Games, Craft Beers and the Women Who Love Them
I was watching a discussion happening on Twitter which I saw tweeted by @LadiesOCB. The topic? QUESTION: Do we need women targeted beer marketing campaigns? What is the right way to target women, if at all?
My first answer? Nope, we just need good beer to market to real beer drinkers, not pandering the same sexist ways.
A wee light bulb went off in my head and I realized I’m having the same argument about women & games. You don’t need to do anything special for women to play your games. JUST MAKE GOOD GAMES. If you make good games and respect your playerbase, women will play them. There’s nothing magical about attracting girls & women to your games.
The game goes for beer. IF you make GOOD beer, break out of your sexist adverts and don’t “dumb down” beer, women will drink it. Period. Respect your product, respect your audience, no matter who they are and you will be successful. Sure, you won’t make as much money as the top three “American” beers. Craft brewers and indie game developers have a lot in common. They have passion for their product and they want to bring as many people into their world.
I think that products like Chick Beer, are sexist and stereotyping. Women do not need pink packaging and yet another dig about how we should all watch our weight. It’s sexist and insulting to women and to men. If your beer is good, then ALL people will drink it. This beer isn’t a beer for women /made/ by women. It’s a marketing idea that someone created. I mean, “Chick has Beer Cred. We are brewed in Wisconsin by the second-oldest, tenth-largest brewery in the United States.” As a beer geek, I know exactly who’s brewing it and why.
I admit, I am saying this without trying the beer. And I could tear the website claims up over and over because none of it is factual. That really isn’t my point. My original point was to write about how I felt about this sort of marketing and how it is damaging to women. It reminds me of all the times I’ve been told “Girls don’t play hardcore games”, “Women don’t get strategy” “Are you shopping for (insert man of your choice)?”.
Instead of ranting more about all this, I’ll get back to my point. I’d love to interview and write about women who are gamers and beer drinkers. The women who play what they want because they like it. The women who drink Ryes, IPAs, Stouts, Porters…beer across the entire spectrum. There are many women homebrewers, too. I’d love to hear from them.
If you’re interested, drop me an email at DJDanicia AT gmail DOT com. I’ll only use your name/photo if you want to share it with me.
Hot Pink Freak 
Funny thing how beer is marketed to men, pretty much only men… but I see women drinking beer all the time. I assume the breweries spend a lot of money knowing who buys their products… having worked for a brewery, and also my wife was responsible for placing a great deal of advertising for that same brewery, I have come to believe the big, traditional brewers are old-school, patriarchal organizations, and they think these things:
Men drink beer.
Men like sports, dumb humor, and blondes with big boobs.
And that is why when someone asks me if I’ve seen the latest “hilarious” Bud Light commercial, I always have to say no. Because although i am a male, I do not give a rat’s ass for sports. I never, ever see a Bud Light commercial. It’s as if they don’t advertise. They do, of course, just not to me. And I’d rather not drink than drink Bud Light. Around my house we call it pee-pee water (my wife’s name for it) or, as I have referred to BL many times, “goat piss”. That brewery paid for my college education… And this is the thanks they get.