A Marketing and Tourism Partnership with the Triad Brewing Industry
Team Members
- Stuart Barnhart, President, Triad Brewers Alliance, Owner, Fiddlin’ Fish
- Tim Bucknall, Associate Professor, Assistant Dean, Electronic Resources and
Information Technology in the University Libraries, UNCG - Erick Byrd, Associate Professor, Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality, and Tourism, UNCG
- Richard Cox, Digital Technology Consultant, University Libraries, UNCG
- David Gwynn, Associate Professor, Digital Projects Coordinator, University Libraries, UNCG
- Erin Lawrimore, Associate Professor, University Archivist, University Libraries, UNCG
- Joel McClosky, President, Triad Brewers Alliance
- John R. Szymankiewicz, Attorney, The Beer Law Center in Raleigh, Associate member, TBA
Abstract
The craft brewery industry in North Carolina has an annual economic impact of $2.18 billion and provides over 12,000 jobs. Breweries often serve as a catalyst for revitalization and community development, but they are also small businesses operated by individual entrepreneurs. Collaboration within the industry is common, but collaboration on regional tourism marketing is not. Well Crafted NC began in Fall 2017 and now contains oral history interviews and archival records from over 23 North Carolina breweries. The Well Crafted NC team has collaborated with the North Carolina Craft Brewers Guild on developing educational outreach activities for their members and for the general public. A partnership with North Carolina chapters of the Pink Boots Society, an organization dedicated to providing education and training for women in the beer industry, led to a series of oral history interviews with women brewers and brewery owners as well as an exhibit at the group’s annual Biere de Femme beer festival. Over the past 12 years the Bryan School of Business and Economics has been researching and working with the craft beverage industry (wine, beer, spirits), primarily assisting the wine industry with business related research and projects. To date the Bryan School has completed 19 projects for the NC wine and grape industry including; marketing plans, strategic plans, and tourism visitor studies.
With this project, the team brings these two initiatives together with the professional expertise of the Triad Brewers Alliance and its members in order to preserve their history, develop their stories, and build a regional marketing plan promoting the Triad as a craft beer destination based on those stories. This will result in a partnership that will successfully build a shared history for Triad beer and use that shared history to promote a distinct identity. This distinct identity will provide the TBA with a roadmap for reaching its stated goal of promoting the Triad as a destination location for craft beer tourists.
