Morning. (A quick note here before today's topic.)

Cody and I are in Sacramento for the next few days presenting at the California Craft Beer Summit. 

Shoot me an email if you're at the conference and would like to grab a beer after our talk.


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Folks who have read Craft Beer, Rebranded know that we’ve always preached the importance of carefully managing how you announce your brewery’s rebrand. This includes how you roll out the update internally amongst your employees and key partners (distributors, retailers, community relationships) and of course, externally to your fans. 

A well-executed rebrand launch features, more or less, a complete changeover from old to new all at once. So your new website launches, all major touch points (merch, sales materials, tap handles, environmental design) are updated and new packaging floods the market. Again, all at the same time. 

Our method for achieving this has historically centered around a teaser campaign leading up to an official launch day, week or month. 

We’re believers in this approach because we’ve orchestrated it for several of our brewery rebranding projects. And we've had many other clients pull off similar campaigns in-house as well. So this works. 

Or at least it used to. 

Here’s what we're discussing in today's issue: Carefully orchestrating your rebrand launch so that everything goes live at the same time was challenging before the pandemic.

Now, thanks to a recession and inflation and lingering supply chain issues, it's seemingly impossible. 

You can’t get all of your packaging printed and on hand (not to mention old stock used up and sold through and beer brewed and ready to put in those new cans), and get signage installed, and new merch ordered and new trucks wrapped and new tap handles fabricated and on and on all at the same time.

Let me share a frustrating example that we’re dealing with right now. CODO spent the last half of 2021 rebranding a top 50 brewery. We wrapped up that work in Q1 2022 and they’re just now in a place where they can launch everything sometime this summer. (This was due to ordering multiple truckloads of printed cans a few months before deciding to rebrand. Oops.)

But even if you’re not sitting on millions of printed cans that have to be used, there are still myriad issues facing breweries who want that "perfect" rebrand launch today. So much so, that we’ve almost entirely given up on pushing for this during the course of our work. 

Cody and I discussed this on a recent podcast if you want some more context for why this is so challenging.

Today, it’s much more feasible, and non-anxiety-inducing, to plan for a staggered rebrand launch. 

This approach accepts that a 100% overnight change over isn’t going to happen, and allows the rebrand to roll out in planned stages over time. 

We’ve been doing this in earnest for about 18 months now. And given the likelihood of continued global supply chain disruptions and long lead times from manufacturers, staggered launches will likely be the new normal for any brewery who is planning to rebrand moving forward.

I want to spend today’s issue outlining what we’ve seen work and a few specific tactics that your brewery might employ should you decide to rebrand sometime in the next few years.

Specific tactics for executing a staggered rebrand launch

Triage & roll out key brands earlier 

Packaging has always been the biggest lynchpin for deciding when to launch a rebrand. And this makes sense because it is the most logistically challenging thing to completely change over and because it's usually a brewery’s most public-facing touchpoint. 

In a perfect world, all of your packaging would be ready to hit the shelves at the same time. But as we’ve already explained, this is almost impossible to do today. So rather than wait six months to a year to get everything just right and ready to roll out at the same time, why not launch your updated key brand(s) now?

Yes, this means you’ll have different packaging out in the wild at the same time, but this would actually happen to some degree even if everything did go perfectly smooth. At any given time, you will have packaging out in cold boxes throughout your distribution footprint. So unless you, or your distributor are going to go buy back all of that beer, you’ll have a brief period of overlap anyway. 

So embrace it. With a few other tactics we’ll outline below, this could actually draw attention to the change specifically and get people to look more closely at your brand moving forward.

Be flexible on how you bring new packaging to market

This is a sub point of the triaging idea. Let’s say you will eventually have three core brands in painted cans, but you’re seven months out from that delivery. 

Assuming the COGS pencil out, is there any merit to getting that new packaging out in the market faster in the interim via another production method? This could include pressure sensitive labels, shrink sleeves, digitally-printed cans, possibly even wrapping over existing dead stock cans, or some combination of all of this. 

This path gets your rebrand out in the market and working for you that much faster.

Careful messaging and storytelling on social media

Explaining that a new look is coming is important no matter how you’re able to launch your rebrand. Cody and I discussed this in Episode 8 of the Beer Branding Trends Podcast (How to launch your brewery’s rebrand).

But if you’re rolling out a staggered rebrand launch, you’ll need to do an ever better job of storytelling and holding your fans’ hands through the change. Explain that the change is coming and especially why it’s slow to roll out. 

Everyone values transparency, so why not let people see behind the scenes here. If you’re 6 months behind on a big can order, tell people that. Share when they can expect to see the new look and use this as an opportunity to celebrate the change and bring your fans along for the ride.

This can happen on social media, your newsletter, website, podcasts—any important touchpoint. 

No matter where you do it, view this as one more opportunity to let people peek behind the curtains and bond with your brand. 

Launch the new website and update social now (yes, even before debuting your packaging) 

In the past—right after getting new packaging ready to roll—launching a brewery’s updated website was the other most important choke point that had to be ready to go before launch

But now, I think more breweries should launch the website much earlier. Assuming you’re already announcing that a change is coming and the new site isn’t going to scoop you, launch your new site now (and get the new identity updated across all of your social channels).

This will start to familiarize people with a new look sooner. 

Plus, everyone lives online today anyway. So if you think about it, this is as much an important touch point as your packaging because someone is more likely to encounter your updated look on their phone than they are for the first time out in the wild at a bar or in a cold box.

 

Bring on the new merch

I think you can make the case for launching new merch in this scenario earlier as well. You have more leeway on what your merch can look and feel like (if you're doing it correctly), and this can be a fun, subtle way to start teasing out your updated look (while bringing in valuable revenue along the way).

Shelf talkers announcing new look

This sounds cheesy, but if you keep an eye out next time you’re at the grocery store, I bet you’ll see a few of these sorts of announcements hanging around. We see them a lot in the CPG snack aisle—chips, cereal, etc. will have violators that tell the shopper to keep an eye out for shiny new packaging. 

These can be simple shelf talkers, decals on coolers, or even violators on existing packaging (stickers, neck hangers, etc.). 

We don’t see this sort of thing very often in beer packaging and I’ve never understood why. Use your rebrand launch as a way to aggressively grab people’s attention and see if that won’t help boost sales along the way.

A few concluding thoughts: 

On prolonging the magic 

This may just be me searching for a silver lining here, but another benefit of a staggered rebrand launch is that you extend your announcement longer than a specific day, week or month. This keeps eyes on you longer, grabs attention incrementally over time (more challenging than ever today) and keeps you top of mind in waves.

When measured against this idea alone, a staggered rebrand launch actually has a lot going for it, even if you were still able to completely change everything over all at once like in the before times.

 

Will anyone remember?

The following thought runs the risk of undermining the importance of orchestrating a well thought out rebrand launch in the first place, but I think it’s worth mentioning for consideration. 

Cody and I discussed this on Episode 28 of the Beer branding Trends Podcast (Were we wrong about Brand Launches?) as well, but a mindset we’ve adopted for our internal projects (books, podcast episodes, special projects)—so much so that it’s actually become one of our values—is the idea that “we’ll do it live.”

That means rather than spending several months refining something from 90% to 99%, why don’t we just launch it now? (We can always refine later. Plus nothing is ever set in stone anyway. So even a perfect brand launch doesn’t mean something is done. There will always be evolution to follow.)

At some point during those revisions, or during that brand launch planning, you’ll hit diminishing returns. And I think that aiming for a "perfect" rebrand change over falls into this category. 

And one final thought here (and again, at the risk of undermining everything we’ve just discussed)—in the long run, say, 3 years from now, will anyone even remember that your rebrand launch wasn’t 100% orchestrated to change over at the same time? Will anyone remember, or care, that you had old packaging and new packaging sitting next to each other on shelf at the same time?

I bet they won’t. 

People are too busy living their lives. Even your most diehard and ardent fans have more important things on their plate. So if your rebrand doesn’t roll out all at once, will it really matter? 

Assuming the work is beautiful and compelling and appropriate, and you’ve done a great job of telling people why the change is happening, I don’t think it will.

Hence, the staggered launch.

On the opportunity cost of waiting to launch your rebrand 

A rebrand is an investment in your brewery’s future. You underwent this process to address key pain points, shore up your positioning and/or move on some exciting opportunities in order to set your brewery up for long term success. 

As with any investment, you do this with the intention of reaping a larger (hopefully compounding) return than you put in.

So let’s say you see an increase in sales of 30% YoY in year 1 after rebranding. For argument’s sake, let’s say that a 30% bump comes out to 600k in additional top line revenue earned in year 1. If you wait 4 months to launch your rebrand, that pencils out to 200k you won’t see in new revenue over those 4 months. 

Now this is a heavy-handed, and obviously flawed way to calculate your ROI (I hear you—beer sales aren’t consistent year round, you likely won't see dramatic increases on day 1, etc.).

But I wanted to include this to highlight the fact that your rebrand is an investment. And you want to see a return on that investment as soon as possible.  

So if that means you can launch it today and start building awareness and good will and increased velocity through a staggered rebrand launch, you should consider the opportunity cost of waiting until you’ve got everything closer to aligned for a “perfect” change over.


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Shoot me an email if you'd like to discuss your brewery's rebrand.

We're always up for a conversation and would love to learn more about what your team wants to achieve through your update.

Morning!

There hasn’t been a single day since 2018 where we haven’t been engaged in a brewery rebranding project. This includes thorough rebrands, brand refreshes and today's topic—package refreshes.  

In this scenario, your Brand—your story, positioning, messaging and importantly, your brand identity—are all (ostensibly) good to go. You just want your packaging to work harder for you and/or you need to address some more surface level issues within your packaging system.

Package refreshes aren’t as heavy a lift as a formal rebrand (in terms of budget, time, energy and risk), but can have a similar outcome as a more thorough update (in terms of ROI and growth) IF the criteria and project context are just right and IF the work is handled correctly.

We’ve lead several of these engagements over the years (and are currently seeing an uptick in the number of breweries who reach out to us to discuss them).

So today, we want to discuss when we think this can be a great approach, as well as some situations where it might not be your best course of action. 

Good? Let's go. 

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What is a package refresh?

A package refresh is simply when you update your packaging on its own while leaving your core brand identity as is. So the end result would be new packaging adorned with your existing logo. 

These are tactical projects; think of them as a fresh coat of paint. And they can make a lot of sense, in theory, when your brewery’s positioning, messaging and broader brand and brand identity are good-to-go and your packaging just needs a facelift. 

(Notice that subtle “In theory” caveat? We’ll circle back that little guy here in a bit.)

Tinker Coffee's package refresh.

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When package refreshes can make sense (and move the needle)

It probably goes without saying that for a package refresh to make sense, your Brand (positioning, messaging, values, voice, personality, etc.) itself needs to be in a good place and actively helping you to achieve whatever long term goals you have.

If your Brand isn’t in a strong place, then anything you do to dress up your brewery’s outward appearance (packaging, identity, website, etc.) will not get the results you’re after. 

This goes beyond branding and design as well: If you’re releasing beer and products that aren’t as perfect as possible—if you’ve got dissolved oxygen issues or off flavors or XYZ QC issues—then updating any of your identity or packaging is folly. 

And beyond your products, if your core executive team (and overall staff) isn’t squared away and ready for the next phase of your business, then investing in your branding might not be a good move either.

But to flip this: If your brand identity is solid and you have all of these other core foundational Brand and business functions in a good place, then a package refresh can work wonders. 
 

Common reasons breweries refresh their packaging  

Reasons for refreshing your packaging can be similar to why you want to rebrand, though generally not as existential. (e.g. “Our can art is inconsistent,” vs. “Our current identity doesn’t match who we are as a company anymore, let alone where we see ourselves in 5 years.”) 

Here are a handful of recurring reasons we’ve heard from breweries who are considering this move: 

– You want to freshen things up ahead of a big move—launching a new market, courting a new chain retailer, prepping for a seasonal chain reset or for ABP season, etc.

– There is a disconnect between your brand story’s and positioning (which you feel are in a good place) and your package design itself. 

– You want to address the hierarchy between your brewery’s brand, beer names and style. 

– You’re launching a new beyond beer product and in doing so, realized that your other packaging just isn’t that great.

– You’re making some format changes to save costs on production (and possibly decrease turnaround time for new releases)—moving from a 16oz to a 12oz can, moving from bottles to cans, from painted cans to pressure sensitive labels, etc. 

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But far and away, the thing we hear in almost every single package refresh project is the desire to address simple inconsistencies and just freshen things up.  

It’s easy to have your packaging aesthetics wander over time. Even more so if you’ve cycled through a few in-house designers over the years, or have had different agencies or freelance partners in this mix. 

Even just a few years of inconsistent packaging and broader communication work and you’ll end up with a portfolio that doesn’t look like it comes from the same brewery. (FWIW We’ve seen some of the largest breweries in the country in this position, so don’t feel bad about it if your packaging is inconsistent—it can happen to anyone.)

A package refresh can help you rein in and systemize your packaging across the board. 

The desire to freshen things up is common goal as well. It might not sound pressing, but sometimes your packaging can just be tired. If sales are flat, or declining, and everything else (liquid, Brand, team) seems to be in good place, maybe it is time to update your packaging so consumers have a new reason to give you a look. 

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Now that we know why you might want to refresh your packaging, and when it can make sense to do so, let’s explore a few important process points you need to get right to successfully pull this off.

Henderson Brewing's package refresh.

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On Art Direction 

Let’s assume that your brewery’s Brand (your messaging and positioning and values and personality and voice and essence) are all good to go, as is your brand identity, and you just need to focus on your packaging’s aesthetics. 

In this case, a core challenge of this project will be developing new packaging that achieves XYZ communication goals you have, solves all the pain points you’ve defined and works with your existing brand identity. 

This seems straight forward, but it can actually be challenging if you’re not also updating your identity. 

Say your logo is complex or has some sort of expressive icon, then that might not work well with a likewise highly-illustrative label. Or vice versa: Maybe a simple type mark might not work on whatever desired aesthetic you’re envisioning. 

This may not be an issue if your identity aligns with what you’re envisioning for your packaging updates. But it can also act as a set of handcuffs and limit where you can take your packaging’s look and feel.

How do we address this problem?

1. Conversations with the right stakeholders

We treat our package refresh kickoffs no different from our in-depth rebranding projects. So we still ask the same questions, and talk with a variety of stakeholders across your business (from your executive team, all the way through your chain from production folks, front and back of house folks, marketing and sales folks, operations folks) internally and externally with distributor and key retail partners. 

2. Mood Boards for orienting our teams & for rapid prototyping

We use Mood Boards (visual collages) as tools in all of our branding or rebranding work. But in package refreshes, they are often even more critical because they stand in for more thorough brand strategy (more on this in a sec). 

Mood Boards have two distinct benefits in our process. The first is that they’re a great way of getting your team’s vision out of your heads and onto paper. (Don’t tell us you want your cans to look “vintage.” That can mean the 1980s or the 1880s. Show me what vintage means to you.) 

Mood Boards are a great tool for orienting our teams to ensure we’re on the same page before moving into the design phase. 

The second benefit here is that they allow you to rapidly prototype different aesthetic directions.

If you’re working with a partner that is haphazardly shepherding your project, they might jump right into design and come back in a few weeks with 6 or 7 options for you to consider. But 5 or 6 (or 7) of those concepts might not be appropriate. So everyone’s time (and money and energy) is wasted. (Not to mention those poor little designer feelings are hurt from the subsequent—and well-deserved—negative feedback.) 

Mood Boards help you “try on” a look in your head and immediately gut check it against everything you already know about your brewery’s brand. Does this direction feel right? Yes? Then let’s explore some packaging concepts that look like this. 

It gives you an invaluable set of guard rails as you move into the design phase.


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(Below) Mood Boards we built for Good George Brewing to art direct their identity and packaging revamp. 

Left Field Brewery's package refresh.

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Where these projects can falter (here’s the rub)

I mentioned an important caveat earlier in this issue. Let’s get into that now.

Package refreshes can be an attractive option for your brewery because they represent a lot of upside. You’re not investing in expensive Brand Strategy and identity design work—you’re just focusing on your packaging. And if you get that right, you can drive some exciting growth.

But an issue that you can run into in this scenario is that your team has unilaterally determined that your brand and brand identity are in a good place. 

And package refreshes, by design, generally don't include a more thorough Brand Strategy phase up front.

This means that there’s no mechanism for your team (or your design partner) to verify that you’re actually correct about your Brand and brand identity being good to go.

Of course, you can be right. We’ve worked with some of the brightest minds throughout the beer and beverage industry—folks I wouldn’t hesitate to hire if given the chance. So this isn’t a critique of you and your ability to measure your brand’s effectiveness.

But this is a matter of perspective.

So my plea for you (or at least, a word of advice)…

Don’t be in a hurry to self-diagnose 

You’re closer to your brewery’s brand and business than any outsider can ever be.

You live and breathe it 24/7. You stay up late manically writing down new exciting ideas as they spring up. You lead and mentor your team, you set the vision and shape the culture. (And I bet you’re the one that loses sleep when things go sideways.)

But this closeness can hinder your ability to be objective about your business (or more germane to our discussion here, how well your Brand, identity and packaging are performing).

So my advice to you is to not self-diagnose your brewery’s branding problems.

Or to be more blunt, don’t assume your Brand (and brand identity) are good to go and it’s your packaging that’s really holding you back. 

Yes, your packaging might need to be updated. But that update might need to be part of a broader identity refresh.

Wrapping up 

1. If handled well, a package refresh can reap many of the same benefits as a rebrand (and at a much lower investment). So, if your team is thinking about a rebrand, revisit our thinking on Evolution vs. Revolution and make sure you understand which path is right for your business. 

2. If you think you need a packaging refresh, don’t immediately assume your broader brand identity itself is working as well as it could. Go into the project with open eyes and fully explore your messaging, brand voice and positioning. 

If you do determine that your Brand and identity are all good to go, then refresh that packaging!

Morning.

There were a handful of folks who, in our year end review survey, asked for more content and insights on websites and digital marketing. 

It’s worth mentioning quickly that, while CODO actually does a good amount of digital work each year (usually 15–20% of our annual revenue), we've historically shied away from writing about web design. 

Why? Because it's tough to write anything about web design, development or digital marketing that will be even remotely evergreen.

But then, this is the name of the game in UI/UX work—anything you make today will need to be updated, if not completely overhauled within 5 years, if not sooner. Case in point, we're currently redesigning two brewery websites that we previously launched back in the halcyon days of 2019. 

Nevertheless, several of you asked us to cover this topic, so I'm going to set aside the evergreen issue and highlight a few interesting things we're seeing in our brewery and beverage website projects right now.

Some these will be tactical and immediately actionable. And some will be more on the food for thought side of the house. 

Let's get into it.

1. Cleaning up those pandemic pivots 

One of the biggest recurring themes we're seeing in our digital work this year is cleaning up left over scar tissue from the pandemic.

When the world locked down in March 2020, thousands of breweries across the country saw their revenue drop as much as 90% overnight (particularly taproom-focused outfits). This spurred a mad dash for breweries to quickly spin up eCommerce (eComm) stores to sell gift cards, merch and packaged beer to go (or DTC where legal).

In almost all cases, the quickest way to get an eComm storefront in place (if you didn’t already have this capability) was to build a turnkey eComm store as an entirely new website, separate from your main site—separate domain, inventory management system and payment gateway.

There was no long term thought put into these moves because they only needed to last two weeks, right? (Right?)

Anyway, more than three years of breweries running their digital footprint this way have highlighted some nagging issues, including: 

– You have to manage two completely unique websites which takes more time, energy and money. 

– Organic search and SEO are (very likely) nonexistent for many of these plug and play eComm systems because they're not tied to your brewery’s main website in an SEO-friendly way. So even if you’ve been running this way successfully for a few years, you may have little to show for it where it matters (e.g. organic search). 

– If you threw up one of these turnkey system, the sales data (one of the most valuable 'things' a brewery can own) can be sorely lacking, and challenging to transition over to a new, more permanent platform. (This isn’t the end of the world, but losing a few years of customer and sales data is a bummer).

– The disconnect between your main site and this standalone eComm site can seem unprofessional at best, or insecure at worst. This one is subjective, but look: We see brewery websites that look (and function) poorly every day.

I get that your website doesn’t seem as immediately important as your packaging, but don’t forget that it does exist and people are actually looking at it. Remember, your brand is only as strong as your weakest touchpoint.

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To address these issues, we’re seeing a lot of inquiries and projects with breweries who are wanting to build a more dedicated eCommerce-forward website. 

For breweries who want to invest in their eCommerce as a revenue generating channel, we're building more websites on purpose-built eComm systems, usually Shopify.

So these websites house all of your typical brewery info (beer, tap lists and menus, location(s), hours, about info, contact, etc.) as well as your full online store. This is much easier to manage on your end and it has the added benefit of creating a more immersive (all-in-one) ecosystem that your customers can explore.

E.g. You send out a targeted email newsletter (more on this in a second). A user clicks through that email and adds a hat to their cart. Then, they click another link to look at shirts. Maybe they grab one of those as well. And then maybe they click over to your beer page, or your blog before checking out.  

And all of this is gold—gold!—for SEO. 

And back to user data for a moment: This is important because it allows you to create more efficacious marketing and better track your campaigns. (E.g. this Advent calendar email converted to $14,800 in sales. Nice! Or this free shipping Hop Water promo only generated $3,900 in sales. How can we improve our offer here?)

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A quick note here on tools and technology before we move on. We're doing a lot of website design and development projects for our brewery and beverage clients on Shopify specifically. But we've also used a combination of WordPress + WooCommerce, and even Squarespace (a completely custom build) to accomplish this. 

There are a few great tools and services you can use to integrate your main site, eComm system and even overarching POS. So do your own research and make sure you find the right fit for your brewery now, and that it’s something you can grow into over the coming years.  

2. Pulling together multiple taprooms (building a central hospitality site)

Another big theme we're seeing in our project work this year revolves around creating an all-in-one website for breweries with multiple locations, concepts and brands. 

We're written before about the Accidental Hospitality Group. As a refresher, given enough time in the market, your brewery may end up opening a second (or third) location. You'll create new Sub Brands, acquire smaller brands and co-brand with other groups in interesting ways. Do this enough times and you end up creating a burgeoning empire. 

From a website standpoint, running multiple locations can present an interesting set of challenges on its own.

– How can you easily manage all of these locations (all with different tap lists, food menus, specials and vibes—rules, events, etc.)?

– Can (should?) you build a single website that houses all of your concepts or do you need individual sites for each location? Which is better for SEO?

– How can you add varying levels of user admin ability (e.g. a GM who can update everything globally, a bar manager who can only update a tap list, a front of house person who can only update food specials, etc.). And the ability to lock someone out quickly should they exit the company. 

– How can you set it up so that site updates auto-populate other 3rd party apps, services and social media (e.g. Untapped, Instagram) or vis versa? (Where can you reclaim those lost 30 minutes of soul sucking admin time each week?)

– How can you add new locations quickly as they come online? (usually via landing pages)

– How can you let each of your locations stand on their own while linking back to your parent brand (digitally and on the brand level)?

– How can you streamline all of your inbound charitable donation requests?

A quick note on self diagnosing your problem

This seems like a complex problem, but pulling together a central hospitality site that kicks users out to a specific location is a fairly straight forward process. (You can do cool stuff with geolocation that automatically serves up the most relevant location, create nice looking landing pages within your main site, etc.)

But make sure you understand what root problem you’re wanting to solve before throwing a new website at it. 

We view these projects as much as a branding and Brand Architecture problems as we do straight forward website builds.

E.g. Determining whether or not it makes sense for someone who visits your downtown taproom website to also know that you have a spot out in the suburbs is a Brand Strategy and Architecture question. Your website is simply how you will convey that info. 

If you map out your Brand Architecture and understand how your parent brand does (or doesn’t) inform your other concepts, your site mapping and information architecture will take care of itself and ensure you're solving the core issue at hand.
 

3. An exciting rise in email marketing

We're seeing more breweries dive into email marketing and long form storytelling this year. (And I love it.)

In our work on this front, particularly amongst our larger clients, we’re developing custom templates within their preferred platform (e.g. MailChimp, Klaviyo) to create an even more immersive experience. 

But custom templates are definitely a nice to have vs. a need to have. So if you're interested in email marketing, just get started—you can always build custom templates later. 

And if you still don't want to begin doing this today, you should at least begin gathering email addresses through your site so that you're not starting from zero when you do decide to ramp this up.

One more thing to consider on this. 

Social media, while important, is a rapidly changing landscape. A simple algorithm change here or a shift in regulations there can dramatically alter how much reach and impressions you're able to get on your every day posts. This applies to all social media. What's in today will be old news in a few years. 

But there's one channel that can’t be throttled, or demonetized, or that will force you to pay hard earned money in order to see any sort of engagement down the line… 

Your email newsletter.

I can go on and on here: Email marketing gives you amazing customer data. Email marketing helps you stay top of mind with your fans. And lastly, your fans trust you enough to opt in to your newsletter which means they're actually excited to hear from you.

Your newsletter platform is built on trust and value.

And all of this is amazing. 

(Thanks for reading our newsletter, by the way. I'm glad you're here.)


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I hope all of this helps you think about how you can improve your website this year. Shoot me an email if you've got any questions on anything we covered today or if you'd like some help with your website.

G'day, mate!

Today we're going to give you a behind the scenes look at our rebranding process for one of New Zealand's most popular breweries, Good George Brewing. 

This project entailed Brand Architecture and Strategy en route to identity and (tons of) packaging that spans several Bev Alc categories. It was more than a year in length and we're excited to finally share the results. 

Cody interviewed Damon Youdale, Good George's Director of Marketing, over on the Beer Branding Trends Podcast. Give it a listen if you'd like more background context on this project and all things Kiwi beer. 


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Good George Brewing began as a small brewpub in the former St. George's Church in Frankton, New Zealand back in 2011. 

Since that time, they’ve waged a relentless campaign, opening bars and dining halls, launching beers and ciders and spirits, and breaking into nearly every relevant beverage category there is. They even introduced their own patented beer vessel along the way, the 946 mL glass Squealer, serving as something of a go-between at the axis of can and growler. 

In their time they've helped to define the New Zealand sensibility for craft beer, craft spirits and beyond.

People here in the States have been taken aback whenever we've mentioned Good George. Wait, they’re a brewery that also produces a leading cider brand? They’re a hospitality group with a distilling arm? They’ve got a hand in RTDs and NA products? They actually produce all of these things themselves?

Yes. The answer to all of these questions is yes. 

We've worked with more than 70 breweries since 2010, and Good George may be th best we've seen when it comes to effectively executing both the hospitality and production / distribution sides of this business. The breadth and depth of what they've accomplished (and have planned) at their scale is inherently impressive.

So this begs the question: Why rebrand when things are going so well?

When every new product you release is a smash hit and people in far flung markets are actively clamoring for you to open a brewpub in their town, why would you feel the need to change things up across the board?

A collection of Good George's previous branding and packaging. To reiterate, while their portfolio was inconsistent, none of it looked particularly bad. There was a lot of great visual foundation to work with as we waded into the project. 


—


What were we brought in to solve?

Somehow, in the course of creating this incredible enterprise, Good George's ownership group never slowed down long enough to develop proper organizational branding and positioning, let alone Brand Architecture.

They had a logo and attractive packaging across the board, owing perhaps to their creative internal culture that values running and gunning and throwing ideas up against the wall to see what sticks without being overly precious.

But with a burgeoning portfolio that spans several beyond beer categories and a growing roster of physical locations, it became clear that their overriding pain points might soon begin to inhibit growth.

Here are a few issues we heard in our kickoff work:

– We have no clear, central brand story.

– Our packaging is attractive, but none of it hangs together on shelf. 

– Our packaging and physical locations work in silos and are completely unrelated in look and feel. 

– We need an identity system that better supports a merch program.

– We need to define our Brand Architecture so we can better direct new releases within our existing portfolio and guide new product development moving forward. We need a tool that helps us match the break neck speed at which we develop, refine and release new products. 
 

—

Yes, everything was going well for Good George. But they decided that it could all be even better if they addressed these issues once and for all. So this was our charge heading into their rebrand.

Define their story. Bring clarity to everything. Connect packaging to brick and mortar. And create beautiful packaging that is cohesive at the parent level, while honoring specific category cues, rules and consumer expectations along the way. 

On to Brand Strategy.

Brand Architecture & Strategy 

We began this project by mapping out Good George’s active & planned product categories and sub-categories in a single document to get a clearer understanding of who each product line is for, the role they play in the larger portfolio, and how they might work together to support the brand (and business). 

This simple step of taking stock of what’s at play helped us in a few ways.

How can we earmark certain product categories to carry a specific vibe or tone? Can we influence customers to remain loyal to a specific product by positioning it a certain way? What opportunities exist for future products, or even just for R&D?

We can't dive into specifics here (sorry for the redacted Brand Architecture Map). But we can say that at a high level, we determined that a Branded House strategy with Co-Driven Sub Brands would best suit Good George's needs for most products. 

(If this is all Greek to you, you might consider grabbing a copy of our Beyond Beer Handbook to learn more about Brand Architecture.)

With their Architecture map set, we began to define an overarching voice and creative direction for the brand. We explored Good George’s roots in hospitality, and what that meant for brand messaging—and the ultimate goal of helping customers to feel welcome—whether on-premise or out at retail. 

We explored what it means to be independent; to be fun and edgy and honest to a fault, in a way that would separate Good George from the corporate dinosaurs in the New Zealand market. 

Moving forward, we knew that the answer would lie somewhere between these two ideas: Hospitality and Edge. 

How can we be hospitable and welcoming without being milquetoast and unremarkable?

Now we needed to sort out what these ideas would actually look like.

Brand Identity Design

(Howdy to all you folks who skipped right down this portion of the article.)

At this point in the process, we begin to dig into the fun visual stuff. We started by exploring some fun (if literal) interpretations of the St. George story to use as supporting elements. 

Now for a (small) bump in the road.

Remember the adage: Never discuss politics or religion in polite company? 

We knew there would be a very fine line with using these religious indexes in Good George's identity. And, well, we found that line (and moonwalked right past it) in our very first identity presentation.

Oops.

In this case, the religious iconography—crosses, bloody roses, swords—went a little too hard and heavy. 

I contend that we're not assholes here, read the story of Saint George and tell me you wouldn't also feel compelled to present a direction with spears and dragons and roses.

Remember: The creative process is iterative. (We're going to start selling shirts emblazoned with this dictum.)

Initial Brand Identity System presentation, including the summarily rejected "bleeding rose" concept (top).

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We backed off of this on-the-nose religious angle at the behest of the Good George team. Remember, we're trying to balance Edge and Hospitality. And we landed too far on one end of that spectrum. 

As we moved through revisions, we all grew enamored with a more subtle reference to their origin—a halo—tilted ever so rakishly (a nod to Good George's collective sense of wit and mischief). Think Bart Simpson in church clothes, but with a slingshot tucked in his back pocket. Or perhaps Aziraphale drinking lots (and lots) of wine for the Neil Gaiman fans out there.

We were collectively excited about the potential of the crooked halo as a key visual to revisit and activate in different situations, which was something Good George never had before. We agreed—client and CODO team alike—that this was the way to move forward. We developed a loopy script typography to build on the previous logo’s equity and generated a confident badge to contain this concept neatly. 


—


Here's a not super sexy, but practical aside: Whenever you know your identity will be deployed across a variety of different formats—clear glass, dark glass, painted cans, pressure sensitive labels, corrugate, large signage—you need to think about how your logo can remain consistent on all of those mediums.

A logo might look lovely in a sterile (and oh-so-controllable) PDF, only to disappear on a gin bottle.

—


Here's another (another?) aside: This is an extremely fun point in the process where the strategy is set and our team is cut loose to create beautiful stuff. Music's turned up loud, 11am beers for the under 30 crowd on our team are handed out (or perhaps nitro cold brew coffee if you're nearing 40 like yours truly), and you riff.

(When a misguided young person dreams of being a designer, this is what they're picturing.)

We've done all the leg work—the strategy, the positioning and admin stuff. We've defined all the necessary parameters and have even honed in on a single, core icon. 

Now it's time to just sprint and make gorgeous supporting elements. 

Okay, aside(s) over.


—

We created a bunch of stuff here. And after carefully editing and killing anything that wasn't 100% in line with the story we're trying to tell, we landed on a group of energetic and straight-to-the-point supporting assets to go along with Good George's core mark. 

This included a monogram pint glass mark, some fun tagline-ish vernacular artwork, and other icons and bugs that could be deployed tactically where needed on packaging, merchandise and way-showing opportunities.

With their Modular Brand Identity System wrapped up, we jumped headlong into a nearly 8 month package design process (as you'll see shortly, Good Gorge produces approximately one million different SKUs and products). 

We'll fast forward here and sort of montage our way through all their packaging. 

Beginning with beer, we nailed down a template for their cans and secondary packaging, and were then off to the races developing bespoke concepts that tied into local New Zealand culture. 

Highlights include Virtual Reality, a (now best selling) non-alcoholic IPA with an eye-catching painted purple and teal colorway. 

Other concepts, like Haymaker IPA, focused on the rural and agricultural roots of the region. 

And my personal favorite, the sleek (and sexy?) Fog City IPA, a name that references Hamilton’s tendency to collect fog as it rolls in across the Waikato River valley.

With the beer portfolio figured out, we made a hard shift into Good George's RTD line. 

While we made a conscious effort to keep the beer trade dress energetic, colorful and decidedly local, the parameters for these RTDs were a bit different. This category is still relatively fresh in New Zealand and the competition has a very specific look. Our goal was to highlight the natural flavorings used, and to make sure people understand the provenance of the local, hand-crafted spirits in these drinks. 

We ended up striking a slightly elevated, more-premium look for these cans and packs in order to stand out against the backdrop of (growing) corporate competition.


—


For the sake of brevity, we'll include some images of Good George's cider, spirits and RTDs below.

Aaaaand, montage over.


—


Did Good George need to undergo a top to bottom brand refresh? Maybe, and maybe not. Yet the advantages of doing so are self-evident. Now they can keep doing their thing as they see fit, with the confidence of knowing they have a foundational brand identity and Brand Architecture to grow into. 

For a company looking to break through to that next level, this could be just the edge that they need.


—


In terms of sheer product categories, SKUs, Brand Strategy work and blood/sweat/tears, this project has been one of CODO's largest undertakings yet. So a quick shout out to the Good George team here: You were all lovely to work with and we're honored you trusted us with all of this.

Morning.

We were discussing a rebrand with a brewery recently and near the end of our call, their COO asked if we felt like their project would be a rebrand or a refresh. 

This seems like a straight forward question, but after 5+ years of handling several dozen brewery rebrands (and writing an entire book on the subject), we've found that the answer is rarely black and white. 

Sometimes, a brewery will reach out with a clear idea of what they want to accomplish in mind. "We're viewing this as more of an update, and would like to tackle our identity, packaging and website.” Or conversely, “Our business has grown so much that we don’t feel like we even know what our story is today. We’d like help with defining this so we can set ourselves up for future growth. And we'd like to make some major changes to reflect all that.” 

But more often than not, people aren't sure which approach is correct. And even more (more?) often than not, when we get into the project and begin the work, the direction we end up going doesn't fit neatly into one of these boxes anyway.

So this brings up that question again: What's the difference between a rebrand and a brand refresh?

Let’s discuss these two approaches and explore how they’re similar, where they differ and why this matters if your brewery is considering an update.

Evolution vs. Revolution

We framed the difference between Rebrands and Brand Refreshes in our Craft Beer, Rebranded book as “Evolution vs. Revolution.” From the book: 

Are you completely reshaping your brewery’s culture and positioning? Are we throwing your logo out with the bathwater and creating wholesale visual change across the board? Or, are we building on decades of work and hard-earned goodwill to make subtle updates in a natural progression? Would it be a misstep to jettison the visual signifiers and concepts behind your company as it stands? Or, does it make more sense to build upon, hone and enhance what already exists?

—

Let’s start with some quick definitions and then dive firmly into the weeds. 

A rebrand represents a shift in your core messaging. This starts with upstream business and brand strategy considerations, including your long term vision—deciding what spaces you want to compete in, how your brewery is positioned, how you wish to be perceived, and defining your most compelling and ownable differentiator(s), brand values and key messaging pillars.

All of this brand strategy, once developed, drives the look and feel of your brand identity.

This includes all the tangible things that help you tell this story to the world, including an updated brand identity system, packaging, website, merch, interior design and extending to all of your other touch points. In some cases, this can even include developing a new name. 

A brand refresh is more of a visual, surface-level update—call it a fresh coat of paint. In this scenario, your brand values and positioning (most of that strategy stuff we're focusing on during a rebrand) still holds true, but your brand identity and packaging may just need some level of updating.

The work (identity, packaging, etc.) will generally build on, or evolve, your existing identity. So it’s not a sweeping change, but an evolution.

—

I'll use this opportunity to mention something Cody said a few months ago during a presentation. I’d never heard it put this way and it’s been rattling around in my head ever since. (Just don't tell him I quoted him here.)

“All rebrands are refreshes. But not all refreshes are rebrands.”

Indeed.

(Top) Our work with Left Field Brewery is a clear brand refresh. Their previous identity and packaging had good bones, but they needed some help resetting everything to accommodate an aggressive annual release schedule.

Fun fact: one of Left Field's goals for this project was for the refresh to be so subtle that most people might not even know it happened. 

(Bottom) Our work with Prost Brewing was 100% a rebrand. It's actually astounding how big the disconnect between their previous identity and packaging was compared to their beer quality. 

This called for an entirely new identity, packaging, website, interior design and a variety of other important touch points.
 

—

Visual and Brand Equity

You can't decide whether a project is a rebrand or a refresh without understanding what, if any, equity your current brand may have. 

Your visual and/or brand equity will matter more during a refresh. Whereas you may jettison more of that equity during a rebrand. 

But even then, this framing isn't always 100% black and white. 

We've written about the difference between visual and brand equity before. Revisit that here.
 

Okay, so there is a difference. Why does this matter?

The idea of "Evolution vs. Revolution" is a valuable heuristic to help breweries think about how they want to address their update. 

But I'm not sure that it's necessary for you to make this decision before embarking on a project. 

In a perfect world, your team would go into this process with an open mind and let the brand strategy and due diligence dictate which is the best path.

Still, it is valuable to think about which approach you want to take because it can help you define your goals and overall intent.

This brings us to why you're wanting to make an update in the first place, and how this can help you understand whether a rebrand or a refresh is the appropriate solution. 

(Top) Our work with KettleHouse is a great example where the line between a refresh and a rebrand blur. There was a heavy strategy component (positioning, value definition and messaging pillars), but then there was also so much visual equity after 20+ years of business, that the final result (the identity and packaging) was more of a sweeping refresh.

(Bottom) Our work with Mission Brewing is another example of this gray area. There was a fair amount of equity in Mission's icon and a few specific beer brands. But then we also had to completely build their brand strategy from the ground up. Here's a podcast where we interviewed Mission's CEO about this process.


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What are you trying to fix / accomplish? 

If you can’t decide which of these approaches makes the most sense (and you'd like to do so), you may find some clarity by examining the reason(s) you're considering an update in the first place.

What issues and pain points are leading you to want to update your branding and packaging? Or, what opportunities do you see? 

Here are some of the recurring reasons we've heard over the last 6+ years of helping breweries rebrand. How many of these apply to your brewery? 

– “Our packaging is all over the place visually. And with 25+ new releases per year, it's always getting worse.”

– "We've got multiple locations now and want to develop a consistent look and experience that spans the entire company." 

– “We’re not really sure what our story is. Sure, we’ve grown a lot and people love our beer, but I feel like we could be so much further along if we actually spent time dialing in our marketing and branding." 

– “We’re shifting to a new format (moving to 16oz cans, from bottles to cans, introducing new secondary packaging, moving to pressure sensitive labels to be more nimble, etc.) and want to make everything hang together on shelf.”

– "We're buying a brewery and, other than the name, think everything about the existing branding and packaging needs to change."

– "We've completely rebuilt our portfolio. Now that we're confident in our products themselves, we'd like to address our packaging so we can sell more beer." 

– "We're going to start distributing in a new market next year, but worry that our name will limit our success. No one knows what our name means, or even how to pronounce it."

– “We’re planning to launch a new XYZ (beyond beer product) and want to get our flagship packaging in a better place before deciding how much, if any, of our brewery's brand comes through on those new releases.”

– “It’s just time. We haven’t made any changes to our packaging in more than 10 years and it feels like we’re getting lost on shelf.”

—

A bit of homework for you: Reread this list and think about which situations call for a refresh vs. where more of a full rebrand is in order. Or, which prompts could fall in that gray area?

Also, the 17th person that made their way through this entire issue and emails me with the subject line, "Dunkel" wins a free copy of our Craft Beer Branding Guide.

(Top) Our work with Southern Brewing is a clear rebrand. 

(Bottom) Our work with BitterRoot Brewing is another example that doesn't fit neatly into one of these categories. Their identity was a clean refresh while their merch and packaging leaned more towards an outright rebrand.


—

Ultimately, whether you consider your update a rebrand or a refresh doesn't really matter. It's the process that gets you where you want to be, or perhaps more importantly, how you emerge from that process in a better position to scale your business, that matters.

Think about your brand equity and why you want to make an update in the first place. And move forward in confidence.

And then you and I can grab a beer here in a year or two and argue about which box your project ended up fitting in.

Hi, there.

Today, we’re going to take a behind the scenes look at a branding project for a (now open) brewery in planning. This particular client actually bookends the pandemic—we worked with them before, during, and now continuing afterward on several follow-on projects.  

In all, we worked with more than half a dozen brewery startups throughout the 18 months that comprised the height of the pandemic (early 20 through mid–2021), and this cohort holds a special place in my heart. 

This was a stressful time—as a father, and a husband, and a son, and a business owner. I don’t have to tell you. You lived through it as well. 

But these pandemic-era projects gave us (me, I’ll just say me), a sense of normalcy throughout all the chaos. World’s ending? Well, I can’t control that. But I do know how to name a brewery. And how to brand it. So let’s just focus on that little ray of sunshine, shall we?

I’ll stop here before becoming overly earnest.  

—

For this case study, we’re going to focus on positioning, name development (in particular), story and identity design and how all of these align to inform each other throughout the creative process. 

In order to keep this issue from becoming overly long, I’m going to drop in podcast and resource links throughout in case you’re interested in learning more about a particular topic. Look for this symbol [X] for these links.

On that note, we recorded a fun companion podcast with Birdsmouth Beer on their branding process and overall path to market.

Listen to that episode here. 

Okay, that's enough preamble. Let’s meet Andy and Rocco. 

—


The brewery team & initial brief

Andrew Gioia and Rocco Laginestra are two long time friends from New Jersey. They have a diverse background that spans real estate and finance, culinary arts and brewing, chemistry, engineering and manufacturing.

Their vision: To build New Jersey’s lager brewery. They will brew every day, approachable and unpretentious lagers for every day people—for New Jersey. 

This initial scope included Brand Strategy, name development, brand identity design and brand guidelines.

Brand Strategy

[X] Here’s a podcast to learn more about what a project kickoff looks like.

We begin every branding project by working through Brand Strategy. Here are some highlights, pulled verbatim, from Andy and Rocco's Brand Strategy doc:

Key Messaging Pillars 

– Utilitarian 
– Sharing beer with others (community)
– Clean & refreshing lager beer 
– Science & engineering 
– New Jersey Local 

Key Differentiators 

– We will focus aggressively on providing fresh beer (less than 1 month old). We will put in place safeguards to ensure that our beer is fresh; such as, only distributing in NJ, and working with our accounts to ensure they have the latest and greatest.

– We will focus on learning and teaching, including listening to our local market via ongoing sensory panels and blind taste tests. Additionally, we will have a small resource library for breweries of all sizes.

– We will be an all-lager brewery from day one. We will produce repeatable, dependable craft lagers that stand out from a sea of unfocused portfolios. 

Messaging to Avoid

We don’t want to be pretentious. At the end of the day, we’re making beer. And to go even deeper, we’re making traditionally-brewed lagers—far from snob territory.

Brand Essence development 

Your Brand Essence is a distillation of the most compelling idea behind your brewery and business. It’s your mission, vision, values and positioning all wrapped up into a concise statement.

This is primarily an internal process tool used to capture the spirit of your brewery as opposed to a public-facing statement or tagline. Think of it as an alignment tool—a way of ensuring that everything you create and put out into the world is consistent and tells the same story.

[X] Here’s a podcast on defining your Brand Essence.
[X] Here’s a chapter from Craft Beer, Rebranded on this topic as well.

Here's where we landed on Andy and Rocco's Brand Essence.


"Utilitarian Beer"

In our youth, we hammered triple dry hopped 100+ IBU IPAs and barrel-aged stouts. We still love those beers, but today, we love the conversations that surround beer more than the beer itself. Beer should be well-made, clean, and enjoyable (that’s why we make lagers). It shouldn’t get in your way—it should be a vehicle for conversation and community building. Cheers, let’s have a few more.

Misc. (potential) messaging 

For everyone (blue collar / white collar / all collars) / easy drinking shift beer / “beer that doesn’t get in the way” / every day lagers

Brand personality & attributes 

Straight forward / confident / well-made / consistent / dry (wit) / pragmatic / traditional 

Visual cues 

Vintage (~ 1940’s) post-Prohibition beer branding — old beer labels (mish mash typography / simple printing methods) / Approachable and friendly / familiar / monogram or iconic symbol (maker’s mark) / ‘Modern Retro’ vs. 'Genuine Vintage' (lean toward Modern)

—

Now that we’ve outlined their Brand Strategy, let’s shift gears to discuss name development.

On timing: Strategy vs. name development

We’re breaking Andy and Rocco’s name development process out here to better focus on it.

However, when we’re naming brewery, we develop and present name options congruently with the Brand Strategy itself because your story, positioning and Brand Essence all inform what makes for an appropriate name. 

Earlier in our career, we would do these things separately—that is, we would completely frame and finalize Brand Strategy and then develop name options.

But we’ve found that something that requires lateral thinking and genuine creative inspiration, like name development, works better if you let the Strategy, messaging and name options snowball into a collection of ideas.

[X] Here’s a podcast on how we name breweries as well as criteria for a compelling name.


How many options do we present? 

We don’t actually have a set number of name options that we have to hit when naming a brewery. (We even state as much in our contract.) We present as many compelling options as we can develop until we get to a place where our client is excited.

We do this because we never want to be put in a position where we have to share options that we believe aren’t appropriate just so we can hit a specified quota.

Why? Because as soon as we present anything we don’t believe in, the client will love it. This is magic. Dark magic, but magic, nonetheless.

That being said, we generally share somewhere between 10 and 15 options in our first presentation.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how successful (or not) we tend to be with this approach:

In ~75% of our naming projects, we nail a name down from this first batch. The next ~25% of clients require a second round of options. And I don’t have statistics on this (too lazy to do math), but presenting a second round of options almost always results in final contenders coming from both rounds 1 and 2. (Sometimes, people just need to see what else is out there before making a decision.) 

Aaaaand record scratch. 

Remember how I just said 75% of projects are wrapped up after the first round and 25% are wrapped after a second round? That math is wrong. It’s more like 75% in round one / 24% in round two / 1% in round three.

Andy and Rocco have the distinction of being the first (and only) naming project we’ve ever had (out of more than 50) where we've had to develop a third round of options before getting it there. 

They weren’t being overly fickle. And we certainly weren’t slacking. It’s just that creative work, especially highly-subjective (and high stakes) creative work like naming a company, is challenging. And sometimes, you have to see a lot of stuff before you realize what actually resonates. 

After 3 rounds, we had our list narrowed down to 4 final contenders. I won’t share them here because, remarkably, 2 of the 3 unused options are still available. 

But their final name, the one that put huge smiles on their faces during our conversations (and lifted an equally huge weight off our shoulders) was:
 

Birdsmouth Beer  

—

Here’s a brief writeup that went along with this option. I’m including this verbatim so you can see how we sketch out ideas during the naming process. This isn’t a final writeup (and in some cases, doesn’t even include complete sentences). But it outlines everything that we think could work for the name and highlights how we communicate these ideas with our clients: 

A Birdsmouth is a type of joint in wood working. Sturdy. Bringing community together (joinery). Alliteration. Fine woodworking as an analog for brewing. Generally hidden from view (meaning the care and attention to detail that goes into creating something—even though the person who buys the handmade table or drinks the handcrafted Birdsmouth lager might not see all the work, they can tell the difference it makes). And perhaps more importantly, you will know the difference and can hold your heads high. Beyond this, Birdsmouth is rife with beautiful visuals—wood grain, saw marks, makers marks… It feels like a historic, mid-Atlantic beer brand.

—

And Andy and Rocco loved it. 

Final step here is to have our IP attorney run a knockout search to make sure it’s available for trademark. (It was.) 

Boom. 

Next step: Identity and package design.

Brand Identity Design

My goal for this issue was to deep dive into the name development and positioning process. But I'll include some images of the proposed (and summarily rejected) early logo concepts (above) as well as the final identity and packaging (below).
 
The final Birdsmouth identity system revolves around an American Goldfinch (New Jersey's state bird). 

This may seem a bit on the nose, but it's also wholly appropriate given the historic beer packaging we were inspired by during the branding process. 

Their color palette is deep navy blue, red and cream with touches of gold. 

The typography is durable and reserved, with a few small flourishes to give it some unique character—peep the jaunty foot on the 'R' in beer.

None of this is trendy by today's standards, but rather, designed to look good 20 years from now by pulling on what still looks good from 60–80 years ago. 

And weighing all of this against our initial Brand Strategy work, the final Birdsmouth identity system is confident, utilitarian and timeless.

Story time 

I distinctly remember one point near the end of this project during the revisions phase where we had to sketch dozens of versions of the bird icon.

Its beak was either too long or too short. Or the feathers on the back of its neck were either too fluffy, or not fluffy enough. Or that it was either smiling too much, or not enough. 

At one point, (round 4, maybe?), one of our designers yelled across the shop, "Can a bird even smile? I'm not a fucking ornithologist." 

—

Life's all about the magic moments, folks.

Andy and Rocco opened Birdsmouth Beer in October 2022 and were welcomed to the community with open arms. It's been rewarding to watch their early success and again, at the risk of sounding overly earnest, it's been an honor to help them along their path. Early on and moving forward.
 

Morning.

I wanted to thank you for reading BBT this year. It's fun and rewarding hearing from you all and we're excited to share some even bigger initiatives we've got planned for 2023 soon.

1. Shoot me an email if you've got anything exciting you'd like to discuss. 

2. As a reminder, please take our year end survey (less than 3 minutes). We'd love to hear your perspective on how we can keep improving this newsletter for you in 2023. (And thanks to the ~45 of you who have already taken it.)

As we wrap up 2022, let’s reflect and discuss how the social dimension of branding can help us build stronger beverage brands in the new year. 


—


Close your eyes (er, well read on and then close your eyes) and imagine the following people:

1. A 17 year old female. She’s wearing lululemon leggings and a thrifted top. She’s got an enormous Hydro Flask clipped to a small, pastel backpack. She’s wearing a scrunchy on her right wrist and her hair is up in a messy bun. She’s glued to her phone (and hasn’t come up for air in fifteen minutes). 

2. A 36 year old guy. He’s wearing an expensive Filson vest, selvedge denim jeans and worn-in Red Wing Boots. He has a (magnificent) beard and is wearing a Benchmade knife clipped in his pocket. He’s enjoying a coffee and taking notes in a Moleskine sketchbook with a brass pen. 

3. A 52 year old man. He’s sitting in an airport bar with his back to the wall. He’s checking the time (on a Rolex Daytona) and not liking what he sees. He’s dressed in a bespoke suit and doesn’t have a single piece of luggage with him. His shoes are recently shined and his graying hair is high and tight. He just ordered his second Macallan. Double. Neat. Please and thank you.

—

What do you think each of these people does for a living? 

I bet you have some pretty good ideas. 

What does it say that we can so easily relegate people to a specific box based entirely on what they wear, how they’re dressed and the tools they use? Is this good, bad, or just how the world works?

No matter where you land on this question, the point still stands. People are constantly signaling their status and position in society. And we're all hard wired to read this and asses that very status and position.

I explained why I think signaling is such powerful force in brand building on a recent podcast. (Segment starts at the 11:15 minute mark.) 

Let's explore how we can use this insight to create more compelling beer and beverage brands that people can use to find meaning in their lives. 

Definitely a rugged, self-reliant mountain man and NOT a Creative Director from Brooklyn.


—


Role Theory

There’s a concept in sociology called Role Theory. Its premise is that every one of us is living our lives according to a specific role we either occupy (or want to occupy) in society. 

To do this, we use brands like an actor might use a prop to clarify our personality and status. And this phenomenon drives almost all of our purchasing and consumption decisions. 

Now let’s pause here and look inward. Did those last few sentences make you feel icky?

Maybe just a little bit? 

This is something I’ve struggled with myself throughout my career as a designer. 

Whenever I read about how branding (or a Brand) can help someone feel better about themselves, or help them shape their identity, this all starts to feel kind of icky. And I feel that old urge to sell everything I own and build that cabin in the woods. (But hell, even a cabin in the woods is a status symbol in 2022, so there’s no escaping any of this.)

But, if we can set aside this initial gut response, I think we’ll find that there is immense value in thinking about how a brand—your brewery's brand—can become an integral part of your customers’ lives. 

And when we break branding down to its most essential elements—beyond helping people identify your packaging on shelf, beyond differentiating one product from another, beyond Intellectual Property—I believe that helping people to gain a better sense of themselves and how they navigate the world is actually one of its most important functions.

People have to fit in 

People have an innate drive to fit in. I think we all recognize this on some level—we all want to be a part of something. This belonging can be found in a family or friend group, or your workplace, or a political party or sports team, or a gym or a gang or social movement.

And as we discussed with Role Theory, people are increasingly finding this belonging through the brands they buy and follow.

This insight is such an important part of contemporary brand building that marketeers will often throw out cringe lines about joining “tribes” and so forth. But this belies just how important, and how deeply engrained the drive to be part of a group actually is. 

This isn’t just about wanting to fit in. We have to fit in—this is a genetic drive.

And we can use this to build stronger brands.

What does sitting in your taproom say about someone?


—


So what can we do with this idea? 

If we know that people need to find belonging, how can we shape your brewery's brand to be something with which people will want to align? 

How can we make your brewery so compelling that someone can improve their own standing in their social circles simply by posting an image of your packaging on Instagram or by bringing your beer to a gathering? 

This comes down to defining what story your brand allows your customers to tell the world about themselves. 

Take some time over the coming weeks to think through the following questions / prompts:

1. What does sitting in your taproom say about someone? (What sort of person regularly visits your place?) How does sitting in your taproom make someone feel? Would they be proud to be seen there?

2. What does bringing your beer to a party say about the person bringing it? (Is this a flex? Or a reasonable, dependable pick?)

3. What does wearing your brewery’s shirt allow someone to signal? (What is it about your brewery that they’re proud to rep? And what does that tell everyone around them?)

4. In as few words as possible, what does your brewery stand for?

5. What type of person would benefit from engaging with your brand? 


—


Once you've answered all of these, think about your brand experience as it stands today. Do your answers align with reality or is there a disconnect? If you're not sure, or aren't happy with the answer, take some time and think about your positioning and brand personality. 

What changes could you make that would close that gap between your ideal vision for your brewery and where you are today?

If brands really are props for people to use to signal their identity and personality, what story does your brewery's brand allow them tell?


—
 

I (and the entire CODO team) hope you have a wonderful, restful holiday break. Drink loads of beer, eat too many cookies and get in an embarrassing shouting match with your uncle.

But above all else, make sure you recharge so we can make 2023 the best year your brewery (or Bev Alc company) has ever had. 

Morning.

We've put together a short year end survey (less than 3 minutes) to make sure this newsletter stays sharp and provides value for your team in the coming year. 

Please take the survey here (if you have time).

Thanks!

Now, onto today's issue.

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Most of our BBT issues focus on upstream brand strategy considerations—positioning, Brand Architecture, portfolio management, creative process management, etc. 

Today, I want to focus on something more tactical because I think it will be valuable for startup breweries and those who are considering a rebrand alike. 

—

When Cody and I graduated and founded CODO back in 2009, a common pain point we’d hear from our clients was that their current logo was "too long and skinny" to use on Facebook. 

"We need a circular (or square) logo to use as our profile pic. But also a wider one to work on our banner." 

I tell this story because it's funny to look back on how simple this all was just ~13 years ago (remember when Facebook was an important channel?). But it also highlights an early need for a logo system that works across multiple formats. Something that works equally well in print and digital. Something that can be scaled up to the size of a billboard and down to fit on a business card while still being legible (and attractive). 

Our process, and specifically, what we develop for our clients has evolved a lot over the last 13 years. And even more so over the last few years as a brewery’s digital footprint (on social media and third party eCommerce platforms) has become even more important. 

Let’s explore what makes a Modular Brand Identity System work and why, if built correctly, it can set your brewery up for long term visual consistency and success.

Modular Brand Identity System for Lost Nomad Brewing.

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What is Brand Identity 

Your Brand is your customers’ perception of your company, including your products and your culture. It’s their gut feeling about what you do, and ultimately shapes why they love you, hate you, or completely disregard you. Why do they think you’re different? How do they describe you to friends? Why do they, or don’t they, support you? 

Your Brand captures what you stand for, what you value and believe, the value you offer, the promises you make and the role you play in your customers’ lives.

Your Brand Identity is surface level. It is a collection of visual elements—symbols and signifiers—that work in concert to tell this story to consumers so they can identify and differentiate you from your competitors. 

This can include things like your:

Primary Identity Components

– Logo system

– Color palette

– Typography palette 
 

Secondary Touch Points 

– Packaging (primary & secondary)  

– Website & social channels 

– Print materials 

– Merch 

– Point of Sale materials (PoS)

– Environmental design (taproom design, wayshowing, vehicle wraps, festival booths, etc.) 

—

A logo, on its own, is no more a brand than it is a brand identity. 

Your brand is your story, reputation and promise. 

Your brand identity is a collection of visual tools you use to convey this story to the world.

Top: Modular Brand Identity System for Good George Brewing out of New Zealand. We're working up full case study on this rebrand now. Stay tuned. 

Bottom: Modular Brand Identity System for Mission Brewing.

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A point of contention 

There are those in the design industry who would argue that my Brand Identity definition is incorrect. They would argue that your Identity also includes deeper strategy components—things like your brewery’s positioning, brand voice & personality, Brand Essence, key messaging pillars and brand values as well as your visual signifiers. 

Those people are wrong. 

All of these things live under your Brand and broader Brand Strategy. And the distinction between your Brand and Brand Identity matters.

For example: If we’re helping a brewery navigate a Brand Refresh, that usually means that their Brand—that is, their positioning and messaging (and Essence and brand voice, etc.) are all working well and in a good place to support their business into the future. 

In this case, the work—the actual deliverables we’re designing—are more surface level and centered around their Brand Identity than with addressing structural Brand and Brand Strategy issues. 

If we’re rebranding a brewery, then we’re defining (or redefining) all of that upstream Brand Strategy stuff (Brand Essence, positioning, messaging, brand voice & personality, key differentiators and value props, etc.) en route to designing the surface level Brand Identity elements.

Top: Modular Brand Identity System for Left Field Brewery. 

Bottom: Modular Brand Identity System for Southern Brewing.

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What is a Modular Brand identity System? 

A Modular Brand Identity System (a churched up term we coined more than a decade ago) is a flexible system of identity elements that can be deployed as needed to best suit a particular touch point. 

This is our answer to that problem we outlined up top. You need a logo that works equally well large and small. In one color and multicolor. On different materials and across various print and digital applications. 

But one logo can’t do all that. 

This approach helps your brewery’s brand identity stay fresh and lively across different channels and touch points while still being consistent and familiar (and building visual equity).

A Modular Brand Identity System includes: 
 

A Primary Mark 

This is your main mark, and as such, should be used on all major touch points. Think packaging, website and social avatars, building signage, etc. 
 

Secondary Marks 

This includes a few key icons that clearly relate to the primary mark. These are set up to accommodate specific use cases you’ll run into out in the wild—horizontal builds, vertical builds, one color applications, comically small logo placements, etc.
 

Tertiary Assets 

This is the supporting cast that provides extra spice and depth to your entire identity system. This can include things like tagline builds, other non-secondary icons (“bugs”), textures, and alternate logo builds. These are usually used in conjunction with your primary mark to add more detail to something (e.g. the admin panel on a can or the side of a 6-pack box, etc.).

—

Another important part of this system is a concise visual style guide. This keeps your team and any vendors on track so your identity remains consistent over time without wandering off course.  

Visual style guides outline the following:

– All of your logo files and hierarchy (e.g. Primary, Secondary, Tertiary marks)

– Your color palette (including CMYK, RGB and Hex values)

– Your typography palette (including specific weights and combinations as well as directions to purchase your own licenses for continued use)

– Application examples (showing how the system can be used across merch, packaging and built environments)

– General rules that your brewery can follow once you deliver all of these assets (e.g. "don't stretch this icon, you bastard," don't change the color, only use this typeface) 

A change that’s happening right now…

Motion is becoming an increasingly important element in brand identities. You can thank Instagram, Tik Tok and now YouTube Shorts for this.

I don’t think having a logo that lends itself to motion graphics is a necessity yet, but it will become an important consideration in the coming years. So keep this in mind if you're planning to brand or rebrand your company.

Modular Brand Identity System for BitterRoot Brewing.

—


Another benefit: A Modular Identity System sets you up for easy merchandising 

Breweries in planning often want merch, but don't have thousands of ravings fans (yet) to buy any of it. So in most cases, it doesn't pencil out to have your branding partner make some cool, custom stuff. 

This is another place where Modular Brand Identity Systems shine: They essentially give you a baked in merch program. 

All those secondary icons and tertiary elements help you move beyond the dreaded “logo slap” that is endemic in startup brewery merch. This is when you apply a single logo to a bunch of different stuff so your customers’ only real choice is whether they want your logo on black shirt or a green one. Thrilling.

With a Modular Brand Identity System, you can build out a decent merch program and spin up an important revenue stream right off the bat (without having to pay your branding partner to develop additional bespoke, merch-specific pieces). 

Top: Left Field Brewery's stellar merch program, built following our brand refresh.

Bottom: Our work with Frankie's Pizza Parlor is a good example of how a Modular Brand Identity System can also lend itself to interior design and way showing.

—


An important caveat 

Modular Brand Identity Systems require a deft hand

It would be easy to learn about this concept and think, "Okay, got it. Create a bunch of extra icons and call it good." 

But an effective Modular Brand Identity System isn't about creating a bunch of extra stuff. It's about creating only the most important additional elements that work together to help you tell your story.

Anything beyond this core group of assets is just noise. 

And it can actually work against you, making your branding less cohesive and more frenetic.

So if you have any additional elements that you're on the fence about through your identity design process, ditch them. While you do need more than one standalone logo, paradoxically, less can actually be more under this approach.
 

—

If you’re starting a new brewery or beverage company, make sure your branding partner develops a Modular Brand Identity System.

This will set you up for long term success (and far less headaches) as your business grows.

Morning.  

Today we’re going to talk about Hop Water, and why I believe it could be a big trend in the coming year. 

Before diving into this, I’d like to say that I rarely make these sorts of bold claims, and would like to outline a few caveats. I’m hesitant to trend forecast like this for a few reasons. 

1. I don’t want to be wrong — real brave, I know — but this is because… 

2. I don’t want to steer our clients and subscribers (you!) wrong. 

3. I usually find pieces like this (e.g. "XYZ is the hot new trend!") to be more throw away content and click bait-oriented than focused on actionable insights. But this is my own personal baggage, so we can disregard it entirely and make. Some. Predictions.


—


As of November 2022, Hop Water is not a trend in the you-see-it-everywhere-and-everyone-is-talking-about-it sense. Though the category has actually been around for several years (as far back as the early 2010’s from what I’ve seen), Hop Water is still relatively new as far as consumers are concerned. 

Indeed, this entire category could fizzle out and get lost in the veritable sea of new product development we’re currently enjoying across the beverage industry. BUT, as hard seltzer loses steam (or at least, as the newness that drove seltzer’s wild ascendency continues to wane) and the non-alcoholic (NA) category continues to expand, I think Hop Water is in a perfect position to flourish.

There are enough on-trend and compelling value props that could make Hop Water a decently-sized category in its own right, and something that any brewery who is producing beyond beer products might want to consider. 

If you’re seeing what I’m seeing, then it could be worth experimenting with this style over the winter ahead of spring/summer 2023. (Clock starts now, folks.)


—


This might be confirmation bias on my part (I love Hop Waters), but CODO has seen a sharp uptick in inquiries for Hop Water branding projects. Sharp uptick as in we received one inquiry in all of 2021 and nearly a dozen this year.

These inquiries (two of which became fun, ongoing projects) have come from startup Hop Water brands, to smaller breweries (~1,500 bbl per year) and all the way up to regional breweries.

Another interesting point here: We've also seen a steady decline in the number of breweries reaching out to discuss non-alcoholic beer branding projects this year. We had a lot of movement on this front throughout 2021 and even into early 2022. But this has since quieted down almost entirely.

While anecdotal, this context matters. There’s movement here, at all levels, and there are land grabs available for early movers who get it right. 

Okay, preamble over. Let’s hop to it. (Go ahead and unsubscribe, I dare you.)

Props to HOP WTR, by the way. They literally trademarked what became a category name. Brilliant.

—
 

What is Hop Water?

Hop Water, in its simplest form, is just hops, water and carbonation. That’s it. There’s an infinite amount of tinkering you can do with it, but it's a simple beverage. 

And it’s worth noting that most of what we’re discussing here can apply to any beer adjacent, NA hopped product, from Hop Water to Hop Tea and Soda, (coffee?), etc. 

I think Hop Water is the most immediately exciting product in this category, particularly as a potential foil against NA beer, but these will all likely grow over the coming years. 


What trends & value props could drive Hop Water's growth? 

It’s a sparkling water (so it’s familiar) 

Sparkling Water has been trending for years (see LaCroix, Polar, Topo Chico, Spindrift, Bubly, Waterloo, etc.). What this means for Hop Water is that you don’t have to work to educate your consumers on what this product is. They already have familiar drinking experience cues to pull from when being introduced to your brand, particularly in off-premise, where they will likely encounter your Hop Water for the first time. (Consumer eduction is an ongoing issue for the kombucha category, for example.)

It’s got nothing (which makes it better for you)

Hop Water has no alcohol, no calories, no carbs, no sugar, no sodium, no gluten, no adorable bunnies harmed during the brewing process. Nothing. This means that it's healthy to drink, which follows a broad cultural shift towards balance, wellness and overall fitness. 

Look for this to be a major point of differentiation, particularly if Hop Water starts squaring off with NA beer. And as far as what categories Hop Water could steal share from, my bet is squarely on NA beer because of the shared audience and this key differentiator.

For the brewer specifically (COGs and path to market)

1. Hop Water could hit a sweet spot for (the growing number of) brewers who are interested in releasing a non-alcoholic beverage, but aren’t set up to properly make NA beer.

2. In its base form, Hop Water can be high margin (similar to hard seltzer) and relatively easy to make (compared to NA beer). However, the COGS can increase significantly depending on what additions go into your final beverage. 

I reached out to a CODO partner in the flavor development & ingredients industry to discuss the costs to produce Hop Water and he gave me a thorough run down. I’m including this at the bottom of this email for anyone who is interested in exploring these products. 

3. Offering options like this in your taproom are a no brainer. You can get patrons to stick around longer and increase your average ticket size. Whether they enjoy a Hop Water as a pacer in between beers, or finish their evening off with a few, you’re still banking an extra $5 – $8 (whatever you charge for it in your taproom) per pour. And a good deal of that is profit. 

We wrote about the myriad benefits of offering great NA options in your taproom in our 2022 Beer Branding Trends Review. Revisit that piece here.

4. Hop Water, like NA beer, is good-to-go for direct to consumer (DTC) shipping. You can mail it out to anyone in the country. Hell, you can buy Hop Waters on Amazon.

This is cool because eventually, shipping beer will be made legal (or at least, easier). This is definitely a boon for larger producers, but for smaller outfits, you can still take advantage of this (or at least, put in place a DTC plan for when/if shipping beer actually becomes less onerous and more viable at your scale). 

Broad (early) thoughts on branding and positioning Hop Water 
 

Can Hop Water move beyond a beer-drinking audience? (or, does it need to?) + Opportunities for Categorical Differentiation

1. I think we’re still in Phase 1 of Hop Water (think ~2018 for hard seltzer) where consumers are still not entirely aware of it. And the breweries that are moving on this category are leaning heavily into the hop angle. 

This first cohort of Hop Water brands are being positioned as beer alternatives. Or, a beer alternative-alternative (an NA beer alternative). With as fast as trends move today, I see this phase lasting a bit longer before we start to see established brands and new entrants alike start to carve out other (categorical) positioning opportunities en masse. 

2. I've outlined my doubts before about the long term runway of NA beer. (NA discussion starts around the 26 minute mark on this podcast.) As a refresher, why would a Zoomer who isn't interested in beer, but is largely sober, reach for a non-alcoholic beer? Or in this case, a (beer-adjacent) Hop Water?

In this same vein, a key challenge for Hop Water as the category matures, will be in reaching beyond a traditional beer drinking audience who is in search of a more wellness-focused beer-ish option. Though with an aging Millennial cohort (seeking more beer alternatives), and more growth across NA beverage in general, there may be plenty of runway (or at least, opportunities for incremental growth) with a traditional beer drinking audience as is. 

Hop Water as a platform (or, a blank canvas)

We should think of Hop Water as a platform for experimentation. There’s the immediate angle of exploring different hops, and dry hopping and overall level of carbonation, etc. 

But I think Hop Waters are a perfect chassis to accept other macro beverage trends. Consider the litany of better for you, functional ingredients, the more emergent and esoteric the better (e.g. nootropics, adaptogens, super fruits, mushrooms, electrolytes, caffeine, THC, CBD/CBN).

All of these could work in a Hop Water, so long as they don’t add to the calorie or carb count. Again, having a traditional beer tasting note while being calorie and carb free (and refreshing) is the real value prop here.
 

—

Hop Water is also a blank canvas when it comes to visual rule set and category cues.

It’s so new (and hasn’t had a rocket ship to define what is and isn’t allowed, visually, like White Claw or Truly did for the seltzer category), that there are no category norms, constraints, or visual canon yet. There are no preordained formats, colors or iconography. Nothing. 

This is exciting from a brand building standpoint because we can swing big and make some beautiful stuff.

Hop Water's category nomenclature 

Similar to how Hop Water has no defined visual canon yet, there are also no rules (from a consumer standpoint) that dictate what we call these beverages on pack.

We've seen Hop Waters (and a variety of non-alcoholic water-based beverages) called "seltzer," "carbonated water," "hop-infused sparkling water," "soda water" and "sparkling water."

If I was forced to pick one of these, I think "sparkling water" is the most approachable for the lay person. Though your broader positioning goals for this product (along with any label requirements and nutritional facts) should dictate which route you go here.

Two additional thoughts to shape your customer experience: 

1. While calling a Hop Water a "seltzer" is technically correct, I think this is a mistake from a messaging standpoint. In 2022 and beyond, legal drinking age consumers will see "seltzer" and assume it's a hard (alcoholic) seltzer.

2. As your brewery continues to expand its portfolio beyond beer, it will become increasingly important to delineate between your alcoholic and non-alcoholic products.

Hop Waters are non-alcoholic and should be clearly noted as such so your customers can make an informed purchasing decision. Don't assume people know this out of the gate (the category is still too young for that). 


Think about your Brand Architecture

Hop Water could be a great beyond beer fit for many breweries because it’s so beer-centric.

From a Brand Architecture standpoint, you might not have to be overly-worried about protecting your parent brand, and can likely position your Hop Water as either a straight Brand Extension or a Sub Brand. 

But if you’re considering these two options in particular, think about the long term runway of this brand.

– Could your Hop Water sell like crazy and carve out a large part of your portfolio?

– Can you envision line extensions and even brand extensions spinning off of your Hop Water brand (into hop teas or sodas, etc.)?

– Could your Hop Water steal sales away from another Low & No offering in your portfolio? 

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you might want to explore more of the middle ground option (Sub / Endorsed Brands) on the Beverage Brand Architecture Continuum.

—
 

This Brand Architecture portion was painted with a super broad brush. Your positioning and parent brand’s reputation, as well as your competitive set and goals for your Hop Water line will all drive whether or not this is correct. 

Take our Beverage Extension Assessment Tool (B.E.A.T.) to make sure your Brand Architecture approach is dialed in before making any big decisions on this front.

Morning! 

A few pieces of housekeeping:

1. As a reminder for our Canadian readers, Cody and I will be giving a presentation about Brand Architecture at the Ontario Craft Brewers Conference next week. If you're attending, come say hi and let's grab a beer. 

2. Cody and I recorded a podcast episode on today's topic. Listen here for more background context on how to handle branding during a brewery sale (including the important question of timing). 

Okay, let's get to it. 


—


Today, we’re going to discuss a quiet, behind the scenes story that we see unfolding across the craft beer industry.

Since about Q3 of 2021 to today, we’ve fielded loads of inquiries and projects centered around brewery sales. In most cases, these aren’t headline grabbing M&As like Stone or Modern Times, but rather, small-to-medium (say, 500–15k bbl per year) outfits. 

So the people we’re talking to (and working with) are usually in one of two camps: They are either about to buy a brewery and want to figure out their immediate next steps from a branding and positioning standpoint once the deal closes. 

Or they have recently acquired a brewery and as part of getting everything up and running during the transition, realized they need to address their branding and packaging in some way—generally a refresh or outright rebrand. 

—

I’m not sure if all of this is a good sign or a bad sign. The industry has been around, in its current form, since 2010, so it may just be that there are a lot of founders who have been at this for 5 to 10 years who are ready to move on.

And let's not forget 2020, in particular. 

The industry is still dealing with fallout from the pandemic — mandatory shut downs, revenue dropping as much as 90% over night, major channel shifts, changed consumer drinking habits, obscene input cost increases, labor shortages, inflation, and recession… But unlike 2020, there are no stimulus checks or PPP funds coming. And the RRF seems like it’s tapped out as well. And again, we’re in a recession. 

So any one of these could be the deciding factor to pack it in for many founders.

I’m guessing here since CODO’s interaction in these scenarios is almost always with the purchasing party and not the outgoing group. (But this isn't too hard to imagine, right?)

Either way, the reasons driving these sales doesn’t matter for our conversation today. What matters is that there are a lot of brewery sales happening right now in the United States. And I suspect this will continue over the next several years. 

So back to those folks who are reaching out to us to discuss these sorts of projects. What do you do with a brewery’s brand after you buy it?

Let’s discuss this situation and give you some things to think about if you’re shopping for a brewery.

We worked with the new ownership team at Three Rivers Distilling on a thorough rebrand, post-acquisition. (This isn't a brewery, but they answered the same questions we'll outline below.)

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There are three important questions to consider whenever we discuss a situation like this with a potential client:

1: What are you actually buying? 

2: Is there any visual and/or Brand Equity to be retained?

3: What is your vision for this brewery?

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Question 1: What are you actually buying? 

A brewery sale can include a lot of things. Firstly, you’re buying tangible assets—a commercial facility, furniture, fixtures and equipment (FFE), the brewhouse, tanks, cold storage, all that beautiful, shiny back of house stuff. 

Other things that are generally included in a brewery sale are any leases, existing contracts, sales data, account relationships and even other businesses within the brewery business. So that could be a distribution company, a catering company, etc.

For this conversation, we’re focusing on a brewery’s Brand Equity (reputation and goodwill) and Intellectual Property (I.P.). 

Tangible assets are usually the most valuable part of a sale (you’ll likely need all of that stuff to continue brewing beer and possibly for securing debt on the entire deal), unless you’re buying a hugely popular brewery. In that case, you might place more value on the brand (and I.P.) itself. 

As an example, Ballast Point wasn’t sitting on $1 Billion worth of physical assets when it was originally acquired by Constellation. The Ballast Point brand itself (and where Constellation believed it could take that brand) was an outsized portion of that valuation.

When we say brand and I.P. here, we’re talking about things like a brewery’s:

– Name
– Brand identity system
– Beer brands (specific names)
– Trade Dress
– Recipes
– Social channels
– Key events (festivals, beer releases, etc.)

If you’re buying a brewery, you need to consider whether you are buying it primarily because of its tangible assets (and the brand doesn’t really factor into your decision), OR, because it has a solid brand with loads of potential. 

The new ownership team at Mission Brewing saw huge potential in the brand's ability to find new relevancy and scale distribution throughout San Diego. And the brewery facility itself is sized appropriately to allow them to pursue that goal.

Check out our recent podcast and newsletter for more background on this rebranding process.
 

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Question 2: Is there any visual and/or Brand Equity to be retained?

If you think you’ll want to maintain any of the brewery’s existing I.P. through an update, then you’ll want to conduct a thorough Brand Audit to determine what should stay and what can be jettisoned. 

We’ve discussed weighing Brand Equity and Brand Audits at length previously. In the interest of keeping this issue from becoming overly-long, here are a few resources to revisit if you’re interested in this topic:  
 

Here’s an excerpt on this topic from BBT #014: What is Brand Equity?:

Evolution vs. Revolution (vs. Brand Equity)

… Let's start with the idea of having loads of equity when you're completely wiping the slate clean during a rebrand.

The obvious question, and one that spurred a great conversation with our brewery partner, is why are we hanging on to equity, any equity, when we're purposely moving away from all the things—the story, positioning and perception—that this equity evokes in the first place?

This is like losing 100 pounds and still wearing the same size 52 jeans.

If you've determined that a brand refresh is in order, then any positive equity may be more important to retain since any forthcoming changes could end up being more subtle and in line with your current look and feel and messaging.

If you're rebranding (updating your positioning, messaging, brand essence, identity, packaging and certainly when developing a new name) then any existing equity might not be important because you're changing the narrative in a more profound way.
 

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Question 3: What is your vision for this brewery? Where do you want to take this business?

Our final question centers around why you’re buying this brewery. What do you intend to build? Here are a few scenarios:

“We’re going to build something amazing and take over our market.”

If you have grand visions for the brewery and the current branding (identity, packaging, taproom and/or reputation) hinders that in any way, then you move closer to considering a thorough rebrand. 

“We’re going to brew some beer and sell whatever we don’t drink!”

If you see this as more of a lifestyle business (we've seen several of these operations for sale in particular: e.g. ~3.5 barrel brewery + turnkey taproom for ~ $250k, etc.), then it might not make sense to turn around and make a large investment in your branding. 

You might still consider (or need) a brand refresh, but it’s not as pressing if your goals and vision don’t call for it.

The new ownership team at Prost Brewing purchased the brewery because they (correctly) believed there was a market for traditionally-brewed German-style beers in Denver and beyond. But in order to attract the right audience and scale, a top-to-bottom rebrand was in order.

Read about how we worked with Prost on this process, including the phenomenal ROI they’re seeing, here.


—


Broad Stroke Guidance 

It’s tempting for me to tell you that you’ll need to revamp your branding after buying a brewery no matter how you answer these questions because this would set you up for a running start either way. But a strategically-sound answer is going to be more nuanced than a blanket recommendation like this. 

Here are a few broad stroke ideas for you to think about if you’re in this position:
 

When buying an established, popular brewery 

The more well-known and established a brand (how long it’s been open, number of active accounts, annual bbl production, distribution footprint, etc.) the more likely you will want to retain (or at least honor in some way) the brewery’s visual and brand equity. 

And it’s a safe bet that this equity is probably a driving reason for the purchase in the first place.

So in this case, you could go through some sort of refresh—address some pain points, clean things up and set your team up to manage everything better—but probably not a sweeping rebrand. 

When buying a smaller (or even mid-size) brewery 

If you’re buying a smaller, or newer brewery (limited production capacity, limited-to-no distribution, likely a small taproom, etc.), then you likely have more leeway to change things up in a major way.

So you might consider a thorough rebrand if that aligns with your vision and goals for the business. 

As always, your project context, competitive set, broader brand strategy and goals should drive all of these decisions.


—


Check out our Craft Beer, Rebranded book bundle for a comprehensive overview of the rebranding process. The Workbook, in particular, will give you some great tools for conducting a Brand Audit and weighing your Brand Equity.

Morning!

I'd like to thank the 150+ of you who have purchased a copy of The Beyond Beer Handbook. The response thus far, including those of you who have written in about new products you've got in the works, has been rewarding.

Last week, Cody and I put out a Q&A podcast on Brand Architecture and it's already become one of our most downloaded episodes. We even touched on today's newsletter topic there. Give it a listen here if you're interested. 

Okay, onto today's issue. 

—

We’ve had interesting conversations with two breweries and one distillery over the last month about opportunities for creating budget products specifically as a hedge against the economic downturn. 

To give concrete examples: the distillery is planning to create a line of budget well spirits for carryout. And both breweries were considering a large pack light lager approach.

To make this even more concrete, the breweries we talked to wanted to create a real deal, cheap light lager that would be priced along the lines of a Bud or Miller 12-pack—so somewhere between 10.99 and 12.99 per.

At first blush I have two competing thoughts: 

1. This entire notion seems like more of a Big Beer / Large Craft conversation because in order to enter a lower cost space, you have to have the volume, both in ingredient costing / production capabilities and sales, to compete with a variety of already entrenched brands.

2. But then creating a budget option also makes sense at a cursory glance. If our customers are getting hammered by inflation (and at the gas pump, and on increasing rent, and groceries …) then let’s give them a cheaper option that they can still enjoy. And for what it’s worth, all three of these conversations were in this spirit—these people care about their customers and want to keep them happy.

So while noble, I want to address this idea head on because of all the Brand Architecture strategies we’ve discussed on this newsletter and podcast, releasing a markedly cheaper product can potentially be one of the most damaging moves you can make.

Now three conversations certainly don’t make for a trend, but with the economy trending the way it is, I imagine that these sorts of plays could become more common over the coming year.

In that spirit, let’s explore why creating a budget offering can be so dangerous, and discuss some practical ways to de-risk the move should you decide to ignore everything I’m saying and move forward anyway.

Why is this risky?

Can something be high quality (craft) and cheap at the same time? Not a great deal, per se, but a premium quality product at a mass market price?

Can you find a luxury vehicle for $15k? Or how about a luxury watch for $250?

Can you have an artisan burger at a McDonald’s price? I asked everyone on my team (and even bugged some people in my extended network) and couldn’t find a single example of this out in the wild anywhere in the country. (Let me know if you can think of one. I’m a fatty and will go spend all my money there.)

It’s just not possible.

You can’t use high quality ingredients, and proper manufacturing methods, and pay your people well and still offer a high quality thing at a cheap price. There’s always a catch.

And everyone knows that.

This isn’t how the world works and anyone who is paying attention would view this with suspicion. What corners did they cut to get their price this low?

When you buy a 12-pack of Bud Light, you’re buying it because it’s cheap. No value judgement there—the beer fills that mass market role well. 

By attaching your brand name to something that is of lesser quality than your typical offering, you are creating a potential level of mistrust that can spread to the rest of your portfolio. 

Yeah, they shit out this light lager. But I’m sure their IPA is up to snuff.

How to determine whether or not this is a good move

Let’s start by working through three key questions: 

1. Is there a market opportunity?

The first (and most obvious) point to consider when launching any new product is whether or not there is an actual need. Do people want something that they’re not currently able to find? Does your market need XYZ (a light lager, a budget seltzer, a cheap NA beer, affordable well spirits, etc.)?

I can’t think of a market where this sort of unmet demand exists. For any of this. That doesn’t mean there’s not a market out there where this strategy could work, but there’s a beer at basically every price point in every market in this country already. And glut of well-known options in the budget space.

 

2. Can you compete? 

The second point is whether or not you can realistically compete with any existing competition. 

I’ll use the light lager example from above because it's the most immediate move in the craft beer context. Can you, a small (hell, even medium size) craft brewery, get your COGs to pencil out in such a way that you can actually compete with Big Beer on price (and still stay in business)? 

And another fun wrinkle: Will your distributors, who may or not also be delivering truckloads of that same Big Beer, be open to carrying this new product? 

And let’s step down from Big Beer. Can you even compete with Big Craft? Can you price your beer such that you can compete with the Yuengling’s and 805’s and Oskar’s Lager’s of the world (and still stay profitable)? 

We've worked with more than 70 craft breweries, including some of the largest in the United States, and I don't think there's a single one we've come across that can actually pull this off. 


3. How will this affect your parent brand’s positioning and reputation (and ability to charge a premium)?

The third point, and perhaps most germane to this newsletter itself, is how your parent brand will be affected by this move. Not just in the short term, but over the long haul. 

Can you safely maintain a premium (craft) positioning at the parent level while also offering a lower cost, budget option? 

The real risk in all of this is of repositioning your parent brand itself. If you release a cheap (super cheap, budget) beer, what will that say about the rest of your portfolio? 

You can undo years of hard work in one move by changing what your parent brand stands for in your customers’ minds.

And that change won’t be positive. 

A few paths forward

Endorsed Brand vs. Creating a completely new brand 

If you decide that you still want to release a budget option, you need to be extremely careful with how much of your parent brand comes through on this product. I would think a subtly Endorsed Brand could work at the very most. 

But even then, I would still be hesitant. I still think your overall reputation and positioning could be damaged so much that, if you have the capacity—budget, time, ongoing resources—to do so, creating an entirely new brand might be a safer bet. 

Revisit a recent BBT Podcast on the Beverage Brand Architecture Continuum for more background on these particular strategies.

Why not level up instead of level down?

I’ve seen some compelling YTD data this summer that suggests category loyal customers—specifically, Craft consumers—aren’t trading down thus far in this shitty economy. But this phenomenon is happening across a myriad of other CPG categories.

And even within Craft, sales in the Premium+ tiers ($40–$54.99 per case) are looking stronger than ever. (Here's a great conversation we had with the Bump Williams Consulting crew on the different tiers of craft pricing for some background.)

This may seem counterintuitive, but hear me out: If you want to hedge against a tough economic landscape, it may actually be a better move to create a higher priced, premium offering than a budget option.

Yes, not everyone one will buy it, but two things could happen. 

If you position it properly, you could get Craft buyers who are trading up (buying less, but better) on their beer spends. 

And even if that doesn't work out perfectly, you can still raise your overall level of quality perception and reputation by doing something cool and more expensive.

I’ve over-simplified this (there are certainly other Brand Architecture considerations at play if you want to go this route). But between going premium and going budget, the former tactic at least stands less of a chance of completely ruining your reputation in the long run.

Howdy!

Quick housekeeping before we get started: we're now shipping The Beyond Beer Handbook every where in the world (we heard you all — I'm sorry for the delay). 

Okay, let's discuss a common road block we encounter when helping breweries bring new products to market.

—

One of the more common problems we help breweries work through when launching a Beyond Beer product is determining how to position it within their portfolio itself. 

And perhaps counter intuitively, deciding that you want some sort of connection (a pinch? a skosh?? a dash???) with your brewery’s parent brand can actually make this all more complicated.

You’d think that would make this easier, right?

Let’s take a look at the fine line between Brand Extensions and Sub Brands, and discuss when each strategy can make sense.

We're talking about the subtle shift between a Brand Extension and a Sub Brand, highlighted in green above. This can be confusing because the parent brand plays a prominent role in each case.
 
—

The key difference between a Brand Extension and a Sub Brand lies in how much effort, attention and detail is brought to that secondary product in relation to the parent brand. 

With a Brand Extension, there is little-to-no effort put into developing a unique name, artwork or other branding elements related to the product itself. The entire focus is on the parent brand, and this product exists as a mere extension of your portfolio. You are simply using your brewery's brand on a non-beer category product.

By contrast, a Sub Brand will feature a fully developed name, logo or other branding cues in addition to those of the parent brand. The parent is still the main purchasing driver here, but other elements to bring more personality or clarity to the product are introduced.

—

The below images demonstrate Brand Extensions (Scofflaw Brewing Mimosa & Dogfish Head Distilling Co.) vs. Sub Brands (Rhinegeist Brewery's Cidergeist family).

And while we're on this topic, Cidergeist also uses a fun Brand Architecture tactic called "Linked Naming." This is a subliminal way of linking your parent and Sub Brand (e.g. McDonalds > McNugget > McMuffin > McCafe, etc. 

Recent craft examples would include Bell's Two Hearted > Light Hearted and Cigar City's Jai Alia > Jai Low. Fun, right?

If you've determined you want some connection with the parent brand but are stuck on just how much connection there should be (e.g. a Brand Extension or a Sub Brand), a quick way to determine which is the right path is to consider the product's future growth opportunities beyond launch.

A common path for innovation we've seen with our clients goes like this:

Brewery launches a…
Seltzer (or canned cocktail) >
Lemonade Seltzer Line Extension >
Margarita Seltzer Line Extension >
Mimosa Seltzer Line Extension >
Variety Packs with all of the above

Each one of these follow-on extensions is a step further away from your core brand and all that it stands for (here's a podcast on positioning in case you want a refresher on this).

So if you launch that hard seltzer as a Brand Extension—e.g. XYZ Brewing Hard Seltzer—each subsequent Line Extension will also be leveraging your parent brand's equity (thus diluting what that parent brand stands for in your customers' minds).

Your brand strategy, competitive set and project context will determine whether or not this is an issue (though I’d contend that in most cases it is a big ask of your parent brand and can do more long term harm than good). 

This is where a Sub Brand can shine. 

Assuming this product makes sense within your broader positioning and messaging, creating a Sub Brand can give you just enough buffer to extend and scale this new product without further diluting your parent brand’s positioning through subsequent releases.

Client Example:

While branching out to seltzer isn’t too big of a stretch for a brewery these days, Left Field Brewery still wanted some separation between their parent brand and this new product. 

Ultimately, they felt their new seltzer could (and should) still tie to the Left Field brand and occasion (a refreshing break during a baseball game). 

I’m highlighting this brand because of the leeway it gives Left Field. It would’ve been easier, faster and cheaper to bring this seltzer to market as a Brand Extension (e.g. Left Field Hard Seltzer). 

But with follow on flavor ideas and line extensions their team is already kicking around, that would’ve put much more pressure on the Left Field brand itself. 

Over time, this continual march of extensions and new flavors (the name of the game when committing to creating RTDs and FMBs) would undercut Left Field's core positioning as Toronto's baseball brewery. 

Is Left Field the baseball brewery brand or a Pink Lemonade Hard Seltzer brand?

Creating this Sub Brand (technically, a Sub/Endorsed Brand) gives Left Field just enough leeway to extend and grow the 7th Inning brand while still getting all the leverage and benefit from their parent brand. 

Win. Win. 

Howdy!

Quick housekeeping before we get started: we're now shipping The Beyond Beer Handbook every where in the world (we heard you all — I'm sorry for the delay). 

Okay, let's discuss a common road block we encounter when helping breweries bring new products to market.

—

One of the more common problems we help breweries work through when launching a Beyond Beer product is determining how to position it within their portfolio itself. 

And perhaps counter intuitively, deciding that you want some sort of connection (a pinch? a skosh?? a dash???) with your brewery’s parent brand can actually make this all more complicated.

You’d think that would make this easier, right?

Let’s take a look at the fine line between Brand Extensions and Sub Brands, and discuss when each strategy can make sense.

We're talking about the subtle shift between a Brand Extension and a Sub Brand, highlighted in green above. This can be confusing because the parent brand plays a prominent role in each case.
 
—

The key difference between a Brand Extension and a Sub Brand lies in how much effort, attention and detail is brought to that secondary product in relation to the parent brand. 

With a Brand Extension, there is little-to-no effort put into developing a unique name, artwork or other branding elements related to the product itself. The entire focus is on the parent brand, and this product exists as a mere extension of your portfolio. You are simply using your brewery's brand on a non-beer category product.

By contrast, a Sub Brand will feature a fully developed name, logo or other branding cues in addition to those of the parent brand. The parent is still the main purchasing driver here, but other elements to bring more personality or clarity to the product are introduced.

—

The below images demonstrate Brand Extensions (Scofflaw Brewing Mimosa & Dogfish Head Distilling Co.) vs. Sub Brands (Rhinegeist Brewery's Cidergeist family).

And while we're on this topic, Cidergeist also uses a fun Brand Architecture tactic called "Linked Naming." This is a subliminal way of linking your parent and Sub Brand (e.g. McDonalds > McNugget > McMuffin > McCafe, etc. 

Recent craft examples would include Bell's Two Hearted > Light Hearted and Cigar City's Jai Alia > Jai Low. Fun, right?

If you've determined you want some connection with the parent brand but are stuck on just how much connection there should be (e.g. a Brand Extension or a Sub Brand), a quick way to determine which is the right path is to consider the product's future growth opportunities beyond launch.

A common path for innovation we've seen with our clients goes like this:

Brewery launches a…
Seltzer (or canned cocktail) >
Lemonade Seltzer Line Extension >
Margarita Seltzer Line Extension >
Mimosa Seltzer Line Extension >
Variety Packs with all of the above

Each one of these follow-on extensions is a step further away from your core brand and all that it stands for (here's a podcast on positioning in case you want a refresher on this).

So if you launch that hard seltzer as a Brand Extension—e.g. XYZ Brewing Hard Seltzer—each subsequent Line Extension will also be leveraging your parent brand's equity (thus diluting what that parent brand stands for in your customers' minds).

Your brand strategy, competitive set and project context will determine whether or not this is an issue (though I’d contend that in most cases it is a big ask of your parent brand and can do more long term harm than good). 

This is where a Sub Brand can shine. 

Assuming this product makes sense within your broader positioning and messaging, creating a Sub Brand can give you just enough buffer to extend and scale this new product without further diluting your parent brand’s positioning through subsequent releases.

Client Example:

While branching out to seltzer isn’t too big of a stretch for a brewery these days, Left Field Brewery still wanted some separation between their parent brand and this new product. 

Ultimately, they felt their new seltzer could (and should) still tie to the Left Field brand and occasion (a refreshing break during a baseball game). 

I’m highlighting this brand because of the leeway it gives Left Field. It would’ve been easier, faster and cheaper to bring this seltzer to market as a Brand Extension (e.g. Left Field Hard Seltzer). 

But with follow on flavor ideas and line extensions their team is already kicking around, that would’ve put much more pressure on the Left Field brand itself. 

Over time, this continual march of extensions and new flavors (the name of the game when committing to creating RTDs and FMBs) would undercut Left Field's core positioning as Toronto's baseball brewery. 

Is Left Field the baseball brewery brand or a Pink Lemonade Hard Seltzer brand?

Creating this Sub Brand (technically, a Sub/Endorsed Brand) gives Left Field just enough leeway to extend and grow the 7th Inning brand while still getting all the leverage and benefit from their parent brand. 

Win. Win. 

Hey there! Some quick housekeeping before we get started: 

1. A quick shout-out to the 82 (!!!) of you that caught our free book Easter egg in the last issue. There was actually a two-way tie for first response between Anita (Pelicon Brewery in Slovenia) and Vivienne (Lineman Microbrewery in Dublin)—hope you both enjoy the book.

2. Yesterday was CODO’s 13th anniversary. We were going to dedicate a newsletter issue to this but figured you would find the following case study more valuable and applicable to your business (not to mention far less navel-gazey). We did record a podcast to mark the event, however, on the changes we’ve seen in the beer industry since we landed our first brewery client back in 2010 (and working with 70+ breweries since).

Give it a listen if you’re interested.

Otherwise, let’s discuss how to rebrand a brewery, shall we?

—

We’ve worked with several legacy breweries over the last few years that have found themselves at an inflection point—do you continue to carry on as is, maybe tinkering with your portfolio a bit along the way (assuming things are going well)? Or do you, gasp, sell the entire concern and ride off into the sunset? Or, do you reinvent yourself so you can thrive in the future?

In 2020, with new leadership came a new direction for Mission Brewery, one of the standout outfits of the San Diego craft beer scene (and one of the aforementioned legacy breweries). Several years of flat-to-declining sales followed by a pandemic-wracked market presented an interesting crossroads for the brewery: Under new leadership, what opportunities exist to breathe new life back into the storied brand?

With so much noise, well-earned clout and competition throughout California beer in general (and San Diego in particular), how might we re-invigorate a 100+ year old brand to suit the needs of the contemporary scene while cutting through the din of competition?

To discuss this challenging brief, let’s first take a look back (way back) at Mission’s history.

Mission's Background & Project Context 

Founded in 1913 by German businessmen who saw an opportunity to capitalize on an exploding lager market, Mission Brewery was originally placed in an iconic facility off of Interstate 5 in San Diego. But an impending push for prohibition (paired with post war anti-German sentiment) caused the original Mission to shutter just five years later.

While other breweries would eventually make use of this original facility, the Mission brand name would sit dormant for nearly 90 years, until 2007 when the brewery was resurrected by a local home brewer. The brewery’s new location next to Petco Park led to raucous crowds of beer-loving tailgaters lining the bar with sales peaking in 2018. But hyper-aggressive local competition and no real long term vision sent the company into a downturn. 

With new leadership in place, there was an opportunity get the brewery back to sustainable growth.

—

Named after the Spanish missions constructed along the coasts of California, the name “Mission” evokes an inherent aspect of California history and its cultural fabric. The 2007 reboot logo, associated artwork and brand image for Mission Brewery revolved around a vaguely nautical, historic, swashbuckling aesthetic. 

This iconography can be really fun—I mean, pirates!—but at the same time, everyone involved with the project admitted that it was starting to feel dated and dusty in context. For one, not much thought had been put into consistency of the identity itself, resulting in a proliferation of confusing logo files and packaging that was a little busy, a little dull and easily overlooked in a cold box.

Brand Strategy

But at a higher level: What did this salty, hard-nosed aesthetic say about Mission's beer and the company’s overall positioning? Does it make sense to cleave to such an aggro, quasi-sinister (somewhat problematic) colonial look and feel? In a world of seltzers and RTDs and better-for-you beverages, does the dark-and-surly aesthetic of the early craft beer boom make sense in today’s market? 

Through our brand audit and brand strategy work, we determined that for the most part: no, it does not.

Ultimately, our team decided that it would be a much stronger fit to associate the brand with the local community itself. Our task was to lift Mission out of the old world and into the new, evoking the color and energy and vibrancy of the San Diego scene as it is today while sprinkling in just enough of that charming vintage aesthetic to let you know that this brand has been around for a while. 

This thinking informed our brand refresh from top to bottom.

Brand Identity

After wrapping up the brand strategy phase, we tackled a comprehensive identity overhaul; an exercise in weighing existing visual equity against broader project goals. 

Let's fast forward and look at some of the identity development work. 

—

Here's a collection of images spanning initial concepts presented through a few rounds of revisions, including the super in-the-weeds stuff that no one outside of our shop will ever notice. Example: "Pull the arm on that 'E' in further, Luke. No, fuuurther!") 

A refreshed brand mark emerged from this process, which allowed us to preserve the iconic red Spanish cross, albeit with a fresher and warmer presentation. 

And we're particularly proud of working in authentic Mission architecture style design cues into the typography where possible, to reinforce the history and provenance behind the brand. Mission's historic typography was quirky and fun, but a little too decorative to accomplish our present communication goals. 

Consider this phase as a balancing act achieved through hours of tweaking and comparison. Does the new typography/mark maintain that iconic “Mission” feel, while striking a fresh, relevant note at the same time?

Incidentally, we made a subtle change from “Mission Brewery” to “Mission Brewing.” Nitpicking, perhaps, but considering company goals to eventually open satellite locations, it made sense to tweak this naming convention while we were working under the hood.

Mission's updated brand identity system, complete with primary and secondary marks as well as tertiary assets for merch and way showing.

—

Package Design 

This first wave of package design is purpose-built to reintroduce Mission Brewing to the market, and to help customers become acquainted with the revived look and feel. Bold colors and a clean, minimal composition come together in a monolithic flagship template that allows new SKUs to be easily whipped up when necessary. 

For long-time fans, we stayed true to some design cues from the original Shipwrecked IPA, by bringing in that original skull and red/white/black color scheme.

The rest of the flagship lineup reflects a more modern and market-aware mix of beer styles with vibrant color cues to match. The intention here is to to pique the interest of drinkers who are either new to Mission (or have forgotten about them along the way), or perhaps for those completely uninitiated to craft beer itself.

So other than Shipwrecked, the portfolio is all Mission-forward. Once this work is out in the market for a year or two and has found its sea legs (sorry), we can explore developing more individualized brands within the portfolio to support future growth (exploring a proper Shipwrecked Sub Brand family, reimagining the seasonal program, developing variety packs, etc.).

Mission's portfolio received a revamp as well, introducing more current beer styles and formats. A few of these changes include a phenomenal hazy IPA, 16oz six-packs as well as stovepipes (19.2s) to drive single serve trial and get into sports and concert venues throughout San Diego. 

—

Process Note: If your brewery is considering a rebrand due to any of the issues we’ve mentioned here—increased competition, flat or declining sales, not understanding your own story or purpose, etc.—it’s important that you look at your beer itself first.

Branding is obviously important, but if your beer isn't as good as it can be, or exciting enough, or on trend enough, then a rebrand might not move the needle. Set your ego aside, listen to the market and be open to changing your portfolio as needed (styles, formats, individual brands, etc.).

We've worked with several dozen breweries who have viewed a rebrand as an opportunity for some heavy duty housekeeping. This can include changing or adjusting distributor relationships (where possible), shifting how they approach chain retail sales, how they conduct field marketing, how they handle new product development, how they recruit and retain talent, etc. 

This process can serve as a hard stop and reset for how you run your business, if handled correctly. 

—

Here's Mission's final packaging. Look for these to roll out across San Diego this summer. 

Brand Guidelines

We concluded this batch of work with a suite of supporting artwork, typography and specced colors assembled in a thorough set of brand guidelines. This sets the Mission team up to go forth and build a merch program right off the bat (this can be a strong revenue stream if handled correctly). 

It also gives Mission something it has arguably never had before: A focused, compelling message to rally behind and support day-to-day decision making and longterm company vision. 

Mission is the official beer of your next San Diego adventure. This core piece works with the refreshed aesthetic to tell a more future-aware story, while standing tall on the legacy aspect of the brand.

Inheriting a brand with a long history like Mission is a balancing act. Recognizing which elements to honor and keep, and which to jettison can be a challenging exercise.

But whenever we have the opportunity to work with a brand with such good bones, both as beer geeks and design nerds, we get very, very excited. In this particular case, Mission’s team brought their forward-looking vision to the table, and the resulting work is better for it. 

In a market fraught with so much turnover and upheaval, a unique opportunity exists for Mission to reassert its place as a vanguard of the finest craft beer market in the world.

And we’re honored to have played a small part in this endeavor.