Honey, I bought /got involved in / started a brewery… what now?

Hey you! Just entered the brewery space, gotten involved with a brewery, just purchased one, or are even thinking about starting a home brewery? Here are a couple of sweet nuggets of branding joy to nail before diving into identity design.

Don’t get me wrong, rushing into logo design, colours, and the pretty pictures is always the fun and exciting bit. But you’ll have a far more successful journey if you nail these three core areas in terms of your branding first….

Class is in session!

Understand the Strengths of the Existing Brand

If you’re stepping into a brewery that’s been around for a while, take some time to get your feet under the table. Experience the environment, talk to the team, and understand the merits of the brewery.

After all, there’s no point in throwing the baby out with the bathwater! Check out the awards, read the testimonials, see what the most popular beers are, check their rankings on rating apps, and generally chat with team members about what makes the brewery special compared to others they’ve experienced.

At the same time, identify areas for improvement, this can help you build your internal culture (because your actually shown to care and make changes based on the teams recommendation!)

Know What Your Punters Want

If you’re lucky enough to have an existing brewery, use focus groups and chat with people in the taproom. Understand what they love, why they love it, and why they keep coming back.

As a bonus, get the lowdown on the competition too. Find out what other breweries are doing, what consumers prefer about them, and what inspires them.

Knowing what your locals are looking for means you can appeal to them more directly. You’re not just boasting about how good you are, but turning your awesome sauces into something that they want, ultimately driving sweet sweet sales!

Sus out the Competition

This is a really overlooked part of brewery market analysis and brand strategy.

You need to know what your local and perhaps national competitors are doing. It all depends on the goals of your brewery. If you want to win in the local market first, then look at the top three or four names that keep popping up when talking to punters and locals, if you have bigger goals then take a blend of local and national peeps.

What’s their thing? Are they the local brewery of the area, the eco-friendly one, the vegan, or the gluten-free brewery? What’s their story? Does it overlap with yours? Do you need to find a different way to position your brewery in the market?

Equally, how are they pulling people through the door? Do they offer incentives, discounts for local delivery, free delivery, or members’ nights? Compile all this information into a document, and then you can start to build your own offer that knocks the competition to the floor!

Bringing It All Together

Once you know what’s phenomenal about your brewery, what you can improve, how to tweak your strengths to meet customer needs, and how to stand out from your competitors, then you can really start playing with language, identity, and all the other fun stuff.

If you need even more help than that, then mash the button below…