Build a Marketing Plan or a Business Plan for a Beverage Company

Whether you're a seasoned beverage industry professional or an entrepreneur with an idea for a beverage company you will need a business plan or a marketing plan for the advancement of your go to market strategy.

The distinct differences of the two are, mainly:
-Business plans are for banks, lenders, and borrowing money.
-Marketing plans are for suppliers, retailers, and making more money.

These plans are also fundamentally different, in that:
-Business plans should be based on factual data that embody your entire business architecture or conception yielding precise information about your company or proposition.
-Marketing plans should pertain to certain areas of focus of an existing brand or package, new product agreements and rollouts, and new ideas to help secure business alliances.

But, they both contain similar and essential components:
1.Pre-planning...information and fact gathering time.
2.You, your skills, and your company...remember you are selling yourself.
3.Historical data...anything pertinent to past performance.
4.Sales figures, projections, and trends...everyone wants to know what you've done, what you think you are going to do, and how you think you're going to do it.
4.Geographics...know the territory and the accounts inside and out.
5.Competition...the more you know about them the better.
6.Demographics...what the population looks like in detail.
7.Estimates...tell them how much money you are going to make them.
8.Responsibilities...who is charge of what.
9.Organizational...job titles and functions.
10.Funds...everyone is all about cash flow.
11.References...throw some names around.

Now you know the difference about beverage company business plans and beverage company marketing plans.

I've been getting many emails about starting new beverage companies and beer distributors lately, so I wrote down some new ideas about business plans for some of you budding beverage entrepreneurs out there. I've helped a few guys and gals get started in the beverage business, so if you want to pick my brain feel free to send me an email.

If you need some business plan and marketing plan examples about starting your own beverage business, please take a look at the Total Beverage Package.

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Whew...What a Summer.

The dog days are upon us. I've been so busy I haven't had time to post much. There are so many new brands and products flooding the beverage market that I really don't know which ones will miss and which ones will hit. I haven't added any new brands recently because of the opportunities I'm missing with the brands I have. I am planning an all out distribution-space war with the competition in August, just to get some new packages on the shelf.

Heard at all the malt beverage conventions this summer: "space is running out, buyers are hiding from me, employees are saying they don't get paid enough, prices are going up, diesel is killing me, excise taxes are due, I'm ready to get out".

I'm thinking about buying one of those new .me domain names. How does distribute.me sound. Or beverage.me, beer.me, drink.me, sell.me. Anyway, they just started selling them at GoDaddy if you want to get a great name since all the .com's seem to be taken. Let me know if you come up with any good ones.

Do we still have a major brewery that is American owned anymore? The answer is no. What if the Yankees were owned by the French or the Cowboys were owned by a group from Asia. How about Ford and GM to the Swiss. Coke and Pepsi to Saudi Arabia. My advice if you are confused on which beer to purchase...drink Shiner because I love Carlos and he sings very well.

Adios, mi amigos.

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Protecting Your New Beverage Company Idea

I love to think of new beverage company ideas daily. I have developed hundreds of new beverages and drinks...in my mind of course. When starting your own beverage company you must first think of protecting your trademarks and intellectual property. I was fascinated to learn of an upcoming live chat sponsored by Bevnet.com entitled "Learn to Protect Your Beverage through Trademarks." It is being hosted by Gregg Sultan, a trademarks attorney and columnist for Bevnet Innovations, on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. EST.

Sultan is an associate at Dreier Stein Kahan Browne Woods George LLP. and has strong experience in the trademarks field. He recently contributed a piece to Bevnet Innovation on the process of selecting, clearing and protecting trademarks for beverage names. You can view this story here.

You can sign up for the live web chat with Gregg Sultan here.

Protecting your trademark is one of the ultimate responsibilities of anyone in the process of designing or starting to develop your own energy drink, soft drink, beer or alcohol drink, isotonic, tea, or juice drink. Personally, I can't wait to listen in on the presentation.

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Alcohol Content, Calories, and Carbs in Beer

I get asked the following questions a hundred times a day:

"How much alcohol is in my beer?"
"What is the alcohol content of different beers?"
"How many calories are in beer?"
"How many carbs do I have in my beer?"

I usually answer, "Who cares....doesn't it taste good, don't you enjoy it, don't you have more important things to worry about? But today I will give you the correct answer to your questions about the alcohol content in different beers, the calories in these beers, and the total carbs for each beer.

There are some very nice tables on the internet you can use. My two favorites are found at RealBeer.com and Beer100.com. These tables list different beers, the alcohol content, the calories in each beer, and the carbs for the beers. The following example chart is from Beer100.com :

Brand	Brewery	% Alcohol	Calories/12 oz	Carbs
Anchor Porter	Anchor	5.6	209	*
Anchor Steam	Anchor	4.9	153	16.0
Anheuser Busch Natural Light	Anheuser Busch	4.2	95	3.2
Anheuser Busch Natural Ice	Anheuser Busch	5.9	157	8.9
Aspen Edge	Adolph Coors	4.1	94	2.6
Blatz Beer	Pabst	4.8	153	12.5
Blatz Light	Pabst	*	*	8.5
Blue Moon	Adolph Coors	5.4	171	13.7
Bud Dry	Anheuser Busch	5.0	130	7.8
Bud Ice	Anheuser Busch	5.5	148	8.9
Bud Ice Light	Anheuser Busch	4.1	110	6.5
Bud Light	Anheuser Busch	4.2	110	6.6
Budweiser	Anheuser Busch	5.0	145	10.6
Budweiser Select	Anheuser Busch	4.3	99	3.1
Busch Beer	Anheuser Busch	4.6	133	10.2
Busch Ice	Anheuser Busch	5.9	169	12.5
Busch Light	Anheuser Busch	4.2	110	6.7
Carling Black Label	G. Heileman	4.3	138	12.5
Colt 45 Malt Liquor	G. Heileman	6.1	174	11.1
Coors Banquet Beer	Adolph Coors	5.0	142	10.6
Coors Light	Adolph Coors	4.2	102	5.0
Genesee Beer	High Falls Brewing	4.5	148	13.5
Genesee Cream Ale	High Falls Brewing	5.1	162	15.0
Genesee Ice	High Falls Brewing	5.9	156	14.5
Genesee Red	High Falls Brewing	4.9	148	14.0
George Killian's Irish Red	Adolph Coors	4.9	163	13.8
Icehouse	Miller	5	132	8.7
Icehouse	Miller	5.5	149	9.8
Hamm's Beer	Miller	4.7	144	12.1
Hamm's Golden Draft	Miller	4.7	144	12.1
Hamm's Special Light	Miller	4.1	110	7.3
Keystone Premium	Adolph Coors	4.4	108	5.0
Keystone Light	Adolph Coors	4.2	104	5.1
Keystone Ice	Adolph Coors	5.9	143	6.6
Leinenkugel Honey Weiss	Leinenkugel	4.92	149	12.0
Leinenkugel Northwoods Lager	Leinenkugel	4.94	163	15.3
Leinenkugel Original	Leinenkugel	4.67	152	13.9
Leinenkugel Creamy Dark	Leinenkugel	4.94	170	16.8
Leinenkugel Red	Leinenkugel	4.94	166	16.2
Leinenkugel Light	Leinenkugel	4.19	105	5.7
Leinenkugel Amber Light	Leinenkugel	4.14	110	7.4
Lowenbrau Dark		5.0	160
Lowenbrau Special Beer		5.2	160
Magnum Malt Liquor	Miller	5.6	157	11.2
Michael Shea's	High Falls Brewing	4.62	145	13.0
Michelob Amber Boch	Anheuser Busch	5.2	166	15.0
Michelob Beer	Anheuser Busch	5.0	155	13.3
Michelob Golden Draft	Anheuser Busch	4.7	152	14.1
Michelob Golden Draft Light	Anheuser Busch	4.1	110	7.0
Michelob Honey Lager	Anheuser Busch	4.9	175	17.9
Michelob Light	Anheuser Busch	4.3	113	6.7
Michelob Ultra	Anheuser Busch	4.1	95	2.6
Mickey's Fine Malt Liquor	Miller	5.6	157	11.2
Miller Genuine Draft	Miller	4.7	143	13.1
Miller Genuine Draft Light	Miller	4.2	110	7
Miller High Life	Miller	4.7	143	13.1
Miller High Life Light	Miller	4.2	110	7
Miller Lite	Miller	4.2	96	3.2
Milwaukee's Best	Miller	4.5	128	11.4
Milwaukee's Best Light	Miller	4.5	98	3.5
Milwaukee's Best Ice	Miller	5.9	144	7.3
O'Doul's	Anheuser Busch	0.4	70	13.3
Old Milwaukee Light	Stroh	3.8	114	8.3
Old Milwaukee Beer	Stroh	4.5	146	12.9
Olde English 800 Malt Liquor	Miller	5.9	160	10.5
Olympia Premium Lager	Pabst	4.7	146	11.9
Pabst Blue Ribbon	Pabst	5.0	153	12.01
Pabst Extra Light Low Alcohol	Pabst	2.5	67	*
Pete's Wicked Ale		5.3	174	17.7
Red Hook ESB	Red Hook	5.77	179	14.15
Red Hook IPA	Red Hook	6.5	188	12.66
Rolling Rock Extra Pale	Latrobe	4.6	142
Rolling Rock Premium Beer	Latrobe	4.5	120	10.0
Sam Adams Boston Lager	Boston Beer	4.75	160	18.0
Sam Adams Boston Ale	Boston Beer	4.94	160	19.9
Sam Adams Cherry Wheat	Boston Beer	5.2	166	16.86
Sam Adams Cream Stout	Boston Beer	4.69	195	23.94
Sam Adams IPA	Boston Beer	5.93	175
Sam Adams Light	Boston Beer		124	9.7
Sam Adams Pale Ale	Boston Beer	5.25	145
Schaefer Beer	Pabst	4.6	142	12.00
Schlitz Beer	Pabst	4.7	146	12.1
Schlitz Light	Pabst	4.2	110	*
Schlitz Malt Liquor	Pabst	6.2	185	*
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale	Sierra Nevada	5.6	200	12.3
Sierra Nevada Porter	Sierra Nevada	5.6	200	15.7
Sierra Nevada Stout	Sierra Nevada	5.8	210	19.4
Signature Stroh Beer	Pabst	4.8	153	*
Stroh's Beer	Pabst	4.6	149	12.0
Stroh's Light	Pabst	4.4	113	7
Tuborg Deluxe Dark Export	G. Heileman	5.1	163
Tuborg Export Quality	G. Heileman	5.0	156
Weinhard's Private Reserve	Miller	4.8	150	9.9
Weinhard's Amber Light	Miller	4.2	135	11.5
Weinhard's Hefeweizen	Miller	4.9	151	12.2
Weinhard's Blonde Lager	Miller	5.1	161	14.0
Weinhard's Pale Ale	Miller	4.6	147	13
Yuengling Ale	D.G. Yuengilng	5.0	145	10
Yuengling Porter	D.G. Yuengilng	4.5	150	14
Yuengling Premium Beer	D.G. Yuengling	4.4	135	12
Yuengling Light	D.G. Yuengling	3.8	98	6.6
Yuengling Lager	D.G. Yuengling	4.4	135	12

Do you like to make your own beer? Click here to gain access to 641 Home Brewing Recipes.

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Freight Allowances and Fuel Surcharges for Beverage Distributors

Freight Allowance or Fuel Surcharge? I find these terms going through my head twenty-four hours a day. A freight allowance is usually passed down to beverage distributors from their suppliers to alleviate the financial burden of high freight rates. Freight Allowances are also used to equalize FOB’s for beverage distributors located long distances from where the products are produced and shipped. A fuel surcharge is an incremental charge added to the total invoice from a beverage distributor to a retail establishment. If your company is not receiving freight allowances or passing on a fuel surcharge to your customers, you need to ask yourself some serious questions.

Freight Allowances

Many beverage distributors receive freight allowances from their suppliers. If you are not receiving them, you need to demand an allowance from your suppliers. I have heard and seen instances of beverage distributors in California, Texas, and Florida receiving substantial freight allowances from many well-known suppliers. If your suppliers are doing this for one distributor, they should be doing it for all.

Fuel Surcharges

Some distributors, including myself, have added $1.00 and $2.00 fuel surcharges to retail invoices. There has been some backlash from the suppliers and major chains, but overall many retailers have come to expect a fuel surcharge. I am considering changing my surcharge to a percentage of the total invoice. It will probably be 2% to 2.5% of the total invoice cost.

With rising diesel and gasoline costs to beverage distributors, make sure you start asking for freight allowances and adding fuel surcharges now. Fuel for our trucks will never be cheaper than it is now. And that causes many sleepless nights for me.

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Struggling with Convenience Store Cooler Box Sets?

Why do we lose sleep over cooler resets? How come my company never gets enough cooler space? Will there ever be a time when I can expect fair market share in a beverage cooler? Space management is more important to your beverage business than anything else. When building your beverage business, building a space management plan will deliver added market share and cash flow. Some key characteristics to a good space management plan include:

1. Take time to analyze your current space in all accounts.
2. Take more time to analyze the space allocated to the competition.
3. Note the brands and packages that are selling.
4. Watch for out of stocks.
5. Definitely check code dates…they are time bombs sitting on the shelves.
6. See which packages are over spaced and under spaced.
7. Make sure there are no gaping holes in the set or underutilized space.
8. Discuss your products strengths and your competitors’ weaknesses with account decision makers.
9. Keep your space clean! Doors, shelves, products, deep well…your customers appreciate this more than you know.
10. For incremental sales, think outside the cooler. Use racks, suction cups, displays, hot shelves, ice downs, etc.
11. Refuse to lose space…find alternatives, beg, and whine. Remember in the beverage business you can go from first to worst any given day.

Your space management plan should revolve around these key characteristics. You will enjoy the benefits of increased sales from more packages on the shelves, less out of stocks, more cash flow, and a buyer impressed with your knowledge and interest in his business.

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100 Resources Needed to Start Your Own Soft Drink Beverage Company

I am compiling a checklist for aspiring beverage company distributors. Included in the checklist is everything you will need, in the form of resources, to start your own soft drink, new age, beer, or energy drink beverage distributorship:

1. Warehouse/Storage              51. Cell Phone
2. Van/Delivery Truck             52. Voice Mail
3. Uniforms             53. Route Book
4. Two Wheeler             54. Distribution Channels
5. First Aid Kit             55. Company Policy
6. Route Accounting             56. Employee Policy
7. Point of Sale             57. Fuel Supplier
8. Route Sheets             58. Electricity
9. Tape Gun             59. Gas/Water
10. Build To Lists             60. Blade Cutter
11. Pricing/Label Gun             61. Tape Strips
12. Products             62. Cleaning Supplies
13. Shelf Strips             63. Breakeven Analysis
14. Customers             64. Receiving
15. Insurance             65. Legal Ownership
16. Cash Flow             66. Organizational Chart
17. Glide Racks             67. Filing Cabinet
18. Imagination             68. Stapler
19. Patience             69. Security
20. Health             70. Inventory Controls
21. Banker             71. CMA Programs
22. Calculator             72. Discounting
23. Invoices             73. Rebate/Return Policy
24. Fork Lift             74. Promotions
25. Static Stickers             75. Damaged Product Procedure
26. Pallet Jack             76. Forecasting
27. Computer             77. Ledger
28. Suppliers             78. Petty Cash
29. Street Sheets             79. Budget
30. Presentations             80. Long Term Plan
31. Wallet Chain             81. Margins
32. Honesty             82. Laid Ins
33. Internet             83. FOB’s
34. Pen/Pencil             84. Order Staging
35. Notepad             85. UPC’s
36. Printer             86. COD or Credit Terms
37. Humor             87. Rotation
38. Mission Statement             88. OSHA Guidelines
39. Goals             89. CDL
40. Business Plan             90. Balance Sheet
41. Excel Spreadsheet             91. Franchise/Contract
42. Fire Extinguisher             92. Brand Programming
43. EDI Capabilities             93. Merchandising skills and Tools
44. Word             94. Dependability
45. Power Point             95. Versatility
46. Space Management             96. Laptop Computer
47. Enthusiasm             97. Briefcase
48. Comfortable Shoes             98. Business Cards
49. Samples             99. Back Brace
50. Dealer Loaders             100. TIME

Please let me know what I've left out!

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