This fun little title for a book, “Who Moved My Cheese,” was given to me by a former employer more than a decade ago, but is a phrase I think about daily.
The publishing world and brewing world coincide with this constant perspective. Both publishing and brewing have their peaks and valleys — probably why I ventured into both.
A frustrating truth is that both businesses move and reposition very quickly.
When Brewer Magazine launched, social media was the major player, and email content was falling away. A few years into business, customers were asking less for social media marketing and more for email — what the heck happened?
As a brewer our Red Ale was the talk of the town one minute and then was being ignored for craft Lagers, then craft Seltzers, and then back to West Coast IPAs — where is the consumer going?
I just keep repeating in my head, “Who moved my freakin’ cheese?”
Such a mild concept, but when you think about your customer base — whether that’s brewery product or advertising sales — they all tend to do the same thing, which is shift regularly.
There are only a few brands that come to mind that don’t seem to shift all that much, but even those have lost major market share over the past several years due to adjusting consumer demand and lack of mobility.
When you speak with your distributor you’ll also be met with the subsequent “moving of the cheese.” Locally we’ve been told that beer sales aren’t what they were. I always say to follow the numbers, and our numbers don’t resonate with that claim.
Breweries — especially craft breweries — are still at an all-time high. Your growth and innovation keep consumers on their toes.
Additionally, what a lot of B2B conversations seem to miss is the versatility of brewing.
While we all love to brew our favorite beers — whether that be a crispy Lager, big-bodied Stout, or juicy IPA — as business owners and professionals we know that we must move with the landscape.
Simply adjusting our brewing schedule to include cider or seltzer doesn’t mean we’ve sacrificed ourselves or our businesses. It means we’re good business owners and someone moved our cheese.
You should definitely go read the short business book and let me know your thoughts. The short idea is that when your cheese moves, you move with it. We’ve watched almost all of you do that over the life of craft beer.
How does one move to the cheese in the world of publishing? Well, it’s not as obvious as brewing a hard seltzer. However, podcast development, video development on YouTube (Click Here to Subscribe), and emphasizing more short content — Reels for example — to grab the brewery professional on the go.
At our brewery, we design what the customer wants so that we can continue to make what we love. With our publication, we develop content around where the consumer wants to consume it, but it keeps us sharing the business insights we pride ourselves on.
In any business, your cheese will be moved. It always causes me to swear some, but at the end of the day, I take a deep breath, collect my thoughts, and move to where my cheese moved.
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