Frank the Tank, Mortimer Lovejoy Jr., Brock Lee and Bumpy Knuckles. These are just a few of the more than 65 characters from a universe created by Portland, Oregon’s Great Notion Brewing.
Great Notion is anything but typical when it comes to its marketing strategy. The brewery has an interactive app, an iOS video game, and an entire cast of characters used to promote its beers. It’s all part of the brewery’s tech-focused business strategy that co-founders James Dugan, Andy Miller and Paul Reiter hope will refresh the sometimes “unfriendly” beer industry.
“We keep beer fun,” Reiter told Brewbound. “In the styles of beer we brew, the way you purchase it from us and in the way we engage. I mean, what other brewery has a video game?”
The leading feature of Great Notion, however, is its direct-to-consumer (DTC) shipping platform. About 90% of Great Notion’s sales are DTC, available in Oregon, Washington, New Hampshire, Vermont, Kentucky, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Nebraska, Virginia, Alaska and Washington, D.C. The other 10% come from marketing events, Reiter said. The brewery was previously shipping to Nevada, but had to halt operations when the state discontinued DTC alcohol shipping in July.
Starting today (November 1), Great Notion added shipping throughout the state of California, with the creation of a fulfillment center in Sacramento. The brewery also partnered with DoorDash earlier this year, allowing it to expand delivery to consumers in Portland, Seattle and Sacramento within a 10-mile radius of any Great Notion taproom.
“I feel we’re pretty forward, ahead of the curve with shipping,” Reiter said. “And that’s the whole point of the app too is to keep our relationship direct with our customers and be able to ship direct to them.”
The brewery averages nearly 900 shipments a month. Reiter said shipments and sales in California have the potential to make up one-third of the brewery’s overall business. Production-wise, Great Notion is on track to produce 12,000 barrels in 2021, up from 7,200 in 2020 and 1,500 in 2019, Reiter said.
Each order of Great Notion — which can be placed through the brewery’s app — is packed with the intention of being both an experience and a marketing tool.
“We wanted it to look like a Tiffany’s engagement ring box or like the first iPad you ever bought. Opening that up, we wanted that unboxing experience,” Reiter said. “And it costs us a lot more, but we want it to be like Instagrammable. We want it to be badass and for people to share it online.”
A core characteristic of Great Notion’s marketing strategy is a focus on incentivizing consumer actions. Hence the creation of the Great Notion app in 2020.
Consumers who download the app are inducted into the “Timder Crew” — a kind of club in which consumers can grow in rank from a Greenhorn to a Timderbeast. They can raise their rank by earnings points and badges by checking in at Great Notion taprooms, or ordering beer. Amassing points also gives consumers access to special discount codes, early access to beer drops, and even free merch.
The app launched in April 2020 — right after the first shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic — and now has nearly 80,000 downloads. Reiter said he has a goal of reaching 100,000 downloads by the end of the year.
Beyond Great Notions’ virtual presence, the brewery operates five taprooms throughout Portland and Seattle. Reiter said the company tries to create a taproom experience that is as fun and interactive as the app, from the design of the menu QR codes, to the variety of beers it offers.
This year, the brewery started making smoothie-style sours made with nearly 50% fruit, which Reiter said “fly off the app super fast.” While he said the brewery doesn’t really believe in flagships and instead constantly creates new options, it does have popular brews, such as its Blueberry Muffin fruited sour and Ripe IPA. He roughly estimated about 40% of Great Notion’s production is dedicated to fruited sours, equalled by IPAs (40%), and followed by lagers and stouts (each 10%).
“It’s what we’ve always done to keep it interesting and keep people coming back for new flavors,” Reiter said. “You’ll have a flight of beers and one might be bright blue, one is the brightest fire-engine red you’ve ever seen, and then you’ve got a super cute hazy right next to it.
“Our core values are quality, creativity and family,” he continued. “And really treating our employees actually like family and then they’re super happy and love what they do, so therefore they treat their customers really, really well.”
In September the brewery struck a multi-year partnership agreement with the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, allowing the brewery’s Ripe IPA to be sold at the Moda Center.
“They’re frequently known as the most tech-savvy or tech-forward basketball brand, and we think of ourselves as the most tech-forward-like beer brand,” Reiter said. “So I think there’s a cool symbiotic relationship.”
Reiter teased the possibility of future “augmented reality player characters” who will be added to the Great Notion universe as part of the partnership.
Going into 2022, Great Notion plans to continue its DTC expansion — which will be reliant on state shipping laws. Reiter said the brewery also hopes to open more on-premise spaces, in major cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego, and eastern Seattle.