Smaller drinks businesses live in a different world

My favourite marketing book is not a marketing book at all. It’s called Life at Small Scale about the physics of microbes. It explores how microorganisms living in the same world as us experience it completely differently simply because they are so small.

I spent a lot of time observing microbes through microscopes a long time ago when I had my own microbiology lab. My job then was to remove them from ballast water, so understanding their behaviour was important to me. They do not experience the world the way we bigger things do.

Think of us rowing through water. When we stop rowing, the boat keeps gliding because momentum carries it on; to a microbe water feels like rowing through honey. The instant that microbe stops rowing, it stops moving. At microbial scale viscosity dominates, so microorganisms experience a world governed by a very different relationship with physics.

Similarly, smaller and more artisanal beverage businesses operate under different physics than large businesses. The moment the owners or team stop rowing, the business seems to stop,  sales slow and projects stall. Everything depends on someone grinding away on the oars.

In a large producer, everything keeps moving. Teams are specialised, there is capability across the business, there is redundancy, and inertia carries the organisation on.

I feel strongly that smaller beverage businesses need a different approach to how they grow markets. Small producers don’t need scaled-down versions of approaches built for bigger businesses. They need a fundamentally different approach that matches their business environment.

The challenge isn’t working harder. It’s operating in a world where momentum doesn’t exist.

In our early  work with Distillers SA, We realised SME producers didn’t need more reports that they didn’t have time to digest. They needed the micro, to know where their products had opportunities, who they  should approach, how to price for them, and what to do next. That’s where BevSage began.

SME’s are busy, they don’t need more cognitive overhead. They need to know what’s next. Things like:

• Is this market worth entering?

• How do I get into market?

• How do I price my product?

• What should I do next?

So we set out to build that. BevSage wasn’t designed to produce more reports. It was designed around the business physics of small producers. This week we’re proud to launch BevSage’s much easier to use second generation tools and a simpler use model.