Cody and Isaac sit down to discuss audience segmentation, customer personas, and why you don’t see more fistfights in craft breweries.

Points of discussion:

1. The “traditional” craft beer audience

2. Why craft breweries haven’t had to focus on defining their audience

3. Shifting demographics (and industry trends) that will lead to this becoming more important

4. A primer on audience segmentation

5. How to define your audience (with internal research)

6. How to gather external context to define your brewery’s audience

7. Customer personas: cheesy, but effective process tools

8. An ongoing (unnecessary?) tirade against ESB beers

Cody and Isaac sit down to discuss the common goals we see breweries set at the start of their rebranding projects.

Points of discussion:

1. The most common goals we’ve seen breweries have for a branding or rebranding process

2. Qualitative vs. Quantitative goals

3. The most important goal of any rebranding project. Period.

4. S.M.A.R.T. Goals (Specific, Measurable, Action-Oriented, Realistic, Time-Limited)

5. Common qualitative goals we see

6. How to defeat a grizzly bear in hand to hand combat

7. CODO’s 2020 CBC Presentation

Cody and Isaac sit down to discuss how you can be the best client your design firm has ever had.

Points of discussion:

1. Trust the process?

2. Understand that the design process is iterative.

3. Thoughts on the big Don Draper reveal.

4. Why you need to stick to your timeline.

5. Why is giving great feedback challenging for non-designers?

6. Candor is king. (Don’t worry about your designer’s feelings)

7. Keep feedback focused on specific project goals (and the defined strategy) and not personal tastes.

8. Keep your customer in mind.

9. Is it necessary for a client to personally love the work a design firm develops?

10. How many concepts should a branding firm share? 25? 5? 1?

11. Paul Rand’s work for Steve Job’s NeXT Computers.

12. We’ve decided to record future episodes shirtless.

Cody and Isaac sit down to discuss what a branding project kickoff looks like. Plus, art direction homework, organizing internal and external partner interviews and thoughts on remote vs. onsite work.

Points of discussion:

1. You’ve worked through the proposal process and now have a signed contract. What is our next move?
2. Email handshake = let’s get after it!
3. Pre-project art direction homework. (Art direction, competitive set audit, brand audit, if applicable)
4. Tools and software for onboarding clients.
5. Beyond the Executive Team, who do we need to talk to during the kickoff?
6. How do we organize, prioritize and schedule all of your brewery’s internal stakeholders? (Sales, Marketing & Design, Front of House, Brew Staff)
7. What external partners will we need to interview? (Distributors, Large Chain Retail Partners, Field Reps, Market Managers, etc.)
8. Thoughts on in-person vs remote work. When is travel necessary and when can we run everything remotely
9. What does an in-person, onsite kickoff itinerary look like?
10. Sample 2–3 day itinerary.
11. One-on-one conversations vs large group “discovery” sessions. When is each one appropriate?

Cody and Isaac sit down to discuss how your brewery should vet and hire a design firm for your rebrand—what should you expect from this process, what are some land mines to watch out for and why you should work with an expert.

Points of discussion:

1. Give us an eagle eye view of the business development process, from a branding firm’s perspective.

2. How much should a brewery prepare ahead of your initial conversations with a potential partner?
3. What subjects will you discuss in your early exploratory meetings? (timeline, budget, project goals, project context, business objectives, etc.)

4. What is project “fit” and why is it so important at this stage of the process?

5. Differences between contracts and proposals.

6. Always Be Closing?

7. How often does CODO pass on a project because of poor fit?

8. What should a rebranding proposal outline?

9. What is an RFP and why is Isaac always cursing about them?

10. How important is it to like your design partner? What is the role of chemistry in this process?

11. That time a brewery hired CODO because Isaac was “…not some skinny hipster asshole.”

12. What should your branding or rebranding budget look like? How much will this all cost?

13. Why your budget should be tied to business objectives and the value this project will create.

14. Cody presses Isaac for a firm number. Isaac relents with a figure he’s seen cited in several business books.

15. Why work with an expert?

Cody and Isaac sit down to discuss the different types of creative partners a brewery can hire to handle their branding or rebranding project.

Points of discussion:

1. What is a Freelancer? Pros and cons?

2. What is a small to medium size firm? Pros and cons?

3. What is a Big agency? Pros and cons?

4. What does “Full Service” actually mean?

5. Why you never want to be an agency’s “cool” client.

6. Why we believe mid-size firms are taking over the world.

7. What should your partner be able to handle in order to be a great fit?

8. Let’s open up a can of worms! Should you hire a partner based solely on their personal or house style?

Cody and Isaac sit down to discuss the finer points of announcing your brewery’s rebrand without confusing (and alienating) your current customers.

Points of discussion:

1. Why is this important? What are some of the moving parts and logistics that need to be organized ahead of a brand launch?

2. Gird yourself?

3. A proper brand launch start internally by getting your team on the same page. How do we get everyone marching in the same direction if we’re spread out over several states?

4. What is a Master Campaign Timeline and what are some of the key benchmarks to base this on as we build out our schedule?

5. Why we like a launch week (or month) instead of one specific day.

6. Packaging logistics are often the most challenging issue to manage during this process. What are some tactics we can employ early on to make sure we’re not setting ourselves up for failure later on?

7. In the real world, a “staggered” release is often called for. Is this the end of the world?

8. What is a “Teaser” Campaign and why is it so valuable for announcing a rebrand?

9. How soon should you start promoting that a change is coming? Can you be too early?

Cody and Isaac sit down to introduce themselves and CODO Design… 7 episodes in. Better late than never?

Points of discussion:

1. CODO Design overview

2. Cody and Isaac introductions

3. We founded CODO the Monday after graduating from college in 2009

4. Internship experiences that galvanized our decision to start our own firm right out of school

5. How we began to focus on the Food and Beverage space

6. Our work in beer, starting 2010 and leading up to current day.

7. How did our Craft Beer Branding Guide come to be?

8. Why did we write Craft Beer, Rebranded?

9. How have we seen the beer industry shift and mature over the last 11 years

10. We’re working on our third book?

Cody and Isaac sit down to discuss Brand Essences—what they are and what role it plays in the branding process.

Points of discussion:

Cody and Isaac sit down to discuss the various people and stakeholders groups you’ll need to organize ahead of your rebrand. They also touch on some important process nuances like gaining consensus amongst large groups and emotional intelligence tactics for wrangling all the different personalities you’re sure to run into throughout this work.

Points of discussion:

1. Who comprises the Executive Team throughout a branding project.

2. How many people should actually be involved in decision making throughout this process?

3. How do we organize and prioritize other stakeholder groups beyond the Executive Team?

4. How (if at all) do we bring customers into this process?

5. Why CODO prefers one-on-one intimate conversations over beer to the dreaded large group “discovery” session.

6. What’s the magic numbers in terms of interviews? Where do we start to see diminishing returns?

7. Some emotional intelligence tactics for engaging with folks who *need* to be involved, but that might not be on the same page as the rest of your team.

8. Always assume the person you’re talking to knows something you don’t. (Important life lesson as well)

9. How can we avoid the dreaded “Swoop?”

Points of discussion:

1. Isaac is leaving CODO to open a brewery?
2. What is positioning (3 Core Questions) and why does this matter?
3. How to use a matrix to get a quick eagle eye view of your competitive landscape.
4. Categorical Differentiation as a positioning strategy.
5. What is the “Positioning Trap?”
6. Can a specific a theme or differentiator be too limiting on a day-to-day brand building basis?
7. How to write your brand positioning statement.
8. Okay, Isaac is not starting a brewery after all.

Cody and Isaac sit down to discuss the various types of brand values a brewery can have (Core, Pay-to-play and Aspirational), why they’re all important and how to frame them.

Points of discussion:

1. What are core brand values?
2. Why frame your values?
3. Are brand values public-facing or an internal tool and rallying cry for your team?
4. Quick run down of the most common values we hear over and over again, from breweries all over the world.
5. ‘The Advantage’ book by Patrick Lencioni *quick note: Isaac’s an idiot. The author of ‘The Advantage’ is PATRICK Lencioni. Not Paul. Isaac said Paul Lencioni with such confidence at least 6 times during this episode. Great job, Isaac!
6. Core values vs. Aspirational values vs. Permission-to-play values.
7. Two methods we use for framing core brand values.

Cody and Isaac sit down to discuss the subtle differences between a brand refresh and a craft brewery rebrand. Plus, how to make sure you’re making the right decision in the first place.

Points of discussion:

1. Differences between a refresh and a full rebrand.
2. Where does a package refresh fall into this?
3. Why is this all so confusing?
4. What is brand equity?
5. What is a brand audit?
6. How do you interpret all of this research?
7. Can you rebrand and keep the same logo?

Points of discussion

1. Overall look is dated and inconsistent (And no longer reflects your core values and current version of your business)
2. You’re making major changes within your company. You are repositioning and/or specifically making major changes to your portfolio with new extensions, sub brands and other brand architecture restructuring
3. You don’t know how to tell your story.
4. You always feel like you’re reinventing the wheel. (For you in house designers and marketing directors out there)
5. Some tactical project—e.g. new website, format change—reveals larger messaging issues that need to be resolved.
6. You’re self conscious of your branding.
7. When not to rebrand: If there are deep, intrinsic problems with your business itself that have not been fixed, then a rebrand is a waste of money.