Does the beer you drink define you? This week on Beer Notes, we are exploring a concept called DUCP or the desire for unique consumer products.
The DUCP is a concept that explores how consumers feel they define themselves by the products they purchase or consume. “As with almost everything in this society of conspicuous consumption, the beer that a person drinks has become a sociological marker or symbol of self-definition.”
When you go into a bar and see people drinking beer by the big brand, mass produced breweries, do you judge them? What do you think when you see someone drinking a local craft beer on tap in a local bar? Who do you engage?
Craft beer has become cool. It drives tourists to rural areas outside population centers and it unites others in 3rd places within larger cities. It is a unifying force that grounds people in the local customs and flavors of a region and it gives people something in common, something to talk about. People who drink craft beer are defining themselves. They are adventurous, confident, interesting and interested.
On a recent visit to the Wicked Weed Brewing Company in Asheville, North Carolina,we were all talking to strangers and friends alike about our choice of beverage. The Smokin’ Pumpkin, the MIlk and Cookies stout, the lighter ginger pumpkin ale which could only be described as crisp.
Craft beer is certainly one product that Consumers use to define themselves. It’s a good thing and is one avenue for exploring life and making friends. Here’s to our next conversation at our local brewery, or one we are visiting on our next beercation. For Beer Notes, this is Ann McGinnis Hilllyer.
Sources:
Ruvio et al., 2008
Flack ,1997, p. 46.
