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Marie Gillcrist
Oct. 26, 2016
PRS 340
Narragansett Beer Community Relations Breakdown
Narragansett Beer is a company that can owe its success overthe years to its customer’s
loyalty,along withits purposeful marketing decisions. Since it’s founding in 1890, through it’s re-
opened on July 15, 1965, to current day, its brand embodies a community that supports one
another, fostering creativity and growth. This brand, despite the setbacks it’s had since its creation,
still has a significant footprint in the state of Rhode Island.
Beginning withit’s “Hi, neighbor” campaign Narragansett Beer has always focused on
building a strong and supportive community to foster growth in and around their company. The
Gansett’ girls, acting as the company’s first Public Relations team, “…drovethe hills promoting
Narragansett beer” (Narragansett Beer). This has developed into finding women whoare
“energetic, outgoing, and detail oriented” to be friendly faceswho promote, and continue to build
the company’s brand. The Gansett’ girls are still significant in todays marketing plan for
Narragansett Beer putting on events, and holding calendar contests insuring that the brand stays
relevant and friendly.
Proof of Narragansett Beer’s community relation’s success can be foundby looking at the
recovery the company has made since its demolition on April 14, 1943. After reaching peak
production in 1972, management let the company fail.Because of the unwavering support from the
community over20 years later the brand could be rebuilt fromthe ground up. This alone
demonstrates the strong bond Narragansett Beer has with the localcommunity. The effort
Narragansett Beer puts forth into passionate, young entrepreneurs is justified by the company
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stating, “In the past 10 years we have watchedNew England, and more specifically,Rhode Island
become a hotbed forpassionate artists, makers, chefs, and retailers who deeply care about their
crafts, the products they produce, and the items they carry” (Narragansett Beer). Because of the
company’s continuous support of its neighbors, the population was not shy about showing their
support of Narragansett Beer in its rebuilding process. The accomplishments that Narragansett
Beer celebrates also incorporate community relations, and continue to build a strong consumer
producer bond. This June marks the 10th anniversary of the brand returning to Rhode Island, but in
its typicalfashion, this accomplishment will not be celebrated just within the company.
Narragansett Beer has taken this opportunity to show its continues support of the community.
Narragansett Beer runs on the notion, “Made on honor, sold on merit.” This idea resonates with all
people whohave found a passion and put their heart and soul into its growth. Made on honor
describes not just the quality of the beer, but the way the company leaders and employees live their
lives, and the communities entrepreneurs have demonstrated as a lifestylechoice of theirs. Made on
honor is a measure that isn’t a calculation, but can be felt by customers and employees.
Narragansett Beer stated that they want to, “Keep things local,” (Narragansett Beer). To do this,
this company will continue to support the people that have the same passion for their life and
careers as the people at Narragansett Beer do. This anniversary is clearly not just about the
successes of Narragansett Beer, but about he success of all the New England and Rhode Island
workers whohave dedicated their lives to creating things that are, Made with honor, and sold on
merit.
To continue to grow as a brand, and as a company, Narragansett Beer should focusits
marketing effortson three specific populations: The Hispanic population, Women Business owners,
and Veterans. By doing this not only should the companies’ sales increase, but also it should
reinforce the bond between customer and company,as well as strengthen the brand image.
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Women(Businessowners):
- Make up 52% of the population in Rhode Island.
- There are 30,484 businesses owned by women in the state of Rhode Island.
- Both of these statistics lead to clear explanations about making of age Women a target market for
Narragansett Beer. Women not only make up a good majority of the population, but have buying
power shown by the amount of women owned and operated firms. Making women a target market
will take a change in marketing tactics. Change that focuses on a beer with less calories, or playing
on the role the Gansett’ Girls have in the company could help to do this.
HispanicPopulation:
-Hispanic and Latino people make up 15% of the population in Rhode Island.
-Second to the whitepopulation in Rhode Island, whichmakes up 77%.
-By focusing marketing efforts on this population it shows understanding that this growing
population, is important, and can impact the growthof this company. This population of people is
also a working population who upon learning about this local brand, are sure to embrace it. To do
this Narragansett Beer should continue to be sold in local bars, and restaurants that are unique to
Rhode Island, where long time citizens willeat regularly, and request to newer members of this
growing population.
Veterans:
-It is wellknown that there is a comradery between military veterans. The common denominator
between them being their passion, dedication, and sacrificefor this country. With that comes a
great respect from citizens of this country, whohave benefited greatly from their sacrifices. With
this knowledge, Narragansett Beer can capitalize on this understanding, by making veterans a main
target market.
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-Veterans own over70,000 firms in the state of Rhode Island.
-Taking advantage of this by supporting the firms that are owned and operated by veterans willin
turn encourage their support of Narragansett Beer. Additionally by hosting events that support the
United States Military, or even giving discounts to veterans, Narragansett Beer can attract veterans
to their products.
To stay up to date on community relation’s effortsmade by other corporations in the
community, Narragansett Beer must analyze community relation’s projects that other corporations
have successfully executed.
CVS:
- CVS does not just focuson giving back to small localrun businesses, but also big corporations in
Rhode Island. Local support, corporategiving, and foundation giving are the three platforms that
CVS builds its community relations on. Its Community relations efforts develop brand awareness
because a company like CVS relies on the populations recognition of their high quality brand, and
it’s company objectives. The number of competitors CVS has means customers need a strong reason
to shop there, and giving back to the community can be the deciding factorbetween shopping at
Wal-Mart or CVS.
- Recognizing the tactics CVS uses, Narragansett Beer can lookto support more company’s that give
back. If Narragansett Beer was to support a localnon-profit like the Jonnycakecenter, people will
be more inclined to buy Narragansett beer, over another company who may not give back to the
community.
CitizensBank:
-Youmay not think a bank wouldneed to support its local community, but Citizens Bank makes it
clear that they are about helping the citizens of Rhode Island. Citizens Bank community relation’s
effortsare characterized into contributions versus sponsorship. Citizens Bank explains, “…Investing
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in the communities where we liveand workenriches us all.” (Citizens Bank, Corporate Giving
Guidelines).
- Citizens Bank started as High St. Bank, founded in 1828, whichestablished Citizens Saving Bank in
1871. By 1891 Citizens bank has grown to 29 branches in Rhode Island with 1 billion dollars in
assets. Since, the Citizens Banks has grownto, “one of the largest retail U.S. bank-holding companies
with nearly 170 billion in assets at the start of the global financial crisis.” (Citizens Bank, Corporate
Giving Guidelines).
- The largest, and most successful corporations in Rhode Island seem to focus heavily on giving
back. Citizens Bank runs on the principle, “Wesucceed when our customers succeed” (Citizens
Bank).
Newport Storm, Cottrell Brewery,and Gray Sail Brewery besides being successful breweries
in New England, also all make it a priority to give back. Newport Storm and Cottrell Brewery have a
similar style of giving back by highlighting the donation approach. Newport Storm Brewery
explains, “As was mentioned before, weare a small brewery so we may not be as capable of
providing the scale of support that youmay receive from large companies. However, wedo our best
to help out as many groups as we can and wewill certainly do everything we can to help out your
cause” (NewportStorm Brewery). Cottrell Brewing also donates to what they consider a worthy
cause and state, “At Cottrell, we love beer and we loveour community. We are proud to support
local groups, and our primary focusis on cultural and social-serviceorganizations” (Cottrell
Brewing). These approaches are successful forsmaller brewing companies like these two,because
people whoknow what their brand is about, and are familiar with it can reach out if they would like
their support. Gray Sail Brewery holds larger events, which attract a larger group of people, to help
support the causes that are near and dear to this company’s heart. This approach allowscustomers,
and other local businesses, to decide which events they wouldlike to attend and be a part of. Grey
Sail Brewery reaches out to the community, making it almost impossible, to not be a part of their
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events. All of these approaches are accepted,and successful in the New England community. If
Narragansett Beer used a mixture of these twoapproaches, not only holding their own events, but
reaching out to the community to see if they need the support of a larger company, it would make
Narragansett Beer community relations even more evident to the public then it already is.
Narragansett Beer is a company that will continue to grow and succeed by continuing to
develop new target markets, and maintain positive and friendly brand awareness. These three
publics should be considered as main target markets because of their current relevance in Rhode
Island as substantial, and growing publics. At the bare minimum the Hispanic population is
growing, the veteran population promotes comradery, and businesswomen have buying power in
Rhode Island, these three things alone can help boost sales, and attract loyal customers. By
investing time and energy into targeting these publics Narragansett Beer can grow their community
relations, increase sales, and promote a growing and giving community,where business is rising,
while also making it evident that giving backin a company priority. Incorporating these publics
into the marketing strategy for Narragansett Beer is crucialto its future growth and success.
