IPA Day...Just a Marketing Ploy to Sell Beer, Right?

National IPA Day was yesterday, and it seems nearly every brewery across the nation was having an event to celebrate.  And if they weren't hosting an event, they, at least, acknowledged the day via social media and encouraged craft beer lovers to enjoy their beers in celebration.  Founded only two years ago in 2011, it has become a wildly popular day for the craft beer scene.

IPA Day, you say.  This is just a marketing ploy to sell beer, right?  This is just big business taking advantage of a random day in August to create buzz and have a spike in beer sales.  This is corporate America tricking us into thinking we are getting something special when we can really get the same offering the other 364 days of the year.  This just screams of conspiracy theory!  How dare these businesses do this to us!

Wait a minute.  How dare these businesses do this to us?  Do what?  Afford us the opportunity to drink deliciously crafted beer while spending quality time with our friends and family, listening to great local bands, and eating amazing food?  Man, that sounds just awful.  How could we be tricked into such horrible things?

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as, "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large."  Essentially, marketing is an exchange in which all parties perceive value. 

If value is not perceived by one or more parties, then the exchange doesn't have to happen.  Nobody forced us to celebrate IPA Day yesterday.  There was perceived value in doing so, so we did. 

In addition to the aforementioned delicious beers, time with friends and family, great music, and tasty food, we got a midweek escape from life, an opportunity to learn new facts, and an opportunity to experience new sensations.  There could have even been the chance to meet new people that could forever change the courses of our lives.  Whoa, that last one is pretty deep, right?

And as for those big businesses, they aren't big businesses at all.  The craft breweries are mostly small businesses that are locally owned and operated by our fellow community members.  Sure, IPA Day creates value for them by selling beer (immediate money) and creating customers (future money), but there is much more value in it for them than that.  Craft breweries have a passion for what they do and the product they offer, so they simply get the satisfaction of sharing their craft with us to experience.  They get to do what they love and get paid for it...we should all be so lucky.  They also get the satisfaction of bringing the community together.

Speaking of the community, or society at large, there is value to be had here as well.  I think we all agree that a happy and content society makes for a good one.  Quality of life is important, and events such as IPA Day function to provide us with a high quality of life.  These events keep society balanced in terms of working hard and playing hard...the lubricant that keeps the societal wheels turning, if you will.

As you see, events like IPA Day are not attempts at pulling fast ones on us.  They are valuable tools to keep life stable  and enjoyable.  Oh yeah, they are also valuable tools to allow me to have an IPA aged in bourbon barrels (pictured below) as a nightcap.

Cheers!