~PLAN~
Designing Your Brand Identity:
The Basics
Now that you’ve taken some time and considered the 4 areas for the designing of your Brand Identity: Color Palette, Typography, Imagery and Message, it is time to contact your graphic designer and put these pieces to work! Creating your Brand Identity can encompass a number of elements depending upon the branding stage.
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Logo
Your logo design is the foundation of your brand identity. It is incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to move forward with any other marketing piece until your logo is set up. I will caution you to choose a qualified, professional graphic designer, as this logo is going to have a lot of work to do. During logo creation, a professional graphic artist is going to work on the following:
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Clearly communicates who you are and what you value as a brand;
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Visually appealing: simple, clean and concise;
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Works in both color and black & white;
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Classic, not trendy: you don’t want your logo to go out of style in 6 months;
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Plays along with your industry’s standards—and if you veer off, do so deliberately;
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Makes a lasting impression on your audience and is memorable
A professional graphic designer should deliver your logo in multiple file formats to encompass varying sizes, print quality and web optimization, as well as color and black & white variations.
Brand Book
A brand book is a wonderful reference to preserve your brand identity. Once you have gone to the trouble of choosing just the right shade of green, waded through dozens of fonts and worked with your graphic designer to create the perfect graphics, you need to record all that information to guarantee that all your design assets are used correctly. A brand book outlines your design assets, clarifies when and how to use them ensuring that future design is in line with your identity, generating cohesive branding. Remember, consistency is the key to creating a strong brand identity so maintaining brand guidelines is going to enable you to build brand recognition and brand loyalty.
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Business Cards
Business cards are still a must and not just to put in the raffle bowl at Chili’s for the free lunch drawing. If you’re doing any sort of business development (and you better be), you’ll want to stock up on business cards. A well-designed card offers the chance to reinforce a positive opinion of yourself in the eyes of potential clients or customers. When it comes to business card design, keep it simple: your company logo on one side of the card and your key personal details on the other side should suffice. It is worth a couple extra bucks to swing for the heavier card stock, everyone notices heavier cards and it lends the perception of permanence and stability to you and your business. And don't forget that QR code taking them straight to your online presence!
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Website
Your website is one of the most representative aspects of your brand identity. Not only does a website lend credibility to your enterprise, it is a great option to offer up a depth of information about your brand that you cannot provide elsewhere. Let’s face it, if you want to know about a place you look it up online. You should be using your website to wow that potential customer with their first experience of your business long before they ever walk through the door. Tell your story & tell it well. Your website is where your brand identity should come through in full force.
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Social Media
Six guidelines to using social media as a branding tool:
(1) Choose the right networks – know your target audience,find out where they hang out on social media and post there.
(2) Utilize visual branding – keep it cohesive across platforms.
(3) Be authentic – whatever the voice you develop on socialmedia, make sure it is authentic to your brand and business.
(4) Post regularly – If you post irregularly or barely at all it is
unlikely that you will build up a following online.
(5) Remember to be social – if the only time you go on socialmedia is to post, you are essentially having a conversationwith yourself.
(6) This isn’t your mom’s branding – not everyone is obsessedwith social media, if you rely on it as the sole means of brandingyour business you will likely miss out on a portion of your target market.
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Email Marketing
Email is a great way to engage your customers and drive business. But most people are at inbox overload, so if you want to grow your business via email, you need the right design strategy to set yourself apart from the clutter. Think about the purpose of the email. Are you trying to make a personal connection? Then keep it short, sweet, and simple. Are you trying to educate? Then format it well so it’s easily readable and add a few images to make it pop. Are you trying to tell about your latest beer launch? Make a few stunning product images the focus.
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Product Packaging
Product packaging is key to attracting the right customers. Whether you’re thinking about the bottle of a cold-brew or the mail you’ll send to your customers to announce your latest collaboration, don’t underestimate the value of good design in improving the experience. Memorable packaging can drive both loyalty and repeat purchases. Packaging is an awesome opportunity for your design to shine.
Your brand identity is what sets you apart from the endless sea of competitors. It is your opportunity to highlight why you are unique. Consider it a stage and everyone is watching. Now go wow ‘em!
Contributing Author
Misty D. Gordon Multimedia Graphic Artist/Creative Director, Misty Gordon Creative
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Since 2010, Misty Gordon Creative has been creating strong, visually stimulating designs and providing cohesive marketing pieces across multiple platforms, from logo creation and branding, web design and advertising campaigns to product packaging and merchandise.
Over time and as businesses grow it can be difficult to maintain the brand you are known for. When your brewery started it was likely you and a handful of friends who ended up being your first employees. Early on the group is small, passion runs strong, and your brand is easy - it’s you.
Some of you may have invested in a brand consultant to work through and document your brand, your mission, vision, and values. I’ve spent more than my fair share of time in brand workshops and I think they are a valuable exercise to gain consensus for the handful who participate. The mission, vision, and values are framed or, better yet painted, on the wall and too often the brand work ends there.
As time goes, responsibilities and distractions grow. It can be difficult to know if you are keeping to your brand. It’s easy to be overrun by donation opportunities: wouldn’t it be helpful to short list them by which ones add to your brand? You’re looking to add some new gear to your store: what items could you sell which add to your brand? You’re building out a new patio: what fixtures could add to your brand experience? A tool I suggest is to boil your brand down to 2 or 3 words, and “quality” can’t be one on them - good beer is assumed. For example: Music,
Ben Weston, Hoptown Handles
Today's craft beverage consumer is becoming increasingly savvy and well-versed in the different styles/flavors or beer, cider, kombucha, etc. They are therefore becoming less and less likely to pick a beer based on the brewery name alone. Make sure you have a plan in place to differentiate between your different styles or flavors on your custom tap handle. Here's a quick breakdown of the most common ways of doing this along with the pros and cons of each.
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Permanent Printing directly on your custom tap handle handle
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Pros - No need to keep track of stickers, magnets, or other consumables; No additional costs beyond the handle price.
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Cons - If you discontinue that style/flavor, you have handles you can't use anymore.
Decals
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Pros - Low cost; Can be used with any of our standard (stock) handles; Removable; Durable; Quick turnaround; Low minimums.
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Cons - Need to manage decal stock; Reliance on bars/restaurants/distributors to ensure that decal gets placed on handle each time with accurate alignment.
Chalkboard/Whiteboard
Some days you have a ton of news to share with your fans. Everything feels equally important and you don’t know what to
prioritize. Other days it seems like nothing is
going on. You’re not feeling creative, but you know you need to post something… anything…
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Sound familiar? Phew. You need a beer. (Actually, you may or may not need a beer, but you definitely need a content calendar.) Whether you’re a brewery, distillery, or malthouse, here are content creator Alyssa Powers’ top tips for creating a simple and effective content calendar.
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LET’S TALK FORMAT
Go with a user-friendly digital format such as Google Sheets. Not only can you replicate your layout for future months, but you can easily share it with your team so everyone can access the calendar on-the-go. Your exact formatting will vary, but here is our simplest recommendation to get you started:
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Columns: Days of the week complete with dates
(ex: Monday 8/31, Tuesday 9/1...) -
Rows: Different content buckets (in other words, the various channels you use.) This could be as simple as Social Media, Email Blasts, and Website Content. Or, it could be as
Tristan Chan, The Porch Collective
Great journalism often transcends beyond the ability to simply report the news. Powerful storytelling can compel, inspire, tantalize, excite, and better inform readers to venture out and explore bold new horizons.
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Having worked on both sides of pitching brewery stories and receiving them, I can’t stress the importance of not only developing great relationships with regional beer media members, but also understanding how to utilize them best.
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The first step is identifying and reaching out to the media members that best cover your area. Regional/local newspapers may have a brewery beat writer, but most likely utilize local business beat writers or food writers to cover breweries from time to time. National industry publications like my own, PorchDrinking.com, as well as others like Good Beer Hunting, The Full Pint, Brewbound, VinePair, Hop Culture and more are also also worth a connection. That said when it comes to pitching stories, national industry publications may not be as interested in a small local bottle release where a local newspaper might be more inclined to cover.
If you have a truly sticky story, it might be worth reaching out to​
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Secure/raise financing
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Build your brewery
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Establish vendor relationships
