A beer slogan of  “Witness the chickness!” clearly has  one market in mind: Women who like beer.

The “only American beer created just for women” packaging features pink and black color scheme, a cardboard holder that looks like  a purse, and a bottle that has like a black cocktail dress.

The beer targeted towards women is appropriately named Chick Beer. Chick Beer is a standard light American lager — not really a surprise for a beer that boasts it has only 97 calories and 3.5 carbs per bottle. The drink is only available in a few select states, including Maryland (where it was originated), Idaho, and Indiana in convenience stores and specialty beer shops.

As we have already stated, this beer is clearly marketed to women as seen in the packaging, and the company has no problem letting you know. The press materials make it very clear about the stance that Chick Beer has taken. The website states that Chick Beer is “a new beer created by women, exclusively for women” who are “fun loving, smart and independent.”

Although the company has received some flack for their marketing choices in choosing to only market towards women with packaging and online, company founder Shazz Lewis wraps up the firms philosophy:

“Why wasn’t there a beer that shouted out to me? I’m a woman who enjoys drinking beer,” Lewis said in a statement. “I’m a wife, daughter, sister and mother of five daughters. Why wasn’t there a beer that celebrates, or even acknowledges my, well, ‘chickness’?”

Although some have brought up the word ‘sexist’ and ‘demeaning’ to describe the marketing by Chick Beer, the company’s website sticks to their ground and responds saying:

“We probably are, in that we are clearly not designed for men.  Sorry guys, but you have hundreds of choices that are made for you.

What we think is sexist is that the beer industry has totally ignored the female beer drinking market, which drinks 25% of all the beer consumed in the United States – over 700 million cases every year!”

Chick Beer is being marketed by a Southwest Idaho company, Mann (no typo, no joke!) Distributing Inc, which concentrates mostly on small Oregon craft breweries. Mann beer manager, Tyler Bell, said him and his staff felt that Chick Beer would fill a niche and would be new and interesting venture for them. When Bell asked Lewis how women were reacting to the marketing, Lewis told him,

“They told us there were (some) women offended by the black dress or bottle colors, but there were also a lot of women who thought it was cute and that the beer itself was good and different,” Bell said.

Source: The Idaho Statesman, Chick Beer