So yeah… I’m a bit of a craft beer fan. Whenever I travel, I try to find a local beer that I can’t get back home. This weekend we’re in Seattle, Washington. Lauren & Umba Box are sponsoring the Urban Craft Uprising craft show and I’m helping to man the Umba Box booth.
After we finished setting up our booth, I went off to find pizza & beer to bring back to the team. I went to the grocery store and had forgotten that you could get Churchkey Can Co’s Pilsner in Seattle. I of course grabbed a six-pack.
In case you’re not familiar, Churchkey Can Co has gotten a lot of press & excitement because they’re going back to the flat tops for the beer cans where you actually have to use a churchkey to make a divot in the top of the can to get the beer out. I remember back when I was 5 or 6. We’d get Juicy Juice cans like this. Apparently, up until recently, all canned beer was opened with a churchkey.
Was drinking the beer, which is delicious by the way. What struck me was that the company is positioning their entire brand around the beer experience versus the actual beer itself. It’s not Delicious Beer Can Co. It’s Churchkey Can Co. They’re selling the experience. But… is it that revolutionary… is it that different that it’s going to make that much of splash? Apparently, their pitch was good enough that it got some top tech investors interested.
Selling a great user experience as a differentiator is something that we’re seeing a lot of in the online world. Instagram wasn’t anything that crazy but it created an amazing user experience by bringing together photos, filters, mobile, and social. Flipboard just displays content via Twitter curation. It’s nothing crazy but they’ve created an awesome experience that’s made it a top-selling app.
So… can Churchkey Can Co see a similar fate? Well, we’ll see. What are other industries that could use a shakeup by giving people a brand new user experience?
While you’re thinking about it, watch the Churchkey Can Co intro video…
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