The food and entertainment. The art and cultural activities. That football team. When you think of Athens, Georgia, those are just a few of the things that jump to mind. No, we did not forget about R.E.M. and the musical revolution it created. Nor did we forget to mention one of the area’s favorite craft beer brands.
That, we are mentioning now. Founded in 2014, Creature Comforts is a purpose-driven, B-Corp certified craft brewery based in Athens, which has already expanded with a second Athens production facility. And, there also is a new brewery and taproom in Los Angeles.
Ask co-founder Chris Herron and he’ll tell you that Creature Comfort’s purpose is rooted in human connection—a brand committed to not only making really good craft beer, but also to giving back to both the local and craft beer communities. And if that is not enough, there also is its sustainability efforts, which recently led to TRUE Zero Waste certification, as well as its growing partnerships, including with that other Athen’s brand stalwart, the University of Georgia.
We sat down with Chris Herron, CEO and one of the operating owners and co-founders of Creature Comforts, to get a glimpse into where the brand is heading moving forward.
Give us a snapshot of today’s craft beer market from your perspective.
Craft beer is a tale of two stories right now. While the 20-year trend of booming craft revenue is slowing, the picture inside of craft is not consistent across the board. Growth is more challenging for breweries that have spent the last couple years driving inorganic growth, but for those who have been patient and focused on organic growth, there is still a lot of opportunity in the marketplace.
What kind of conversations are you having with your customers?
We encourage our customers to focus on connecting with people. Creature Comforts was built upon the purpose to foster human connection. In today’s world, we want to see more people get together over a beer and have a conversation. We believe that beer is the perfect beverage for adults to connect over and our goal is to provide a variety of world class beers for them to choose from.
What trends are defining the space?
I don’t necessarily see a trend defining the space. On one end of the spectrum, we are definitely seeing more people moving toward lagers and lower ABV offerings. However, on the other end, another segment of drinkers are moving toward high ABV large format packages.
Perhaps the beauty of craft is that so many people are able to find their way not by following a trend, but by being authentic and bringing something unique to the market. I think the defining trend of craft, at least as far as where growth is happening, is around breweries who understand who they are and what they do well and stay disciplined.
What is your story from a brand perspective?
We exist to foster human connection – our goal is to help bring people together over a beer.
Walk us through your branding strategy.
The focus from a branding perspective is for us to understand how each individual brand can support our overall purpose as a company of fostering human connection. We realize there are a lot of different types of consumers, and while we cannot focus on all of them, we do hope to be a word of encouragement to all of them to sit down with someone and have a beer.
We have crafted a portfolio of beers that is well balanced and that allows people to have a great experience and a great beverage regardless of their beer style preference. We seek to identify who we think that consumer is by style and speak to them in an authentic way through our offerings in each category segment.
What’s the biggest issue today related to the marketing/sales side of the craft beer business today?
The biggest issue is that the end consumer has just been treated as a focus group in a lot of cases by a lot of brands. Too many brands are being thrown into the market without them being vetted both in terms of the quality of the liquid as well as the quality of the branding and market desire.
Our consumers work hard at their jobs to earn money which, in turn, gets spent on relatively expensive beer compared to other beer options. We cannot treat them like a focus group. They deserve to get an incredible experience every single time, and the same is true of our distributor and retail partners, they deserve to get brands that are of high quality and that are thoughtful.
There has just been too much fluff pushed through the market, and it has hurt craft beer as a whole, because many people have unfortunately had bad experiences as a result, and that is not right.
What’s the secret to creating a branding story that consumers can buy into?
I think consumers will “buy into” a story, when the company actually has bought into the story they are telling. It has to be authentic and real. If we do not practice what we preach, then we cannot expect a consumer to trust that message.
What’s the one thing that every craft beer brand should be doing in the way of marketing?
Understanding who they are authentically. Then, the brand needs to innovate, message, design, and communicate from that place. Be proud of what you are doing and how you are doing it, or else don’t do it.
Don’t be tempted to fill the void with random noise, be comfortable being quiet until you have something genuine and real to bring to the conversation/market, there is more damage to be done than gain to be had through poor marketing.
What do you see as some of your biggest opportunities moving ahead?
I honestly think our biggest opportunity going ahead is not a thing, but it is a process and way of working. Our greatest opportunity is all the work we have done over the past three years to understand better who we are as a brewery, a brand, and as people. The team at Creature Comforts has done the hard work of designing and building the foundation, we have been disciplined, and as a result, we have a lot of options for where we go next.
In today’s marketplace, that is a very good place to be, because so many brands have been pulling levers left and right and are now out of clear options. We have the ability to expand geographically, to expand package options, add new brands in categories, explore new beverage categories, open taprooms, invest in marketing and partnerships, etc. We are very excited about the future of Creature Comforts.
What was the reasoning behind the UGA Athletics partnership and how does it help grow the brand?
We have been partnering with UGA literally since we opened our doors. We have worked with them across nearly every department it seems in some way or another with the exception of athletics until this past summer. It was a natural evolution with them and obviously UGA Athletics is a strong brand that can help introduce us to more people.
We are honored that they wanted to work with us as well, and hopefully it is a really incredible partnership for both partners, as we try and explore further how these types of relationships can move well beyond the typical executions from large national brands and show the value of truly local partners.
We hope to encourage more university athletics departments to consider the value of these partnerships beyond the financial commitments. We had a great first season with them last year. We know that they are committed to a lot of the same things we are with respect to creating community and experiences that bring people together and we have to believe that we will grow in more ways than just sales through working with them.
What’s the biggest item on your to-do list right now?
For Creature Comforts, the biggest thing on the to-do list is simply to grow thoughtfully. We talk a lot about how we are not in competition with anyone but ourselves, and it is my job to help ensure that remains true. We have some exciting new things this year with the innovative launch of a true seasonal line-up, our second full year in a couple of states outside Georgia, and our second year of the University of Georgia partnership, so we are focused on how we do better with these initiatives in year two than we did in year one.
What do you attribute your incredible growth?
From the start we focused on gaining industry respect, with the belief that industry respect leads to consumer love and that consumer love leads to commercial success. We have always believed that doesn’t work the other way, you cannot chase commercial success and find consumer love and industry respect.
At the end of the day, long-term sustainable growth like Creature Comforts has experienced can only come from a focus on doing it the right way—every single time, being our harshest critic, and hiring people who align with our purpose and values. We don’t always get it right, but we are always working on it, and that commitment to improvement, to making it better, to creating a legacy we are proud of, and staying curious, that has been a great formula for us so far.
Catching up with… Creature Comforts Chris Herron
What’s the most rewarding part of your job?
The best things are watching people grow inside of Creature Comforts to achieve the goals they set for themselves. It is always amazing when you meet consumers who love your product and who have a story about how it has impacted them in a positive way. But in the end, I am always going to find the most joy in watching our people succeed.
What was the best advice you ever received?
Never take a job that you know you can do.
What’s the best thing a customer ever said to you?
Thank you. Finding your beers far away from home has helped give me a sense of normalcy to my life and gave me an easy thing to talk to people about and make new friends.
What is your favorite brand story?
I don’t know that I have a favorite brand story, but I do think that Yeti has done a good job of creating their identity, and I always appreciate the brand story for Toms shoes.
Interview by Michael J. Pallerino
Michael J. Pallerino is an award-winning writer and editor. Along with producing a number of business, news and sports stories for a number of local and national publications, he has executed a number of content strategy initiatives across myriad communication channels. Over the past 30-plus years, he has won numerous awards, including the Jesse H. Neal Editorial Achievement Award, recognized as the Pulitzer Prize for business-to-business magazines. As an editor in the sports product industry, his monthly columns generated national attention from USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, ESPN Magazine, Sports Business Journal and BusinessWeek, among others. One of the magazines he co-founded, SportingKid, serves as the official publication of the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS). He also served as a communications specialist for the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, working closely with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) during the 1996 Olympic Games.