Craftwashing in the U.S. Beer Industry

Abstract

(1) Background: Big brewers, which have experienced declining sales for their beer brands in the last decade, have been accused of "craftwashing" by some craft brewers and their aficionados-they define craftwashing as big brewers (>6 million barrels per year) taking advantage of the increasing sales of craft beer by emulating these products or by acquiring craft breweries, while also obscuring their ownership from consumers; (2) Methods: To estimate the prevalence of these practices, the ownership of U.S. mainstream and craft beer brands was decoded and visualized. In addition, an exploratory case study analyzed how these ownership relations are represented in the craft sections of selected retailers (n = 16) in the Lansing, Michigan metropolitan area; (3) Results: By October 2017 in the U.S., all but one big brewer had either acquired a craft brewery, or formed a distribution alliance with one-without disclosing these relationships on the packaging. In the study area, 30% of 4-and 6-pack facings recorded in craft beer sections (n = 1145) had ownership ties to big brewers; (4) Conclusions: Craftwashing is common in the U.S. beer industry, and this suggests consumers must exert substantial effort to become aware of their own role in reinforcing these practices.

Is “Localness” about Distance or Relationships? Evidence from Hard Cider

“…Where other studies have highlighted the ways craft beverage producers preserve local heritage and repurpose local folklore (Feeney, 2017), our results suggest that this marketing strategy is likely to pay off for producers. This is also consistent with the business strategies pursued during the mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. craft beer industry, as large producers are unwilling to sacrifice the attachment value that would be forfeited if a brewery's acquisition were to be common knowledge (Howard, 2017;Malone and Lusk, 2019). While this research contributes to the understanding of complex consumer perceptions of local, future work should apply precise distance measures to analyze the effect of travel distance on consumers' perceptions of other local foods.…”

The geographies of the institutional and industrial constraints on the financialization of German brewing

“…Attracted by higher profit margins, brewing groups have been quick to respond. Described as ‘craftwashing’, global brewing groups are attempting to capture market share by developing their own faux ‘crafty’ beers, as well as through acquiring successful craft brands and breweries (Howard, 2018: 2). This has sparked a ‘craft versus crafty’ debate, wherein global brewing groups are attempting to ‘blur the lines’ between mainstream and craft brewing through deceptive branding practices that obscure the true geographies of ownership and production (Tuttle, 2012).…”

A study on the popularity of handmade products among consumers

“…Currently, consumers prefermore and moretraditional and manually produced goodies, so manufacturers increasingly apply conventional technologies and sell their products as handicrafts. Howard called this phenomenon "craftwashing" [11]; industrial firms use deceptive marketing practices in the food and beverage sector to attract more consumers and increase their sales by "naming" their new products as hand-crafts. Oftentimes, we can see that the "hand-crafted" is only a "crafty-marketing" [12].…”