Beer Branding: 22+ Tips to Build a Brand from scratch

What do you love to drink? Would you love to brew? Moreover, would you like to make a business out of it? Well, the market is wide open for beer brewers around the US. In the recent past, more than 5,500 small breweries in the US started making commercial beer, and they have gained ground in the competitive market.

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Powerful Tips To Build a Beer Branding Strategies

The demand and supply for beer won’t go down at this point in time. Here are some of the ways by which you can build your new beer brand.

Brew worthy beer

This is the first and foremost step if you wish to start your beer brand. Be it your unique secret ingredient or out-of-the-box brewing process, the taste of your beer should be at its best always. When your beer goes through cold chain logistics, make sure that it is resistant to all the solutions added to keep it fresh. This is an essential aspect of creating great beer for commercial offerings.

Have a good brand story

Captivating the beer geeks is a tough job. They do not always love the beer because of its amazing taste. They love it because of the brand story too! Include “why” and “what” brought you into this business in your brand story.

This will make it captivating enough and allow the consumers to connect with the brand in a better manner. A good brand story also helps in boosting brand loyalty and consumers will drive to drink your beer in groups if the story resonates with them quite much.

Select a niche/ target customer group

Unless you choose to focus on a particular niche, you will never be able to sell off your beer effectively in the commercial market. You need to present your product to a target customer group and for the same you would need to choose a niche and then work on it further to build your brand.

Some of the popular niches in the beer domain can be based on kind of production or the kind of packaging. You can select wrought beer, craft beer or sweet beer as your niche. On the other hand, you can choose “only” can beer or such popular packaging designs and make it your niche.

Retail availability

It’s great to know that you have an amazing brand story, people love your beer and you also have a great value strategy, however if people do not find your beer where they shop for it then it is of no use! Begin by visiting local bars and asking them for a tap where you can supply your beer and if your product is loved by the people then it will create more demand.

Connect with retailers to sell your beer and offer them plenty of stock so that they do not run out of it.Bar, restaurants and groceries are the places where you would need to surge availability.

Brand mission statement

Your brand mission statement would clearly signify the goals of your brand for the customers. It reflects the value you wish to add to the market with your product. You might be targeting the youth with beer at an affordable price but extremely premium taste and this you need to mention on your brand mission statement.

Beer is meant for relaxation and happy moments, these are the emotions you should try to connect when writing the brand mission statement.

Qualities of brand and competitors

Your beer should have at least something that separates it from the others in your market. This will substantially reduce competition and make it easier for you to score with the customer.

Supposedly, consumers in your area prefer to have Bira beer, in order to achieve success you also come up with a sweet beer brand but you keep the price low as compared to Bira and you will surely sooner or later get more market for the product. Closely study your customer trends and tastes, it will help you in adding needed detail to the production.

Beer brand message and voice

Brand voice refers to how you communicate with your audience or customer base. Overlooking this aspect is one of the biggest mistakes that people make in their brand foundation process. Here is how you can define a voice and message or your brand-

Firstly, you need to define the core values of your brewery. Things that you follow and you cannot compromise on when it comes to brewing the best beer needs to be mentioned along with “why your beer is different”.
Understand touch points such as blogs, social media, packaging and print media. These are places where your customer communicates with the brand and through the kind of content you post here, the voice of your brand can be built.
To choose the tone of your brand, personify your brewery brand. Think how it would have communicated if it were a person! This will lead you to a suitable brand voice for use. Maintain if forever as brand voice and messages aren’t likely to keep changing.

Put your brand in the permanent consideration set

The whole purpose of branding is to ensure that you rake in brand loyalty from customers. Permanent good taste and product design does play a huge part in making your beer into the permanent consideration set. This refers to a set of beers that are always preferred by the customers and no matter what they will search for it.

You need to increase availability and trials for your beer in order to get brand loyalty. Once achieved, your beer brand will also be in the “permanent consideration set”.

Choose viral branding

For such craft beer or new beer brewery brands, it might be difficult to put huge money into marketing. For such instances, you need to make a strategy! The best example we can sight is that of the Bavaria brand from the Netherlands.

In a football match in the world cup, Bavaria sent some of the girls dressed normally and in the midst of the proceedings they changed their t-shirts and wore Bavaria branded t-shirts. Though the tournament’s official beer partner was a reputed beer brand, this trick from bavaria made it extremely popular and it went viral within days. It added immensely to their brand story and popularity!

Building blocks for you beer brand

Unique visual appeal is probably the foremost thing that needs to be taken into consideration when it comes to branding the beer. Here are some of the most popular building blocks that you can optimise as per your branding to stand out from others-

Bottle shape- A beer brand named San Miguel is popular for its Steini bottle while Kronenbourg is popular for its neck-less bottle. Such variations in the style of bottles helps in branding your beer better and also impress customers with innovation.
Glass colour – You must have noticed the signature look of corona beer, it is mainly due to the flint bottle! A unique and distinguishable colour of the bottle glass helps a beer brand stand out from the rest.
Opening sound and mechanism – Flensburger Pilsener is famously known for its expensive opening lock and mechanism. It offers an out of the box opening experience and also allows users to close the bottle with the same cap easily. The brand made a smart story regarding the “plop” sound it makes every time the bottle is opened! Such unique style of opening and sound leaves a major impact on the customer and also hypes up your brand manifold.
Iconic brand logo – Your brand logo should be reflective and connected with your brand story and mission. It should have a unique colour scheme and design that doesn’t match anyone else in the market. Your brand logo needs to be easily identifiable just like that of corona or Fosters!
Contrast and label shape – The glass colour and the label that you put across the bottle needs to be in contrasting colour. Choose opposite colours from the complimentary colour circle and use it for your brand. Having contrast colour will allow it to stand out among other beers and attract the customers more than the others. The psychology of colours in branding is extremely essential and it has led numerous brands to zenith of success with the right interpretation.

If you are planning to start off your own beer brand, keep the above mentioned points in mind and definitely you would edge towards success. Understand that branding is the foremost requirement and if you can do it properly, there is nothing that can stop your beer brand to acquire giant market share in the upcoming years.