{"id":441,"date":"2012-12-18T08:26:13","date_gmt":"2012-12-18T13:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=441"},"modified":"2013-02-13T10:30:56","modified_gmt":"2013-02-13T15:30:56","slug":"the-queen-of-beers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/?p=441","title":{"rendered":"The Queen of Beers……"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I first met Diane Fall (Hankins) in early 1982 when she visited me at my distributorship headquarters in \u00a0South Texas.\u00a0 I had responded to an ad she had place in Modern Brewery<\/em> Age<\/em> searching for distributors to handle Warsteiner.\u00a0 We had dinner, and I committed to distributing Warsteiner in my area. That evening started a 30+ year relationship with Warsteiner.<\/p>\n

\n

Over dinner Diane and I learned that we both had come from a Coors background.\u00a0 She was a commodities buyer for Coors, and through a hops seller, Albert Jaenicke, a close friend and advisor (also a close friend of Cramer), had met Albert Cramer, owner of Warsteiner.\u00a0 Albert had wanted to open the US but didn’t have anyone to help him, but once he met Diane, he tried to convince her to join him.\u00a0 But Diane wasn’t ready. As circumstances would have it, however, \u00a0Albert didn’t give up, and about six months later, Diane decided that the time had come and she agreed to assist Albert.<\/p>\n

Diane started the agency in Denver, where she lived.\u00a0 Her first challenge, of all things, was when the TTB denied her label approval for Warsteiner.\u00a0 Not about to give up, she flew to Washington, befriended the staff at the TTB, visited them everyday for a week, bringing coffee and donuts, and by the end of that week, had the label approved!\u00a0 Her next challenge came in finding a wholesaler!\u00a0 No one was interested in the Denver area, so she came up with the idea of having a dinner while inviting all the Colorado Stroh distributors.\u00a0\u00a0Bill Coors\u00a0and\u00a0 Morgan Guenther, VP of the USBA,\u00a0were invited to the Brown Palace Hotel where the dinner was held.\u00a0\u00a0At the dinner, Bill wasn’t sure why he was there with the competition but encouraged the distributors to work with Diane.\u00a0 The result?\u00a0 Her first wholesaler signed up that night!<\/p>\n

Diane\u2019s business model was 20 years ahead of its time.\u00a0 Knowing that marketing was the real key to establishing Warsteiner, she decentralized her structure for sales, but she had a VP of Marketing.\u00a0 Diane oversaw the sales department which had key managers in targeted markets supported by the marketing staff.\u00a0 The\u00a0Denver office\u00a0coordinated logistics and support,\u00a0and under this system, Diane was able to focus on sales\/marketing.\u00a0 Her emphasis on marketing was the key to getting the brand well established.<\/p>\n

After I took over the Warsteiner agency, Diane related some early stories about her efforts in trying to get Warsteiner into \u00a0stores.\u00a0 One time, at a chain in Phoenix, the buyer wouldn’t authorize\u00a0Warsteiner because of the “lack of media” support.\u00a0 So, Diane figured out the route the buyer took everyday to and from work.\u00a0 Then she bought four billboards, placed two facing each direction on the highway, then waited 30 days.\u00a0 The next time she visited the buyer, he was so impressed with the billboards he had seen on his way to and from work, that he authorized Warsteiner in all his stores!<\/p>\n

Perhaps those of you who were around back then were fortunate enough to have participated in the famous Warsteiner pub crawls at the Las Vegas NBWA annual convention. \u00a0Remember those great evenings hosted by Diane and her team? The pub crawls were by far the best vendor events I have ever attended, and I’ve been to a lot of them!\u00a0 Those\u00a0crawls are still remembered with a smile.<\/p>\n

Diane retired in 1997, after 17 years as President of Warsteiner, and moved to Florida with her husband Rick.\u00a0She now spends her days with her grand kids and an occasional round of golf.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I talk to Diane often and I have always considered her not only a close friend, but one of the true leaders in our industry.\u00a0\u00a0I’m sure I can speak for all of those who know her, Diane really is “The Queen of Beers!”<\/p>\n

NOTE<\/strong>:\u00a0 (From Diane on Albert’s recent passing) “He was truly a visionary in the international beer industry.\u00a0 His leadership and willingness to take chances made Warsteiner one of the most respected and successful breweries.\u00a0 The number one selling beer in Germany (at that time) is something we were all proud to represent.\u00a0 His death is a huge loss to Warsteiner.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Editors note (February 13, 2013):\u00a0 Diane passed away in January unexpectedly with her family at her side.\u00a0 She was my friend and will be missed.<\/p>\n

LAST BLOG FOR THIS YEAR – NEXT ONE WILL BE JANUARY 8.\u00a0 HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR!\u00a0 Geoff<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I first met Diane Fall (Hankins) in early 1982 when she visited me at my distributorship headquarters in \u00a0South Texas.\u00a0 I had responded to an ad she had place in Modern Brewery Age searching for distributors to handle Warsteiner.\u00a0 We had dinner, and I committed to distributing Warsteiner in my area. That evening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2xRTi-77","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=441"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":608,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441\/revisions\/608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerbusinessunplugged.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}