For Mark and Leslie Henderson, the co-founders and co-owners of the Lazy Magnolia Craft Brewery in tiny Kiln, Mississippi, staying true to their distinctly Southern roots runs strong and deep in their personal and professional lives.
“The South is known for our hospitality and keeping up traditions,” Mark Henderson told Loyalty360. “It’s been quite successful for us. We believe in thank-you notes. We’re not ignoring new technology and the consumers that are there. We take pride in our Southern culture, which is a porch culture.”
The Hendersons are both engineers, and Leslie left her job at a startup that developed a new kind of plastic bullet casing for the U.S. military. The couple built a brewery, applied for a license, and in 2003? inaugurated Mississippi's first packaging brewery since 1907. Leslie worked at the Crescent City Brew House in New Orleans to prepare for her role as Lazy Magnolia’s brewmaster.
As Mark Henderson explained it, the Lazy Magnolia Craft Brewery began a little more than a decade ago as a “hobby that grew out of control.”
“There was way too much beer in the house, more than we could drink,” Mark explained. “We threw small get-togethers. The rule was telling us which beer you liked. Leslie catalogued this information in a spreadsheet, added all the data together, and tweaked recipes.”
Mark referred to the “defining moment” that led to the creation of the Lazy Magnolia Craft Brewery Company.
“Cars were parked everywhere when I came home from work one day and there were about 200 people at our house,” he explained. “Some guy asked me: ‘Dude, where’s the bathroom?’’’
The Hendersons pretty much knew they had something potentially big on their hands at that point.
“Loyalty and engagement gets wrapped up in that moment,” Mark said. “The 1-to-1 connection is something that grows bigger. Craft beer is booming right now. More people are becoming aware of it and starting to understand. The product has a million different flavors. Everyone can find that something that appeals to them.”
Mark Henderson said his company has a simple, straightforward mission statement: “We don’t tell people what to like. We give them great choices.”
That 1-to-1 connection lies at the heart of Lazy Magnolia Craft Brewery.
“That party where people showed up at our house helped us introduce so many to what craft beer is about,” he said.
Regarding customer loyalty, Mark Henderson offered a unique twist.
“The craft beer consumer is interesting because he or she isn’t loyal,” he said. “They are loyal to an ideal, culture, beer, but not a classic loyal customer like one that big guys work to cultivate and develop. We don’t think of customers as customers, mostly patrons. They support what we do and believe in what we do.”
When people try a new product (craft beer) for the first time, it’s almost always at a special occasion like a wedding or promotional event.
“So when someone gets out of his or her comfort zone, picked up a new product, tried it, from then on our product is associated with that moment,” he said. “They get to relive that experience every time they try our product. People come to our brewery and tell us those stories. We now get associated with all the beautiful, great, sometimes terrible, crazy life experiences. We’ll be part of that forever.”
It might not be traditional customer loyalty, but Mark Henderson said his patrons know and trust the brand.
“That’s where a lot of times people become loyal to a craft beer brewery versus a brand,” he said. “Loyalty in our case is slightly different. It’s not like Budweiser loyalty. Craft beer in general is just now getting off the unique side of life. People drink craft beer because it’s different, and now because it’s local and they trust us.”
Lazy Magnolia uses social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) extensively.
“We engage with them that way, but where we see the real power is in the 1-on-1 engagement, but there are huge problems there in terms of scalability,” he said. “We have five reps and their job is to take our story and share it with the world at festivals, events, clubs, and oyster bars. We’re very personal and social media supports that activity.”
Mark’s wife, Leslie, is the tactical piece of the Lazy Magnolia puzzle while he is the strategist.
“We are both engineers and a lot of people love that we’re running a business, living the American Dream,” he said.
The Hendersons stay on top of benchmarking studies done in the industry.
“They are critical to understanding our business,” he said.
Big breweries aren’t giving up any market share, Mark Henderson said.
“They will never go away,” he said. “Those beers appealing to a wide segment of the market. The craft beer scene is on the tail of that Bell Curve. We certainly can invade that Bell Curve.”
There is amazing room for growth in the Southeast, Mark said.
“The South is historically very poor,” he said. “As they become more affluent, they make choices they could not before. They used to eat a lot of gravy and biscuits. Now they can choose more. They don’t have to buy the cheapest.”
Mark Henderson sees the biggest challenge being the struggle to access capital.
“We will make $5 million on sales this year and spend $1 million on kegs,” he said. “I’m impressed with our scalability. We have almost 35 employees now and we sell our beer in 14 states.”
The $5 million in projected sales for 2014 represents a 20% year-over-year growth.
Future Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre might be the most famous name associated with Kiln, Mississippi, but staying true to their Southern roots has attracted a groundswell of support for the Henderson’s Lazy Magnolia Craft Brewery.