Building a brand that is solid and recognizable for your brewery involves combining several practices and procedures to determine how your customers think and feel about your beer. It sets you apart from your competitors and grabs the attention of your target market.
Branding and brand identity incorporate both visual and motivational assets. Visual assets include your website, logo design, label design, signage, and brand colors. On the other hand, motivational assets are your phrasing, voice, mission, promise, and values. These motivate a customer to take action in response to your brand and buy from you instead of another brewery. So, where do you begin to build a strong brand?
Audience - Before building your brand, you need to understand your audience. Identifying your target audience helps establish your voice, design, and market strategy.
1. Create a buyer persona.
a. Who is your ideal customer? What are their behavior patterns? Consider their age, gender, demographics, likes/dislikes, and motivations.
2. Look at your competitors.
a. Who are your competitors serving, and who is underserved or overlooked? How can your brewery fill a space and serve an overlooked or underserved demographic?
3. If you already have customers, what can they tell you?
a. Your current customers are an invaluable source of information. What can they tell you about the points above?
Brand Positioning - The next block in building a solid brand is your brand position. It represents the fundamental concept that your customers connect with and attribute to your brand. A positioning statement serves as a concise, one-sentence depiction of your business that sets the brand apart from its competitors and resonates with the target audience. For example, “We are a [blank] selling [blank] to customers/consumers in [region].”
Brand position statements should use intentional wording. Terms like “handmade,” “artisan,” and “organic” are great examples of intentionally specific language. Your brand position and selling points help you establish branded content and marketing that speaks your unique voice to your target audience. Brand positioning is internal. Your brand message expresses your positioning statement so people can connection with it.
Name - The time has come to choose your brewery and brand name. This name will be the defining feature of your brand, distilling down everything the public needs to know about you into a single moniker. Your name is trademarked and determines your URL and domain name, so take time to do your research. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has an excellent resource for trademark searches. In today’s world, you should have a web presence, so it is crucial to research domain names before choosing your brewery and brand name. You can search your preferred domain names on websites like Instant Domain Search and Google Domains. These sites will offer alternative domain name suggestions if the domain name is unavailable.
Brand Story - Your brand story is the “WHY” behind your brewery. Every brewery has a purpose beyond profits. Knowing your “why” and, more importantly, your customer’s “why” helps your customers fall in love with your brewery and generates respect and loyalty, turning customers into devoted fans.
Why did you start this brewery? What gets you out of bed and into the brewing room every day?
Why or what will your customer receive or feel after choosing your brewery over another?
Establishing a Brand Look - Here is where you get into the creative process. Your brand look helps instantly identify you in the marketplace. Part of your brand design look may be trademarked and therefore become intellectual property. Branding elements include: