LIST OF CONTENT

1.0 SITUATION ANALYSIS...............................................................................................3

1.1 STRENGTHS.......................................................................................................3
1.2 WEAKNESSES.....................................................................................................4
1.3 OPPORTUNITIES................................................................................................5
1.4 THREATS...........................................................................................................6
2.0 ASSUMPTIONS AND MISSING INFORMATION.............................................................7
3.0 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS.......................................................................................7
4.0 DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVES............................................................................8
5.0 EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES AND RECOMMENDATIONS.......................................8
6.0 IMPLEMENTATION....................................................................................................8
7.0 EVALUATION AND CONTROL.....................................................................................9
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................10
1.0 SITUATION ANALYSIS

First of all, a situation analysis assists in guiding an organization’s decision-making process

by examining the internal and external aspects influencing the company’s overall
performance. A situation analysis is part of every project planning process because it shows
a company’s strengths, weaknesses, and growth areas. In this part, the situation analysis of
the case study is conducted through the SWOT analysis.

Table 1.0: SWOT Analysis

SWOT ANALYSIS

Strengths Weaknesses

1) High-quality product with a unique 1) Business difficulties caused by the

flavour.
2) Consumers have a strong brand
awareness of NBB.
3) NBB is a firm that values ethics, the
environment, and the society.
socio-cultural trends.
2) Unbalance business plan or strategy.
3) Restricted distribution territories and
areas.

Opportunities Threats

1) An aggressive and targeted marketing 1) There is high rivalry, and many

approach with a distinct objective. competitors.
2) High capabilities and the potential to 2) Changes in consumer demand.
broaden the product line. 3) High substitution rates and pressure
3) High geographic expansion potential. from the market.
4) The production and distribution cost are
expensive.

1.1 STRENGTHS

Strength 1: high-quality product with a unique flavor. The product of New Belgium
Brewing Company (NBB) has a distinctive flavor and a fresher taste. This is due to the fact
that their craft brewery’s beers differ from other typical industrial beers in terms of taste and
brewing techniques. NBB’s well-known products include Sunshine Wheat, Blue Paddle

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Pilsner, Abbey Ale, Trippel Ale, and 1554 Black Ale, while the original Fat Tire Amber Ale is
still the firm’s best seller, according to the case.

Strength 2: Consumers have strong brand awareness of NBB. NBB wants to appeal
to those who are free-spirited and appreciate the little pleasures in life. In general, NBB
makes a big effort to meet the demands of its consumers, and they prefer to provide details
about what they do to uphold their key principles. This is provided they are successful in
engaging with their customers, who place a high value on integrity, openness, and
sustainability.

Strength 3: NBB is a firm that values ethics, the environment, and the society.
NBB places a lot of emphasis on sustainability and has extremely strong fundamental beliefs
that include being environmentally beneficial. They like posting about their successes in this
field via social media since they are aware that the majority of their customers have strong
environmental values. NBB’s commercial position will benefit from social responsibility when
its branding, reputation, and consumer loyalty are strong. The company’s emphasis on
advancing social ideals above profit margins is shown in its social responsibility. Moreover,
their involvement in a plan to promote social harmony has a big impact on how consumers
perceive and use the goods. A feeling of accomplishment is instilled in the users, and a
brand bond is formed with the community through NBB’s involvement in experiments,
promotion of responsible drinking, local sponsorship programs, and the distribution of free
animal feed products made from barley to the community. This actually strengthens NBB’s
competitive advantage in the market.

1.2 WEAKNESSES

Weakness 1: Business difficulties caused by the socio-cultural trends. In order to

ensure sustainability, NBB Brewing must have strong ideals. Like other sustainable
businesses, NBB has a hard time persuading the public that their sustainability claims are
true. This is difficult because the public is often exposed to false claims made by businesses
trying to look environmentally friendly.

Weakness 2: When NBB devotes its resources to social projects rather than concentrating
on its primary business of producing beer, it has an unbalanced business plan or

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strategy. NBB has promoted its goods and built brand awareness throughout the years by
using a range of diverse media. Although the media may change, NBB’s guiding ideas and
reputation have not. The original objective of NBB, which was to be a fun, socially
responsible, and environmentally conscious organization, has never wavered. The business
has lately stepped up its attempts to engage socially conscious customers. Thus, NBB
created and gave 612 beer drinkers a survey in order to better understand their
consumption patterns and preferences. This will reduce the profit and minimize the better
use of money in their business.

Weakness 3: Restricted distribution territories and areas. NBB is still developing to

be further expand, and it might be open to their sustainable efforts to other areas. The
products of NBB are sold in the market but have not spread across the country or captured
the largest market share.

1.3 OPPORTUNITIES

Opportunity 1: An aggressive and targeted marketing approach with a distinct

objective. Since 1996, the NBB marketing team has improved its marketing emphasis and
initiative. For instance, NBB’s sponsorship of the “Tour de Fat” helped to make the
company’s name a recognizable. Besides that, NBB started a travelling photo presentation
show and beer tasting program called “Beerstream” in a historic Airstream trailer, which is
an informative method. In 2003, NBB formed collaborations with Amalgamated Inc., a
fledgling advertising firm in New York, to develop the brand’s cultural contributions and
message components.

Opportunity 2: High capabilities and the potential to broaden the product line. As
shown in the Case Exhibit 9.1, there is a rising market for craft beer enthusiasts, while the
American alcoholic beverage market as a whole is increasing at the fastest rate. NBB has the
opportunity to expand their product line and increase their market share at a time when the
brewing and beer industries have consistently increased every year.

Opportunity 3: High geographic expansion potential. As NBB expanded into Northern

California during 2003, it became obvious that new approaches would need to be utilized in
order to successfully engage the expanding consumer base.

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1.4 THREATS

Threat 1: There is high rivalry, and many competitors. For instance, Sam Adams and
Sierra Nevada provide higher-quality goods than NBB and pose a significant threat to their
market share. While producing craft beers, these rival breweries typically place a high
importance on sustainability to meet the current societal trend toward social responsibility
and environmental preservation. NBB is America’s third-largest craft brewer, according to
the case study, and the craft beer market of NBB represents slightly over 4% of the total
U.S. beer industry.

Threat 2: Changes in consumer demand. The demand from customers is growing along
with their interests and expectations. Customer demand can be varied based on taste, high-
end goods, and distribution methods. According to Case Exhibit 9.1, the craft beer market
only constituted 4.04% of total craft beer’s share of the U.S. beer market in 2008. Hence,
NBB has not yet penetrated the rest of the industry and is missing out on the chance to win
over more loyal customers.
 
Threat 3: High substitution rates and pressure from the market. Imports are direct
rivals, while alcoholic beverages like wines and non-alcoholic beverages like juice and water
are indirect rivals. NBB has to establish strategies to preserve market share as bigger beer
businesses enter this expanding industry.
  
Threat 4: Time-consuming and expensive advertising production costs. NBB has
promoted its goods and built brand awareness throughout the years by using a range of
diverse media. Regardless of media changes, NBB’s values and reputation have remained
consistent over the years. For example, numerous enhance reels were examined by
Amalgamated, and a large portion of the art shown had a strong visual impact through 70-
millimeter shine with high budgets. Despite that, NBB spent a high amount on advertising
when they started a number of digital and print initiatives to advertise their sustainable
policies in 2007 in order to better reach consumers.

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2.0 ASSUMPTIONS AND MISSING INFORMATION

The subject at hand seems to be centered on marketing strategies. The distribution and
marketing initiatives are still the main topics of discussion. BNN should take into account
other factors like how to raise product quality and pricing; how can customer satisfaction be
increased; and what does the client expect? For instance, marketers must understand if
consumers are more likely to reject a product when they know its price. If it can be shown
that buyers are avoiding learning more about the product because of the price, pricing may
then become the most crucial of all marketing choices. Furthermore, NBB may correctly and
convincingly communicate the advantages of a product by understanding customer demand.
 
On the other hand, the case study explained that when a business expands as
quickly as NBB, there is a tendency to avoid messing with what is working. In addition, the
Case Exhibit 9.1 has shown the market share of craft beer in the United States while leaving
out details on the most popular beverage there. Hence, the case study should include the
most popular beverages as well as the other drinks that are most popular in the United
States market. They must make it clear how the company’s culture, marketing plan, and
choice of beers are all linked.

3.0 STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS

The case study shows that improving NBB’s marketing strategies is difficult. In addition to
project an image of a fun and innovative company, they have put a lot of emphasis on being
a more “social” and “sustainable” business. As a company, NBB is highly active on social
media and enjoys advertising to its clients about how hard they are trying to be
environmentally friendly. So that they could learn more about what their customers want,
they even did a survey. The results indicated that 39% of their customers care more about
sustainability and they would go above and beyond to support those sustainable companies.

Despite that, NBB made a lot of efforts to uphold their principles and had a solid
strategy to be socially responsible, yet they fell victim to their own assertions. The credibility
of NBB’s environmentally responsible activities and message is strong since they have
prioritised sustainable business practices. Like other sustainable businesses, NBB has a

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difficult time to persuade the public that the claims are true and is partly because of the
public is often exposed to false claims made by businesses trying to look green.

The consumer will still have a negative impression of it. Given that 39% of their
consumers said they cared about the firm being environmentally friendly, some might
assume that lying to customers in order to make the company seem better would be very
damaging to their reputation. NBB may need to take a bit more initiative and do more
follow-up.

Lastly, NBB is expanding into new areas while maintaining its reputation for craft
beer. According to the case study, a lot of effort has been put forward to uphold the
company’s principles. Their marketing plan received the same amount of consideration as
their originality and the quality of their beer. A well-thought-out approach resulted in the
construction of a brand manifesto that expounded on the qualities, potential, and cultural
relevance of the brand. For instance, they had a TV commercial that they published, but it
was not their preferred way to sell their goods. They mainly concentrated on having a
strong online presence on social media, where they offered entertaining and advertising
videos or details about brand-new events and goods. It may not successfully meet the
marketing objective like other competitors, such as Anheuser-Bush, Coors, and Miller, the
“Big Three” brewers, who have long dominated American mainstream broadcast beer TV
advertising. 

4.0 DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVES

The New Belgium Brewing Company stayed with its original Grass Roots marketing approach
for a long time. The New Belgium Brewery did an excellent job of using word of mouth to
promote its brand. Travelling to other locations, specifically beer festivals, was a major
advertising strategy. The business ramped up its presence at brew fests and began
advertising in newspapers. New Belgium Brewery advertised and grew its brand identity
through a wide variety of media, but it was important to the company that its underlying
values never changed. This article aims to provide New Belgium Brewery with some viable
options for future marketing campaigns that are consistent with the company's basic beliefs
and the integrity of its brand.

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 New Belgium Brewery advertised and grew its brand identity through a wide variety
of media, but it was important to the company that its underlying values never changed.
The corporation was unable to give up its grassroots marketing strategy. The corporation
attempted to maintain the brand's identity and attract new customers through the
participation of dedicated fans at festivals and breweries. They simply used television and
other media to spread the word. The company's objective is to maintain its current
reputation among eco-friendly, fun-loving consumers. The company has grown considerably
since its inception in 1991, but its guiding principles remain the same. The demand for craft
beer is on the rise, but there are still challenges that New Belgium Brewery must face if it
wants to become a market leader. One of NBB's current problems is that few people outside
New York and New Jersey know about its beer. NBB needs to promote its brand to
customers in multiple regions while keeping it consistent across markets and not losing its
core clientele.

4.1 Green Market Partnerships

One approach is to establish partnerships with distributors that encourage sustainability,
such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. This option entails the establishment of partnerships.
The patrons of these distributors already support organizations that are conscious of their
impact on society and the environment, which is a key benefit of this alternative. From the
beginning, NBB has strived to create a sustainable company. A survey of beer drinkers
revealed that 39% of those polled would prefer businesses that prioritize environmental
responsibility over their rivals. In addition, additional research revealed that sixty million
customers are willing to support businesses that emphasize their environmentally
responsible activities. Since the companies that could form partnerships with NBB operate in
the green market, it is reasonable to assume that they will adhere to most of the same
sustainable core values as NBB.

4.2 Advertising on New Media

This approach would broaden the use of media such as social networking sites as the
preferred channel for advertising. This tactic uses websites for social media that are gaining
in popularity, such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. In addition, NBB is going to keep
working on the development of its user-friendly website, followyourfolly.com. The primary
benefit of selecting this course of action is that its value will not be diminished. NBB can
communicate with a younger demographic that is receptive to its concepts. Introducing the
NBB brand to new people interested in purchasing it is the objective of this option. This

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evaluates how well a plan is at winning over new customers and establishing NBB as an
extraordinary brand of craft brews.

To sum up, we believe that the most effective way to promote New Belgium Brewing
Company's core values while increasing brand awareness with minimal investment of capital
would be to implement a more robust social media presence, followed by grassroots
initiatives in strategic geographic areas to increase market share in the targeted segment.
Because of its low cost and simple implementation, social media is a viable choice to keep
and increase its incorporation into the marketing strategy. This option doesn't deviate too
much from the social media component of the present marketing approach, but it has the
potential to reach more people and raise more brand recognition in more places.
Partnerships in green business development are kept alive to help sustain product
distribution to dedicated customers.

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5.0 EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Since the establishment of New Belgium Brewing (NBB) Company, it always focused and
committed to its initial core values and beliefs which are to remain socially and
environmentally sustainable, continuously produce and maintain the quality of the beers,
and at the same time remained fun throughout the whole journey. Based on the case study,
it can be evaluated that NBB has great marketing strategies ranging from traditional
methods to modern methods. At the beginning of the business, the most influential
marketing strategies that they practiced are word-of-mouth strategy, traveling to beer
festivals, handing out free samples, barstool to barstool, and introducing a Ranger team that
acts as brand stewards throughout the US distribution network. Since the year of 1996, NBB
more focused and looking forward to a more formalized and systematic approach to its
business strategy. Hence, they hired more professional people with the help to develop
more innovative, modern strategies to increase the awareness of the brand and the
reputation of the company based on their wisdom and specialty. For instance, Douglas Holt,
who majoring in branding has developed 70 pages of a brand manifesto document.
Secondly, collaborated with Amalgamated Inc, a young upstart advertising agency to
promote the brand’s cultural contributions and messaging components. Thirdly, Jake Scott
has been hired as the director of NBB ‘Tinkerer’ commercials and he decides on choosing
Charles Srbecky to play Tinkerer.

Evaluation of Green Market Partnerships

Today, in the context of the economic market, the term sustainability can be related to the
concept of green market partnerships as the right partnership. Green market partnerships
can be considered an effective approach because being environmentally sustainable not
necessarily can be defined based on the technology used, the modification of existing
products, or the creation of new green products that will directly impact the environment
but also in terms of communication, marketing, and partnership strategies. For instance,
entrepreneurs that practice green market partnerships can potentially help them to boost

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the profitability of both organizations, increase brand loyalty, as well as increase investment
opportunities. Based on the suggested alternative, NBB should establish strategic alliances
that are able to support and share common goals. A strategic alliance is formed when two
parties offer complementary skills or resources and, by joining forces, both stand to benefit
from one another's expertise (Mendleson & Polonsky, 1995). Hence, by being a partner with
Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s the famous grocery stores, NBB is able to access new markets
other than the beer festivals, and increase consumers reliability as well as wider the NBB
customer base because grocery stores are the places that easily approach to different
generations of people.

Evaluation of Advertising on New Media

The method of advertising on New Media such as social media is undoubtedly convenient,
increases the accessibility to the global market, and reduces marketing costs. Although an
article published by Qalati et al., (2021) stated that the adoption of social media marketing
strategies is encouraged to be implemented by small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
because of their minimal cost, technical manageability and usability, and capacity to connect
with and reach a wide range of customers all around the world, this can also be
implemented under NBB company. This reason was that across the years, social media has
established itself as a unique and crucial part of the marketing strategy in determining the
success of any goods, services, brands, or business which led the investment in social
advertising in the United States’s economic market to rise (Ali Abbasi et al., 2022).
Furthermore, in accordance with the concept of green market partnerships, social media
hereby can be defined as green marketing. Green marketing is described as all the
marketing activities that aim to be responsive toward protecting the environment
(Arseculeratne & Yazdanifard, 2013). With the presence of social media, it encourages the
business to be paperless which is able to save the environment. In short, today there are
many latest forms of social media, NBB companies can consider social media such as
TikTok, or reels to create more interactive videos for their customers.

Recommendations 1: Ensuring transparency with customers

In business, the term “sustainability” is simply defined as the ability to maintain a level of
activity at a particular rate or level of time for a longer term, and under this sustainability
employs three pillars: social, environmental, and economic which are interchangeably
(Purvis et al., 2019). From the NBB case study, it can be seen how NBB taking a proactive
method to sustain their business socially and environmentally. However, it would be

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recommended that the NBB company should provide a sustainability report which can
provide transparency to all the shareholders, employees, investors, and the public. Providing
a sustainability report able to provide benefits to the company such as enhancing the
reputation of the company, gaining a competitive advantage, improving transparency,
enabling comparison with competitors, and supporting employees in recognizing the
company’s sustainable development activities (Buallay, 2019). Moreover, when the
transparency of the company is well-defined, it increases the trustworthiness of the
customers, the employees will be more likely to engage and commit to the company and
increase the number of investors that are willing to invest in the company.

Recommendations 2: Create more engaging social responsibility events

Conducting and participating in a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) event proved to be

beneficial to the companies and communities (Księżak, 2017). NBB company has
participated in more CSR events with the bikers community. Bikes have been playing an
important role in NBB company. For instance, CSR events are bicycle repair classes, bicycle
riding opportunities, bicycle summer camps, and others. Other than CSR related to bicycles,
NBB is recommended to add on some activities with the communities during the traveling
period with bikes. For instance, the bikers could do some live interview sessions or videos
using social media with the communities despite uploading only pictures on social media.
Direct interaction or two ways of communicating with the local communities can increase
brand awareness towards them and bring togetherness within each other.

In a nutshell, overall the NBB company is implementing a great strategy for

promoting the brand culture to the communities using social media, improving the beer’s
quality using a sustainable method, and modernizing the management of the business.
However, it would be glad that if the NBB company can maintain the annual report
preparation yearly so that the top management of NBB can forecast the possible outcome in
the future, and the public can read through the history of NBB company.

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6.0 IMPLEMENTATION
When New Belgium operations management the team started looking closely at its
bottling line and measuring cases produced based on the equipment's capabilities,
they realized that the existing line was capable of producing 294,000 cases per
week, but in reality was only producing 150,000 cases per week. After completing an
audit of its production line and data obtained from system operations, New Belgium
determined that valuable packaging time was lost during scheduled and unscheduled
downtime. Its old manual data recording process, which involved managing paper
production logs and spreadsheets, was insufficient to keep up with the level of
bottling production New Belgium needed to achieve. The management team realized
it was time to take the next step in its factory automation strategy to implement a
software strategy that would improve operational efficiency, quality, compliance and
overall performance. With the implementation of AVEVA Manufacturing Execution
System Solutions, Apex enables New Belgium to use data collected by MES software
to improve Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
Enables New Belgium to Act Faster to Unscheduled Downtime
Unscheduled downtime means a loss in production time and a loss in profit. The
Manufacturing Execution System from AVEVA is the catalyst that allows New Belgium
to control its operational processes. As a result, the brewery realized that it needed
to increase its maintenance staff to deal more quickly equipment repair problems.
Increasing the maintenance team by 60%, adding a process improvement and
analysis team, educating key personnel in the Kaizen process, and training others in
Six Sigma has allowed the company to respond more quickly to gaps in production
methods to drive overall process improvement. In conclusion, New Belgium Brewing
needs information and an effective way to process and evaluate that information to
benefit its entire business. MES Performance software has been delivered to them
expectations by effectively increasing New Belgium Brewing's OEE.
Enhanced Visibility Brings Higher Production Capacity

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Breweries' existing systems provide large amounts of data, but without context. New
Belgium's management team needed a way to effectively collect and analyze that
data to turn it into actionable information. With greater visibility and a real
understanding of actual production capacity for predictable order fulfillment, New
Belgium can maintain its production and sales targets. Management can also
effectively reduce production costs, while at the same time improving overall product
quality. By identifying the source and quantity of scheduled downtime as well as
unscheduled downtime events, New Belgium can accurately track, record and
address bottling performance. In addition, operators can maintain an accurate
packaging production schedule, and effectively manage the supply chain of materials
required during the packaging process such as bottle and can sizes, labels that
match each type of beverage, as well as special order requirements. The software
also provides a smoother transition between shift changes by allowing new shifts to
easily see what happened during the previous shift, which helps them identify
potential issues that staff need to address.

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7.0 EVALUATION AND CONTROL
Green Market Partnerships
This alternative involves establishing partnerships with distributors that promote
sustainability, such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. The advantage of this option is
that the distributor's customers are already supporting socially and environmentally
responsible businesses. NBB thrived to be a truly sustainable brand from the ground up.
39% of beer consumers surveyed stated that they would choose a company that
practices sustainability over their competitors. Furthermore, other studies suggest that 60
million consumers support companies that emphasize their sustainable practices.

Advertising on New Media

This alternative would expand the use of media such as social networking sites as the
preferred advertising channel. This strategy uses increasingly popular social media sites
such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. In addition, NBB will continue to develop the
interactive site followyourfolly.com. The advantage of this option is that the core value will
remain illiquid. NBB can reach a younger audience that resonates with its ideas.

Advertising in Traditional Media

This alternative would focus new marketing efforts on television advertising, print media,
and radio broadcasts. The advantage of this strategy is its wide reach, expose the NBB
brand to a large population of potential customers.

Target Local Users / Grassroots Business

Grassroots efforts have brought NBB success in the past. This alternative supports
increased use of this strategy. Ranger team members will set up closer suit local
businesses and customers in new territories. NBB will also sponsor event in this new
expanded territory. The advantage of this alternative is the staff of the ranger team are
already trained as brand managers and are very effective at relationship marketing.

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Establishing a Brewery Restaurant

This expansion approach will create NBB brewery restaurants in convenient locations.
The advantage of this strategy is to have an establishment with a unique fun decor that
appeals to NBB's core customer base. Having a brick and mortar restaurant can also
help reach new local consumers. A successful restaurant can promote brand awareness
as a local focal point that attracts new customers and tourists.

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REFERENCES

Ali Abbasi, G., Abdul Rahim, N. F., Wu, H., Iranmanesh, M., & Keong, B. N. C. (2022).
Determinants of SME’s Social Media Marketing Adoption: Competitive Industry as a
Moderator. SAGE Open, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211067220
Arseculeratne, D., & Yazdanifard, R. (2013). How Green Marketing Can Create a Sustainable
Competitive Advantage for a Business. International Business Research, 7(1), 130–
137. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v7n1p130
Buallay, A. (2019). Between cost and value: Investigating the effects of sustainability
reporting on a firm’s performance. Journal of Applied Accounting Research, 20(4),
481–496. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAAR-12-2017-0137
Księżak, P. (2017). The Benefits from CSR for a Company and Society. Journal of Corporate
Responsibility and Leadership, 3(4), 53. https://doi.org/10.12775/jcrl.2016.023
Mendleson, N., & Polonsky, M. J. (1995). Using strategic alliances to develop credible green
marketing. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 12(2), 4–18.
https://doi.org/10.1108/07363769510084867
Purvis, B., Mao, Y., & Robinson, D. (2019). Three pillars of sustainability: in search of
conceptual origins. Sustainability Science, 14(3), 681–695.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0627-5
Qalati, S. A., Yuan, L. W., Khan, M. A. S., & Anwar, F. (2021). A mediated model on the
adoption of social media and SMEs’ performance in developing countries. Technology
in Society, 64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101513

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