"Probably the best beer in town" : A qualitative study about Swedish microbreweries strategic communication

In the last 20 years the craft brewing industry has expanded significantly in Scandinavia. The trend of microbreweries originates from the US and the U.K where much of the recent research has taken place, leaving a field unexplored from a perspective centralized to the microbrewery industry in Sweden. Previous research within similar fields have explored the use of neolocalism as a means of public relations strategy but little attention has been paid to further dimensions of strategic communication such as marketing communication and branding. With a theoretical framework varying from previous research within culture, geography and marketing this study seeks to bring light to the Swedish market of microbreweries from a media and communication perspective. The study examines which strategies Swedish microbreweries use to build a relationship with their customers and which strategies are implemented to appeal to new audiences. Furthermore, the study seeks to investigate which challenges microbreweries face with their external communication and what strategies are used to conquer them. The work indicates that while neolocalism plays a significant role in the branding and external communication for many breweries as demonstrated in previous studies in other areas of the world, the results bring light to the fact that while neolocalism might work as a strategy to bond with the locals it might also prevent the microbreweries to reach audiences beyond the given area. By using a qualitative semi-structured interview approach the respondents, each representing individual breweries located around Stockholm, Gothenburg and Småland, were able to provide empirical evidence suggesting that social media plays a great role in the success of reaching new audiences therefore functioning as one of the primary methods for successful strategic communication