Boston Beer Company Competitive Strategy

Boston Beer Company

The Boston Beer Company produces and sells various alcoholic beverages including beer. Jim Koch belonged to a family, who were passionate for brewing and he discovered his great grandfather’s recipe in the attic and that is when It began its operation in 1984. As of today, Boston Beer Company offers four different products which are diversified. Angry Orchard Hard Cider, Twisted tea, Truly Spiked & Sparkling and More than 60 styles of Samuel Adams beer. (bostonbeer.com). The Boston Beer Company had it’s IPO in 1995 and is traded on New York Stock Exchange.

Its Mission is to seek long-term profitable growth by offering the highest quality product to the U.S. beer drinker. It evidently supporting the local community and deeply involved in Philanthropy.

Craft Beer Definition:

Boston Beer Brewery is considered a craft brewery. According to the Brewers Association, a trade group of 1,900 brewers, a brewing company is considered “craft” if it is small, traditional and independent. The majority of their product must be made from traditional or innovative ingredients. Craft breweries are generally known for creating innovative products and being highly involved in their home communities (Brewers Association, 2016).

History of Boston Beer Company:

It all began in 1984, when Jim Koch discovered his great grandfather’s recipe in the attic. He brewed the beer using that recipe and was so pleased that he decided to sell it. He named his brew “Samuel Adams Boston Lager” and the label of the beer had a picture of Samuel Adams who was one of the founding fathers of United States. He then took the bottles in a briefcase and walked bar to bar and that is how he introduced his craft beer and Boston lager soon became the agent of craft beer revolution in United States.

Core Competencies

Core competencies are the factors that are within and play an important role in success of an organization. We have identified three important core competencies of Boston Beer Company and described them as below:

Quality:

Jim Koch and his selected team monitors and controls the quality of the brew. This is an assurance of a great quality product. It has many competitors, big or small, how many have their founders monitor the quality of its brew?  This is one of its most important competency, that gains the trust of its customers and other stakeholders.

Branding

As we discussed above, its label has the photograph of an American icon, Samuel Adams. He is one of the founding fathers of the United Stated. It focused on America and the American dream. It created a feeling of patriotism, pride and emotion for its customer and this technique  has been one of the factors that has increased its market share.

Diversification

Boston Beer Company belong to craft beer industry, understanding this it is very difficult to diversify and create innovative products. However, Boston Beer Company has proven itself successful in this regard as well. It has a good number of diversified products within beer and tapped into different products as well.