Marketing News 1

 Roaming Nobels Brewery

I am interested in this subject because growing up in Oregon I have been going to breweries since I was little. My family always tries to go to a local brewery which is pretty easy.

This article is about Roaming Nobels Brewery which is Oregon’s first completely non-alcoholic brewery. Roaming Nobles Brewery’s mission is to create high quality craft non-alcoholic beer and do so with the environment in mind. The founders, the Hoban’s, got their idea from time they spent working in Germany where non-alcoholic beverages are pretty common. The name Roaming Nobels has many meanings to the Hoban’s. Roaming Nobels is a play on words and is a core value of their company.

IPA created for partnership with Forest Park Conservancy

Co-Founder Marla Hoban at St. John's Marketplace

The value proposition of Roaming Nobels is creating quality non-alcoholic craft beers for people to enjoy, make a culture that does not put pressure on people to drink if they don’t want to in social settings, and to be environmentally conscious.

Roaming Novels may not be a household name but they are trying to bring a newish product to drinking culture in the United States. Right now they are in a couple of local stores and bottle shops in and around the Portland area. Also they are  close to signing a distribution contract and deciding on how they want to continue to grow. They are growing brand recognition by distributing to a bigger audience and getting their name out there. Roaming Nobels takes advantage of trends like Dry January and people caring more about their health.

Their biggest challenge that they are facing/ trying to overcome is the stereotype that non-alcoholic beer tastes bad and not what you want when you want a beer but no alcohol. Because of this stereotype they are taking the quality and brewing methods seriously. There are a couple big non-alcoholic beer companies and other breweries are starting to make their own non-alcoholic beers.

Their marketing approach that makes them unique is quality over having a product that is trying to get rid of beer and other alcoholic beverages. The article mentions Deschutes Brewery trying to capitalize on the trend of non-alcoholic beer but that they lost the quality that their normal beer has. This definitely appeals to specific audiences. Those audiences are recovering alcoholics, people trying to not drink as much, people who can’t drink, and people who feel pressured to drink in social situations that do not want to.

I think they have a good approach and have a good audience that they can market to, but they could have several markets. So I think they should focus on a certain demographic to make their marketing more effective. If I were the brand/product manager I would try to partner with local sports bars or teams to get a bigger audience that is likely to drink and go drinking in other places. Since Roaming Nobels is a brewery that is based in the Portland area I would try to partner with the Moda Center and the Trailblazers along with Providence Park and the Thorns/Timbers.

I learned that there is only one truly non-alcoholic brewery in Oregon. I also learned that getting your product out to the public is hard especially when people associate your product with something that does not usually taste good.