This story is part of our Start. Build. Grow. series, a celebration of Black business.
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When you think about the typical craft beer drinker, a bearded hipster whoโs definitely white probably comes to mind. And you wouldnโt be too far off from reality. A study commissioned by the Brewers Association found that although Black drinkers compose 11.2 percent of the US population, theyโre only drinking 3.7 percent of the countryโs craft beer.
As a Black woman who prefers a nice white wine, Iโve always avoided beer as something that will add inches to my waistline. But a group of friends in Chicago is on a mission to get more Black people drinking craft beer and create a badge brand thatโs as timeless as Air Jordans and Mercedes Benz. And theyโre doing it with a Black man draped in gold chains on the front of their can.
Moorโs Beer is the brainchild of friends and Chicago natives Damon Patton, Jamhal Johnson and Anthony Bell. The idea for the brand came in the spring of 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic and racial unrest had a firm grip on the country. โThere was a lot of focus being placed on diversity, equity and inclusion. So we thought beer was a great industry to jump into because it was all white,โ Johnson said.
But the friends knew that images of stampeding Clydesdales or guys shouting โWassup?โ into the phone werenโt going to work as a marketing strategy this time. They were going to have to come different to make their brand inviting to the African American customers they wanted to attract.
They knew the stereotype that Black people donโt drink craft beer because they canโt afford it wasnโt true. The reality was that no one in the industry was speaking to them, which is how they decided on the brand name and logo. โWe had to think of a really cool name and a story,โ Johnson said. โI felt like it was an opportunity to tell the story of Northern Africans who invaded Europe and civilized the continent. I thought it was a dope way to infuse our culture, art, and hip-hop and create a cool brand with great beer.โ
They knew they wanted to make a statement with Moorโs, and the can art, a modernized version of Hendrik Heerschopโs 1654 painting of The African King Caspar draped in gold chains was the teamโs way of letting people know what their brand was all about. The team launched their beer on Juneteenth 2021 in a few Chicago-area liquor stores, and within a few months, the brand has grown to over 150 accounts, which include a mix of bars, restaurants, arenas and grocery stores around the city. And they have no plans of slowing down.
Other black brands are getting into the craft beer space, but the guys at Moorโs say theyโre doing things differently. Anthony Bell, who is responsible for Moorโs marketing strategy, says a key component of their early success has been their ability to engage with customers one-on-one at curated tasting events that include dope hip-hop music and beautiful people.
This approach has helped them make Moorโs something people want to be a part of, whether theyโre traditional beer drinkers or not. โPeople who donโt really like basketball love going to NBA all-star weekend because they get to dress up and be in spaces with people they want to be around. Thatโs kind of like Moorโs. You may not like beer, but where it is and how it lives is something they want to be a part of,โ Bell said.
Bell says heโd love to eventually see Moorโs in the category with other iconic brands like Air Jordans and Mercedes Benz that people associate with quality. โWe want to be a brand that creates generations of products that are still relevant because weโve established a baseline of excellence. If youโre going to have a craft beer or a black-owned craft beer, make it Moors,โ he says.
Although business has been good, the team knows that starting a brand in the middle of a pandemic in a field they knew nothing about was a huge risk and something Patton admits kept him up at night in the early days. โWeโre literally walking on Mars here. Weโve got a black man on a beer can wearing Slick Rickโs chains for the first time in history, and that means different things to different people.โ he said.
Looking to the future, Patton says the team has plans to expand their brand outside of their hometown. โThe work will never end when youโre talking about a global brand. Weโre trying to swallow an elephant by penetrating the third largest market in the country,โ Patton said. โAnd how do you do that? One bite at a time.โ
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