Brewing Up Promotional Marketing With Capital Brewery:

Capital Brewery of Middleton, WI has experience at making good beer. Since producing their first brew in the spring of 1986, Capital Brewery has expanded their line of beers to eight annual, fourseasonal, and fourlimited release beers. A vast majority of their beers are produced under strict five-century-old German beer production purity guidelines. Their attention to detail and quality has paid off, with Capital Brewery being named the #1 Brewery in America at the 1998 Beverage Testing Institute's World Beer Championships in Chicago, IL.

On February 27th of this year, Capital Brewery broke new ground with the release of the new Island Wheat Ale. As a beer producer known for its dark lagers, Capital faced a special challenge when it released Island Wheat Ale to the market. This particular brew is lighter in color and is brewed to appeal to a wider range of beer drinkers, featuring a lighter, more refreshing taste than darker beers.

Capital Brewery is a company which is very familiar with using targeted advertising and promotional marketing materials to promote their products. Their experience with promoting their seasonal brews left them well prepared to get the word out about their new Island Wheat Ale.

Their strategy was to create a buzz in the community in order to create excitement about the upcoming launch date. Promotional giveaways and sales of "Island Wheat: Refreshingly Different" themed t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts were a staple in generating interest. These items were featured in both their Gift Haus and their Bier Garten, where many of the Capital Brewery faithful visit. This enabled them to generate word-of-mouth advertising within their pre-existing client base.

As early as October, Capital gave away embroidered Island Wheat-themed wind shirts at the Annual Harvest Fest Golf outing, which served to further increase awareness and generate excitement for the upcoming release date. The golf outing allowed Capital Brewery the opportunity to generate awareness outside of their die-hard fan base. By starting to promote their new line of beers more than four months prior to release, they had plenty of time for word to spread.

Combining methods such as these with billboard advertising and online promotions worked well for Capital Brewery. In fact, they were so successful, on the launch date, the "Island Wheat, in all packages, hit the shelves - and flew off them almost as fast as they got there" according to the website (www.islandwheat.com).

Through an integrated, well thought-out process, Capital Brewery was able to successfully promote their new product well before it hit the shelves. Since most of the Capital Brewery community already knew, and anticipated the Island Wheat brand, Capital Brewery was able to hit the ground running and move their product from the very first day.

Powertex Group can put the power of promotional items, and events to work for you and your company. Ask one of our helpful sales reps for ideas to help generate buzz about your new product. Give us a call today at (800) 588-7111, or email us at customerservice@powertexgroup.com.


>> Previous Article, Promotional Tips