Latest / Community Marketing with Fexingo: Discord, Slack Groups, and Brand Communities / How a Craft Gin Brand Built a Community That Sells Itself
Transcript
- Lucas: If you have ever tried to market a physical product in a heavily regulated industry, you know the playbook is pretty narrow. You can't target on Facebook the way a DTC mattress brand can. You can't do influencer campaigns without clearing every single post through legal. Luna: And alcohol is probably the poster child for that. The TTB rules are no joke. Lucas: Exactly. So when a craft distillery in Portland called Stillhouse Spirits decided they wanted to build a brand, they basically said, 'We cannot outspend the big guys on distribution or TV ads. So we need a completely different strategy.' And they landed on something that sounds almost too simple: a Slack community for home bartenders. Luna: Slack? Not a branded app, not a Facebook group? That's interesting because Slack is really associated with work. Lucas: Right, and that's exactly why it worked. The founder, a guy named Derek, told me that they chose Slack precisely because it felt like a clubhouse — literally, a place for serious hobbyists. They launched in early 2024 with just 50 people: friends, local bartenders, and a few cocktail bloggers. Luna: And what was the hook? Why would someone join a Slack group for a gin they've never tasted? Lucas: The hook was education. Stillhouse didn't pitch the community as 'join to learn about our gin.' They pitched it as 'join to become a better home bartender.' Every week, a professional mixologist from Portland would host an hour-long live session in a voice channel — technique, ingredient sourcing, things like how to make your own orgeat syrup. Luna: So the product was almost secondary. They were selling the skill, not the bottle. Lucas: Exactly. And here's the number that jumped out at me: within six months, the community had grown to about 1,200 members. Almost entirely word of mouth. Stillhouse spent exactly zero dollars on ads to grow it. Luna: How did they handle the regulatory side? You can't exactly have people posting raves about your gin in a public channel without running into TTB issues. Lucas: That's the clever part. They made the community private, invite-only. And they had a clear rule: no one — including the founders — is allowed to post about Stillhouse products in the main channels. There is a single designated channel called 'stillhouse-talk' where members can ask questions about the gin, but the company never pushes it. The community self-regulates, and because it's private, it doesn't count as public advertising. Luna: That is smart. So the organic conversations about the product happen naturally, but the company doesn't trigger any compliance red flags. Lucas: Right. And the results were pretty remarkable. By the end of 2024, Stillhouse had generated about $1.2 million in direct to consumer sales — and they traced over 80 percent of those sales to community members. Either someone in the community bought a bottle directly, or they referred a friend. Luna: Wait — $1.2 million from a community of 1,200 people? That's a thousand dollars per member. That's insane. Lucas: It is. But the average order value was high — about $90, because people were buying bottles as gifts or ordering a variety pack. And the repeat purchase rate was over 40 percent within three months. Luna: That repeat rate is huge for a spirit brand. Most people buy a bottle and don't come back for months. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where the user-generated content piece came in. Members started posting their own cocktail recipes using Stillhouse gin. Derek told me they had one member, a retired chemist in Chicago, who created a recipe for a smoked rosemary gin sour that became the most popular post in the community. Other members tried it, posted photos, and that drove sales. Luna: So the community effectively created the marketing content for them. And because it's member-created, it feels authentic. Lucas: Right. Stillhouse eventually started featuring the best member recipes on their website and even on the bottle labels — with permission, of course. That created a huge incentive for members to participate. People wanted to see their name on a bottle. Luna: That's a brilliant loop. The more people participate, the more content you get, the more sales you generate, the more you can reward the community. Lucas: And here's the thing — they never tried to monetize the community directly. No subscription fees, no premium tiers. The community itself was a pure value-add. The revenue came from product sales, not community access. Luna: That tension is real for a lot of brands. You build a community, it starts working, and then someone in the room says, 'Let's charge for access.' But that often kills the very thing that made it work. Lucas: Exactly. And Derek was very intentional about that. He told me, 'The day we start charging for the community is the day we stop being a community and start being a subscription product.' He wanted the community to remain a genuine gathering place, not a funnel. Luna: I love that. So what's the downside? What didn't work? Lucas: The biggest challenge was moderation. As the community grew past 2,000 members — they're at about 2,500 now — the signal to noise ratio started to dip. You'd get people joining just to promote their own cocktail blog or their own small distillery. Derek had to hire a part-time community manager just to keep the culture intact. Luna: That's a common scaling pain point. The very thing that makes a community magical at 500 people — the intimacy — can break at 2,000 if you don't invest in moderation. Lucas: Exactly. And they also had to deal with the occasional member who would get into arguments about recipe authenticity or technique. So they created a code of conduct and a small team of volunteer moderators from within the community. Luna: Volunteer moderators — that's another smart move. It gives the most engaged members a sense of ownership. Lucas: Yeah. And it scaled the community without scaling the cost. The volunteer moderators aren't paid, but they get early access to new releases and a quarterly bottle. That's it. And people are lining up for those roles. Luna: That's a really good lesson for any brand thinking about community. The incentives don't have to be financial. Status, recognition, and a sense of belonging are powerful. Lucas: Totally. So what do you take away from this? If you're a small brand in a regulated space, community might actually be your best marketing channel — because it's permissionless in a way that ads aren't. As long as you keep the community genuine and don't try to monetize the relationships directly, it can become a self-sustaining engine. Luna: And the platform choice matters. Slack worked here because it felt exclusive and focused. A Facebook group might have felt too noisy. A branded app would have been too expensive to build and maintain. Lucas: Right. And one last stat that stuck with me: Stillhouse now gets about 40 percent of their total revenue from community members or referrals. For a company that started with zero marketing budget, that's a remarkable return. Luna: It really is. And it makes you wonder — what other industries could use this model? Craft coffee, maybe? Small-batch hot sauce? Lucas: I think any product that has a passionate enthusiast base and a learning curve could work. The key is finding the right container for the community and letting the members drive the conversation. Luna: If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used at work, even just one tactical takeaway, that's exactly the kind of thing that keeps this show ad-free and independent. Lucas: Yeah, a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. It makes a real difference for a small team. Luna: Anyway, back to Stillhouse. One thing I want to circle back on: you mentioned they started with just 50 people. How did they get those first 50? Lucas: Good question. Derek personally reached out to about 30 friends and family, plus a handful of local bartenders he knew from industry events. He also invited a few cocktail bloggers who had written about the distillery. The key was that every single one of those first 50 people was hand-picked for their enthusiasm, not their influence. Luna: So quality over quantity, even at the very beginning. That's a recurring theme in successful communities. Lucas: Absolutely. And from those 50, the community grew organically because members invited their own friends who were into cocktails. The invite-only model actually created a sense of scarcity — people wanted in because they couldn't just join anytime. Luna: That's a great note for anyone building a community. Make it feel like a private club, not a public forum. Lucas: Exactly. So the takeaway is: find your passionate few, give them a space that feels special, and then get out of their way. If you've got a product worth talking about, the community will do the marketing for you. Luna: And if you're listening and you want to see what a thriving home bartender community looks like, maybe drop by Stillhouse's Slack. Just don't forget to bring your own recipe. Lucas: I hope you bring a good one. I'll be the one making a smoked rosemary gin sour.