Wow, what happened to the summer? Summer is unofficially over with Labor Day and the start of the NFL season but, here at Luxco, we know summer is over when we start finalizing our marketing plans for the following year! In order to develop impactful future plans, we have to understand what worked for our brands this past year, and for us, that has been social media.

One can read multiple articles about the impact of social media and its importance to your brand. Quite honestly, if you don’t have a social media strategy and approach, your brand is non-existent with today’s millennial. But, what I find is that many brands’ social strategy is flawed because they are directly marketing to their consumer. Wait, aren’t we supposed to market to our consumer? Yes, but realize it is a two-way conversation, and if consumers feel like they are being spoken to and not with, they will block you. Our strategy has been about making a connection with our fans through engaging content and a sincere approach. Not all brands can do this, but Pearl and Everclear have been successful in different ways.

With Pearl, we engaged with our audience by tapping into one of their passion points – travel. And, by having a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Bora Bora, it was inherently buzz worthy and engaging. I don’t necessarily go on Facebook “likes,” but they jumped significantly (look at the Pearl article to see). More importantly, our fans have stayed even after the promotion because we are creating content relevant to their lifestyle. With Everclear, we tied into our target through their culinary passions, specifically craft spirit making. While still very early, we are getting a terrific response rate to our posts, consumers are engaging with our brand at a different level and responses have been overwhelmingly positive.

Both successes are due to the fact we are engaging with, not at, our consumers. We are still very early in the preseason of our brand support, but as we develop our game plan and then share it with you, our trade partners, we are sure to see continued success with Luxco brands in 2015!

Cheers,
Steve Einig,
Chief Marketing Officer
Feedback? Email your thoughts to
s.einig@luxco.com.