Eastside Distilling, Inc. (EAST): Marketing Mix Analysis [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're looking at a company that made a sharp turn this year; Eastside Distilling, Inc. pivoted hard into FinTech in 2025, but the spirits business-the part that actually generated the remainder of that $5.4 million YTD 2025 revenue-is still fighting with a hyper-local, premium craft strategy. Honestly, after divesting non-core assets like the canning business last year, understanding the new 4Ps is defintely key to valuing what's left. We need to see how their new January 2025 distribution deal with Epicentric Marketing and the focus on high-margin Azuñia and Burnside brands translate into actual market positioning. Dive in below to see the precise Product, Place, Promotion, and Price blueprint they are running with now.

Eastside Distilling, Inc. (EAST) - Marketing Mix: Product

The product element for Eastside Distilling, Inc. centers on its portfolio of artisanal craft spirits, which are positioned as high-quality offerings in the market. This portfolio is now streamlined to focus on its core brands following a significant strategic move in late 2024. The company emphasizes that all its spirits are crafted from natural ingredients for superior quality and taste. This commitment to quality is reflected in the history of its products garnering numerous awards. For instance, in 2018, Eastside Distilling and its subsidiary won a combined 14 medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

The strategic realignment involved the divestiture of the non-core Craft Canning + Printing asset, which was completed in October 2024 as part of a merger transaction. This action allowed Eastside Distilling, Inc. to focus capital and resources on the spirits segment. As of early 2025, the company announced partnerships to support this focus, including a production agreement with Rose City Distilling structured under a TTB alternating proprietorship, ensuring Eastside Distilling, Inc. retains full control over recipes and ingredients to preserve product authenticity.

The current core brand structure is built around four key pillars, representing the heart of the spirits offering. The company's mission is to bring these premium beverages to the masses.

Here is a breakdown of the core spirits portfolio, incorporating historical volume data where available to illustrate past brand performance:

Financially, the spirits segment is a key driver of profitability following the restructuring. For the three months ending September 30, 2024, the Spirits segment achieved positive EBITDA and net income. The company's annual revenue as of December 31, 2023, was reported at $10.8M. The company secured $5M in a Post IPO funding round on February 19, 2025, which supports growth initiatives for these core products.

The product strategy emphasizes specific, high-value offerings within the core categories:

• Azuñia Tequilas includes organic expressions.
• Burnside Whiskeys includes the Oregon Oaked Rye, which joined three other variants.
• Portland Potato Vodka is a distinct offering in the vodka category.
• The portfolio historically included Hue-Hue Coffee Rum.

Eastside Distilling, Inc. (EAST) - Marketing Mix: Place

The Place strategy for Eastside Distilling, Inc., now operating as Beeline Holdings, Inc., reflects a deliberate pivot toward a more focused, localized execution model as of late 2025.

Distribution has shifted to a cost-effective, localized micro strategy, moving away from broader, less efficient national coverage. This is evidenced by the primary focus on elevating brand presence across Oregon retail channels.

A key component of this localized approach is the new distribution agreement established in January 2025 with Epicentric Marketing. This partnership is specifically designed to drive stronger connections across both on-premise and off-premise retail environments within the state.

Logistics and fulfillment operations remain centralized at the Milwaukie, Oregon facility. This centralization supports the localized strategy by maintaining direct operational control over the supply chain within the core market focus.

The financial commitment to this distribution strategy is reflected in the reported Selling and Distribution Expenses. For the three months ending June 30, 2025, Selling and Distribution Expenses were reported at $4.38 million. This figure represents a quarter-over-quarter growth of 141.99% compared to the quarter ending March 2025, indicating significant investment in the new go-to-market strategy.

The Craft Canning + Bottling subsidiary contributes to the Place strategy by serving as one of the Northwest's leading independent ready-to-drink canners, supporting localized product availability.

Key Distribution Elements as of Mid-2025:

• Distribution model: Localized micro strategy.
• Geographic concentration: Primary focus on Oregon.
• Key Partner: Epicentric Marketing (Agreement effective Jan 2025).
• Fulfillment Hub: Milwaukie, Oregon facility.

The financial outlay for distribution activities in the second quarter of 2025 provides a concrete measure of the current Place investment:

The company's prior annual revenue, as of December 31, 2023, was $10.8M, providing a baseline against which the 2025 distribution spending can be benchmarked.

Eastside Distilling, Inc. (EAST) - Marketing Mix: Promotion

Promotion for Eastside Distilling, Inc. centers on targeted visibility, cost-efficiency messaging, and reinforcing the artisanal, experiential nature of its core spirits portfolio. The strategy is designed to cut through the noise in a competitive market by focusing resources where they yield the highest connection with the consumer.

New Epicentric Marketing partnership drives on-premise and off-premise visibility.

The January 2025 agreement with Epicentric Marketing is a direct tactical deployment to increase brand presence across Oregon. This partnership focuses on driving stronger connections between Eastside Distilling, Inc.'s brands, the retailers, and the end consumers by executing across both the on-premise and off-premise retail channels. While overall company net revenues for Q3 2025 were approximately $2.3 million, with Beeline's mortgage activities accounting for over 78% of the year-to-date revenue of $5.4 million, the targeted nature of the Epicentric engagement is crucial for the spirits segment's growth trajectory.

Strategy is micro marketing for the four core spirits brands.

Eastside Distilling, Inc. has shifted its promotional focus away from a high-cost national chain approach to a more granular, cost-effective micro strategy aimed at dominating select markets. This aligns with the 3-year strategic plan pivot to micro marketing for the four core spirits brands. The company is building craft-inspired experiential brands, which include:

• Azuñia Tequilas
• Burnside Whiskeys
• Hue-Hue Coffee Rum
• Portland Potato Vodkas

The company is aware of the need for specific promotional metrics, stating in their Q3 2025 call that they expect to begin sharing key metrics such as ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) and NPS (Net Promoter Score) in the coming quarters to evaluate brand value and customer retention.

Production partnership with Rose City Distilling is leveraged for cost-savings messaging.

The production partnership established with Rose City Distilling in early 2025 is not just an operational move; it is a key component of the promotional narrative. The collaboration is explicitly leveraged to deliver cost savings on key products, which in turn is used to enhance customer loyalty and market appeal. This focus on efficiency supports the overall financial health of the spirits division, which reported a loss from operations of $718,000 for Q3 2025. Evidence of prior cost-saving success includes the spirits division achieving a gross margin of 26% in Q3 2024, up from 21% year-over-year, driven partly by such initiatives.

The company focuses on building craft-inspired experiential brands.

The promotional content heavily emphasizes the artisanal and rare nature of the spirits. This is most evident in the 'Eastside Brand' portfolio, which features limited-edition, small-batch products. The experiential focus is designed to appeal to the discerning spirits aficionado.

The promotional focus areas and associated data points can be summarized as follows:

The company's core spirits lineup, which is the subject of these promotional efforts, includes specific expressions that are marketed as rare:

• Lion's Small Batch Oak Finished Rye Whiskey
• 12 year Select Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• Single Malt American Whiskey finished in 70-year-old sherry casks
• 11 Year Barrel Aged Rum (ABV 45%)

The company's overall market capitalization as of February 2025 was reported at $3.23 million, with 4.69 million outstanding shares, providing a financial context for the scale of the promotional investment.

Eastside Distilling, Inc. (EAST) - Marketing Mix: Price

You're looking at how Eastside Distilling, Inc. is pricing its portfolio as of late 2025, following a major strategic shift away from non-core assets. The pricing element here reflects a clear pivot toward maximizing yield on its core, high-value spirits.

Strategy targets premium, high-margin product opportunities. Eastside Distilling, Inc. continues to emphasize its highly decorated spirits lineup, which includes the Azuñia Tequilas, positioning these brands to command premium shelf space and pricing. For instance, the Azuñia Añejo Tequila was listed at a $70.00 USD regular price, which was the same as its sale price, indicating a commitment to maintaining premium positioning rather than relying on price erosion to drive volume. This focus on premium positioning is supported by the brand's accolades, such as the Azuñia Reposado being named the World's Best Reposado Tequila by the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2018, which supports a higher perceived value.

Discontinued deep discounts and inefficient distribution for Azuñia Tequila. The current pricing structure suggests a move away from the deep discounting that may have plagued the brand previously. The Azuñia Añejo Tequila showing a regular price equal to its sale price of $70.00 USD, even when sold out, suggests pricing discipline. This aligns with the stated strategic move to streamline distribution, which often accompanies a strategy to protect brand equity and margin integrity.

Production agreement with Rose City Distilling aims to deliver key product cost savings. The multi-year production partnership with Rose City Distilling, structured under a TTB alternating proprietorship, was explicitly designed to enhance manufacturing efficiency and capacity, with the goal of delivering cost savings on key products. While the exact dollar amount of these savings is not yet public, the operational restructuring is a direct lever to improve the cost side of the pricing equation, which should ultimately support margin expansion or more competitive retail pricing.

Spirits revenue is the remainder of the $5.4 million YTD 2025 total net revenue. The company's total net revenues for the nine months year-to-date (YTD) 2025 reached $5.4 million. Mortgage activities accounted for over 78% of this total revenue. Therefore, the spirits revenue represents the calculated remainder of this figure, after accounting for Beeline Title business and other revenues. Despite this revenue focus shift, the spirits segment incurred a loss of $718,000 year-to-date 2025, which was included in the total other income and expense net of $2.8 million for the same period. This loss highlights the ongoing challenge in aligning the pricing and cost structure within the spirits division.

Here's a quick look at the known financial and pricing data points for context:

The pricing strategy centers on these core components:

• Targeting premium segments with high-end brands like Azuñia.
• Eliminating deep discounts to protect brand value.
• Leveraging production efficiencies for cost reduction.
• Managing pricing against a backdrop of a spirits segment loss.

To be fair, the pricing power in the premium segment is tested by the $718,000 year-to-date loss in the spirits category, suggesting that while the sticker price is premium, the underlying cost structure or sales volume needs further optimization, which the Rose City Distilling agreement is intended to address.

Finance: draft comparison of Azuñia Añejo price vs. competitor premium tequila pricing by next Tuesday.