The current #BeerToo crisis is a case study for little start-ups shouting about big values. But what comms lessons can we learn?
Craft beer all of a sudden has an image problem. This is a bigger problem because so much of modern craft beer’s success is based on image.
So there’s an element here of living by the sword and dying by the sword. You make a massive play of your values, you’d better make sure you live up to them.
A sector leveraging its own progressive nature is more vulnerable to revelations about sexism, racism, and other thoroughly un-progressive behaviour.
The idea that the real ale generation, all wooly jumpers, 70s beards and boozy flatulence, might retain a rump harbouring a level of sexist sentiment wouldn’t necessarily shock.
Craft beer is progressive… isn’t it?
But craft beer is modern, forward thinking, tattooed and pierced, considered and contemplative, reflecting a generation that, you might expect, values the contribution of women and sees no difference in the different genders’ abilities to mix hops and yeast.
The key message in crisis communications terms is, if you’re going to talk the talk, you must absolutely walk the walk, or your fall from grace will be from a far greater height.
What we’ve seen since the end of last week, when the UK craft scene’s own #MeToo moment appeared to have arrived, is that craft beer companies are just not set up for this.
The back story
#BeerTooUK started when beer writer Siobhan Buchanan started to collate stories of sexist and misogynistic treatment of women in craft beer by their employers and others.
Her Instagram posts as @BritishBeerGirl painted a picture of an industry treating women appallingly and key figures and brands being either complicit or woefully complacent.
Buchanan’s posts followed the lead of her US contemporary Brienne, whose Instagram account @ratmagnet now hosts a ten part chronicling of women lifting the lid in America.
Two weeks ago Buchanan was one of two female guests talking about the toxic culture in the UK craft beer scene on Radio Four.
A week ago the ongoing story led to the resignation of a key MD in the UK craft scene, Jan Rogers of Manchester’s Marble Brewery.
Wholehearted apology
In a statement, Ms Rogers said she wanted to offer a “wholehearted” apology to staff “who suffered unduly” following a long list of accusations of sexism and harassment.
A spokesman for the brewery said it would “investigate thoroughly the past culture within the company”.
Today the spotlight has moved on to Brewdog, one of the industry’s biggest hitters, who are facing a barrage of accusations or bullying, harassment and a work environment characterised by fear, from more than 100 former employers.
The problem
A number of people within the sector have stepped up to defend Jan Rogers as someone who has done a lot of good, including for women, in the craft beer industry.
But even after both her own and Marble Brewery’s statements apologising for the company’s previous culture, Rogers continued to rail against the accusations on social media.
Initially suggesting Siobhan Buchanan might need a lawyer, she then variously described individual stories of incidents at Marble as “bullshit”, “game playing”, half-truths and a manipulative narrative designed to bring down a successful woman in the industry.
She also told Buchanan she was being used by people with a very different agenda to her own.
All of this was playing out in public over the last week after her brand had accepted there was a problem and issued a statement apologising and promising to address it.
Elsewhere, other breweries facing similar accusations have been slow to respond or just woeful in their handling of claims made against them. Responses on social media have been dismissive, demanded evidence or denied all knowledge of such a culture.
One industry commentator thinks the issue is that these companies are simply not set up to handle themselves in the face of this level of negative reporting.
The expert view
Companies that nearly always start in the backroom of a pub, or a small industrial unit, have grown exponentially with the boom of the industry and may not have developed support departments like HR and comms that reflect their new found scale.
David Colley, branding and marketing lecturer and author of the book Brand Crafted, said: “I think these companies have been unable to “manage” themselves and are inexperienced in dealing with HR/workplace issues. And the responses have been so woefully inadequate.”
He said: “A series of brave revelations have exposed harassment and bullying alongside inappropriate sexual behaviour. How these breweries respond and the speed of implementing tangible change, not just statements of regret or reflection (and let’s face it, many of these show a real lack of empathy and tact), will guide the long term future for the industry and those who work within it, and enjoy its social aspects.”
Colley says talk of boycotting needs to be carefully considered, as “not only do these breweries have commitments to the livelihoods and wellbeing of existing employees, they operate within a wider eco-system of tap rooms, bottle shops and distributors that many rely on for careers and secure employment.”
“The focus here needs to be an honest, open and widespread commitment to transforming the industry to create the conditions for a safe and responsive work and social space for women rather than reverting to isolated individual actions and cancel culture tactics.”
That’s the lesson for the industry as it looks inward.
This is crisis is about lessons in comms
As it looks outward, it has faced its first seismic reputational battle and it hasn’t, thus far, handled it well. This is a sector on the back foot, and the first thing it needs to do is, even while it’s getting its collective house in order to DO the right thing, is invest in the right sort of comms advice and support to start communicating that it WANTS to do the right thing.
As Colley says, “this is not going away and signals a reckoning for the craft beer industry to get its house in order and live up to the lofty ideals of representation, inclusion and social progress that have characterised this independent sector.”
Even as I’m writing this the first responses from Brewdog are coming through. They look like following the same tone deaf pattern of their smaller cohorts.
The initial one reads like a direct appeal to its investors to keep on investing. It talks about “growth journey” and “high performance environment” and totally misses out people, and specifically people who are hurting.
The second is a testimonial from a female Brewdog employee that reads like a statement at a show trial. This crisis is also about lessons in comms. Looks like they aren’t going to learn their lessons any time soon.
You can find out more about the craft beer book Brand Crafted at https://www.brandcraftedcreative.co.uk