Beverage Forum 2008: WOMM drives beverage growth and profit

By Ted Wright May 23, 2008

Greetings all. Fizz greatly enjoyed this year’s Beverage Forum. Many new tweaks from the good folks at BMC made this Forum the best one Fizz has ever attended.

What we were most struck by this year was how WOMM has become the mainstream driver for growth in the beverage industry. BMC reports that in just five short years Monster has almost caught Red Bull in volume sold in the US. Monster made it clear to attendees that their success is based on word of mouth marketing that is interesting to the consumer, relevant to their target and authentic to the Monster brand. Go Monster go!

Dogfish Head Brewing made similar comments but with an eastern flair in their presentation on the Tao of Marketing. It is the marriage of great beer and effective word of mouth marketing that the president of Dogfish Head said has taken them from the smallest commercial brewer in America (that 1400th out of 1400) to the 34th largest with $30,000,000 in annual sales. Mmmmmmm Dogfish! 

The other interesting point from the year’s Forum – those brands that spend their time talking about their great commercials and all of the “impressions” they get from banner ads are making headlines today either as an acquisition target or turning in poor sales results vs. their competitors.

 WOMM rules! Get on the bus or get bought by a smarter competitor. You have been warned.