Explore beyond quality: uncover the secrets to building a successful craft beer brand, from unique branding strategies to engaging community involvement, in our comprehensive guide.
Interest in craft beer is at its peak: every day dozens of original breweries are opened in the world competing for customers’ attention. To “brew” a successful business, you will need two components: a quality product and strong branding. In the article, we will tell you about the latter point: you will learn why a story is important for a craft brewery, how to design labels, and what examples are worth relying on.
Today, there are more than 16 600 craft breweries in the world, most of them are located in Europe and the USA. Experts predict that every year this market will grow by 14.1%. To understand the reasons for the popularity of original drinks and the interests of consumers, we suggest studying the data of the Nielsen survey conducted in the U.S. in 2019.
Do you want your customers to choose your brand? Show your business personality, tell them about your values, emphasize what differentiates you from your competitors. To formulate the positioning, start with a thorough analysis.
The first question you should answer is who you are creating the product for? To answer it, make a so-called customer avatar, i.e. a portrait of a typical potential customer:
Think about what makes you different from your competitors. They can be both physical advantages (unique ingredients, secret recipe, price policy) and emotional hooks (inspirational story, mission, passion).
An interesting fact: the study by Carling showed that at the blind tasting, consumers could not recognize their favorite lager beer among the five offered. But after the labeling, they confidently evaluated the preferred brand as the best in taste. This suggests that the emotional component of branding is no less important than the quality of the drink.
Use storytelling to communicate emotionally with customers and convey your value proposition. Storytelling is one of the oldest tools (remember fairy tales, myths, ballades), which helps to grasp people’s attention and be remembered.
Design is a way to convey your story, mission, and value proposition to customers. The bottle shape, label color, packaging material should be designed in the same style and convey the same message.
A logo is the main visual symbol of a business. When choosing its design, craft brewers often focus on the emotional component: history, talisman, mission. The logo may also be based on the specifics of the place where you do business, innovative brewing techniques, or unusual ingredients.
You can create any of these types of the logo using ZenBusiness’s online service offering hundreds of fonts and icons to help you express your uniqueness.
Where to use the logo: labels, packages, website, social media, business cards, letterheads, email signatures.
Where to use colors: design of bottles, packages, brewery building, website.
Where to use fonts: labels, packages, website, business cards.
Where to use illustrations: labels, site, social media.
Getting inspired by other brands’ ideas will help in branding development. Explore what techniques your colleagues have used, what is missing in the market, and what new ideas you can offer. We have picked up three examples for inspiration.
Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
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