elevate their status and encourage appreciation. This approach aims to reduce misuse by fostering understanding and respect for the product.
4 Key Quotes
unless you're being copied you need to up your game and you need to do better unless your competitors are trying to knock you down you're not enough enough of a threat to your competition.
James Watt
we had to do things that were intentionally provocative that were on the edge and sometimes we can cross that edge as well but that enabled us to get our name our message our business out there with no budget at all.
James Watt
people just see a snapshot of a thing so you need to make sure that all of the message that you want to land is in that snapshot because a lot of people's not going to dig deeper into what it is.
James Watt
if I spend a pound on this is it going to give me a 10 extra turn compared to how a competitor would spend that pound.
James Watt