Branding Brews Podcast

Perceived Quality through Branding with Nick Longo Find Nick Longo Website: longodesigns.com One topic I have been into lately is the perceived quality of your beer, or brewery, based on its branding. Your potential customers will judge your ability to provide quality beer based on your branding and brand identity. Also, customers are more likely to purchase products from a brewery that has a polished and legitimate brand. If you brew quality beer, having bad branding can create a conflicting message, or bad impression to your customers. On the opposite end of that spectrum, good and consistent branding can create loyal customers and better brand awareness. How you approach your branding can have a direct impact on the perceived quality of your beer and brewery. There are many approaches and techniques to strengthen you brand, and it can be overwhelming to go down that rabbit hole. You can of course partner with someone to help build and maintain your brand, or if you are mindful of branding, can take some of these things into your own hands. I think you can build yourself a stronger brand foundation buy just being aware, creating some structure or guidelines for your brand, and one of the biggest things…being consistent. This episode is exciting because it marks the one-year anniversary for Branding Brews. I have invited back Nick Longo from Longo Designs to discuss with us the idea of perceived quality. Nick always has great insight, is well spoken, and has been a guest and supporter of this show since day one. Let’s dig into some ways you can build a stronger brand with a higher perceived quality on this episode of Branding Brews.

Brand Systems and Guidelines with Joseph Szala Find Joseph and Vigor Website: vigorbranding.com // Twitter: @vigor Website: gritsandgrids.com In order to maintain a strong and consistent brand, having a good brand system and brand guidelines is an essential tool. It not only provides your internal team with a brand compass, but it is also a very valuable resource for media, vendors, and service providers. In any way possible, you want to be able to take control of your brand and not have it run away from you. In terms of brewing, you can consider a brand guideline like a brewing recipe. If you want to have consistent, good beer, you will want to rely on a solid process and a recipe to follow. A good system and guideline will provide you with this recipe for a successful brand. If you’ve been a scrappy startup and haven’t considered, or had the opportunity, to have a brand guideline, it’s not too late to get started! We dive into how you can take a brand audit by analyzing what your brewery is putting out to the world. There are definitely some great ways you can start analyzing and putting together some brand rules to live by. Today we’re joined again by the very talented Joseph Szala of Vigor Branding. Joseph did a knock-out job on a previous episode, and we’re very excited to have him back. Get your brand bearings, and learn all about the importance of brand guidelines on this episode of branding brews.

Let's take a look at your brewery website with Craftpeak Find Craftpeak Website: craftpeak.com // Twitter: @craftpeak // Instagram: @craftpeak Your website is one of the most important and most available places customers will find you to learn about your beer and brand. If someone is visiting your town, chances are, they are going to scroll through Google listings to discover your brewery. For a number of reasons, websites often become neglected, or in some ways an afterthought. Why might that be? Well, some common reasons seem to be budget, man-power, complexity, or a poorly designed or outdated website that is hard to maintain. I hope this episode will shed some light on why your website is one of your most valuable assets in representing your brewery and some ways that you can audit your current website experience. This interview can get a bit technical, because website definitely are, but there are some valuable ideas and strategies to consider. There are some DIY tools and tips for analyzing and improving your website that we will discuss. If anything, I hope you take away enough insight to reach out to a professional for assistance in building up your web presence. I am joined by a super sharp web technology team, Craftpeak, who has narrowed their specialty to the craft beer market. If you follow their Instagram account, you will see they live and breathe beer. We’ll discuss your branding and content, managing your website, how you are placing on Google search, and more on this episode of branding brews.

Label materials with Alex Kidd of Avery Dennison Often when it comes to creating a new label, the first place you start is with the design. The general look and feel, colors, typography, images, and content. These, of course, are must haves for a great label. In the earlier stages, have you ever considered starting with the label material? There are a wide variety of materials that you can print on that can help your product stand out on the shelf. Label materials like cotton, wood veneer, recycled, textured, and more can give your label a unique feel and look that people want to pick up and feel. When you start by looking at materials, you can be inspired to take your label design in a whole new direction. The label material creates the background and a “base” look for what the label design will go on. Where should you start with new and fun label materials? If you haven’t explored this already, your label printer should be able to show you paper or material swatchbooks. Otherwise, label manufacturers like Avery Dennison can be your go-to source for researching swatchbooks. Alex Kidd, Creative Design Manager at Avery Dennison joins us to talk about label materials for your next label project, on this episode of Branding Brews.

Branding at Creature Comforts Developing not only a visual brand system that functions well, but also a brand strategy can be a challenge, especially for younger breweries. How do you approach working with a designer or artist? What kind of ground work do you have laid out for the brand, how do you communicate that with your internal and external teams? How are you going to approach developing the brand into a strong system that will function and duplicate well? With many breweries, this is quite a learning process that will evolve over time until you can catch a groove. Creature Comforts spent a lot of time and took a number of approaches to tackle these challenges. They’ve come to a great end result and process when it comes to branding their beers and putting out new releases. I connected with Creature Comforts to discuss their can designs and branding system for these cans. Each beer release has unique artwork, but the brand system in place created a consistent look that says “Creature Comforts.” As we dug into the interview, we were able to get a good look at the process they took to get where they are at now, what they learned over time by working with various designers, and what they learned about developing their brand. Chris Herron and David Stein from Creature Comforts joins us to discuss the ins-and-outs of developing their brand on this episode of branding brews.

Trademark for Logos and Graphics with Chris Gartman, Head Brewer and IP Attorney Find Chris: Email:[email protected] // LinkedIn One of our more popular episodes recently covered aspects of legal trademarks around naming. I wanted to follow up that episode with another interview focused on logo, trade dress, and visual graphic trademark. In recent news here in Portland, Oregon, there was a logo trademark battle between Old Town Brewing and the city of Portland that caught big attention in the local brewing community. With the rallying support of the community, Old Town was able to settle and solve the dispute, but this ordeal proved to be a case for getting a logo trademarked. I’m sure most of us aren’t legal experts and focus on areas of brewing, marketing, design and branding, so I reached out to Chris Gartman who is not only a head brewer, but also an IP attorney. There are lots on intricacies and legal terminology to dissect and I think Chris does a great job of breaking this down into understandable and more common language. Join us as we discuss trademarks for logos, labels, trade dress and more on this episode of Branding Brews!

Ex Novo brewing and philanthropy in your brewery branding Find Ex Novo: Website: exnovobrew.com // Twitter: @ExNovoBrew // Instagram: @ExNovoBrew Many breweries, to varying degrees, give back to their community. Ex Novo has made this their core foundation and built their brewery business on philanthropy. Joel Gregory had a passion for brewing and also for supporting his community and causes in need. One avenue he could have taken was getting into the world of non-profits, but the idea of constant fund raising was not overly appealing. His idea? Start a brewery as a non-profit where he can not only combine his passions, but also use beer as the method for raising money to donate. This had the benefit of allowing him to work at his passion of brewing great beer and not have to spend countless hours raising money for causes he cares about. Joel’s brewery, Ex Novo, has since moved away from the non-profit designation and is now setup as a Benefit Company in Oregon. This move has allowed for some beneficial business aspects, while still giving 100% of profits to good causes. Listen in as Joel goes into detail about why he started his brewery with the idea giving back, and all the nitty-gritty details of running a brewery and brand with this in mind. Philanthropy is the topic for this episode of Branding Brews.

Inclusivity in Your Branding & Market with Carla Jean Lauter Find Carla: Website: thebeerbabe.com // Twitter: @beerbabe Beer doesn’t see race, gender, sexual orientation or class. When it comes to branding and marketing, why not take an extra effort to make sure you are being inclusive and reaching a larger audience in a positive way. Inclusivity doesn’t stop at how your customer perceives your packaging and visual branding, but it also is the environment in your brewery and your employee culture. Customers are seeking genuine and authentic brands that represent real and positive values. They want to connect with and believe in the the breweries they visit and the beer they drink. Women are an increasing market to craft beer consumption, but also are taking more roles in the beer industry. Craft beer took an opportunity to move away from the sex sells marketing and branding strategies of the older big beer brands and provide products that are unique and can stand out based on quality of the liquid. We’re going to cover how inclusivity can benefit not only your brand, but the craft beer industry as a whole. With so many breweries opening their doors, it’s important that we’re looking forward and trying to reach and connect with larger audiences and communities. Carla Jean Lauter has been passionate about this topic and has been very active online, engaging other breweries and fans. Carla joins us today to talk inclusivity in the beer market, on this episode of Branding Brews.

Creating a Content Calendar for the New Year with Emily Hutto. Find Emily and RadCraft: Twitter: @emilyhutto // Website: radcraftbeer.com // Twitter: @radcraftbeer // Instagram: @radcraftbeer Content, content, content. An all too often afterthought, but yet plays an integral role in how your brand is represented across many channels. Content presented from your packaging, marketing and press materials, social media and your website all come together to bring your brand to life. Since we are about to start a new year, now is a great time to take audit of your content and take a look at creating a content calendar for the new year. What should go into planning and building a new content calendar? Well, it would be of great benefit to start analyzing all of your visible marketing materials and online presence. This would cover not only the copy on your website or social media posts, but also building a strong library of visual assets such as photos, videos, and also revisiting the content of your brand guidelines and also your media kit. Your website can play an integral role for any customer before they reach your taproom. It’s vital that you stay up to date on your website content from your beer releases, general brewery information, to events and blog posts. Being active on your website, by way of a blog or similar ways of posting information, can provide a great place to have engaging content that can create stories and connections that will strengthen your brand. RadCraft is co-op resource providing communications support, social media, marketing and consulting. Emily Hutto started her career as a craft beer journalist and that eventually grew into providing breweries all sorts of communication services through RadCraft. Emily joined us to talk about starting out your new year by taking a good look at your content needs and planning for the future on this episode of Branding Brews. Show notes and links Maui Brewing Co - Online Branding Guide Great Divide - Press Kit on Brandfolder Brandfolder - Cloud or web based brand asset manager

Your Portfolio's Role in Branding with Michael Kiser of Good Beer Hunting Find Kiser online: Website: goodbeerhunting.com // Twitter @goodbeerhunting // Instagram: @goodbeerhunting How does your beer portfolio connect with and represent your brand. Does your branding speak to and set up the right expectations for your beer portfolio? There are many elements and ways that a brand will come to life and play a role in your customer’s eyes. Indeed having a strong and unique visual brand are of utmost importance, but your beer must be connected with that brand experience. Having a brand experience that will setup expectations for your customers can create a recipe for success. If you position yourself well with your branding, your audience can be warmed up to what kind of beer they are about to drink and result in a stronger connection. If you are able to frame your brewery and your positioning around the beers, and have an awesome and well designed experience, expectations can be met and things like beer style trends or even preferences may not be as important. There’s no doubt that your beers will evolve over time, and your brand efforts should continue to live and grow as well. It’s important to keep your branding up front and center in the same way you that you constantly focus on your beer. Michael Kiser with Good Beer Hunting has been writing about, drinking and focusing on beer for almost a decade. His background as an innovation strategist for products like Nike, Samsung, HP, and Adobe, paired with his passion for beer has created a great platform for Good Beer Hunting. Listen in as Kiser and I get into how your brewery’s portfolio should play a role in your branding and how your branding connects customers to your beer in this episode of Branding Brews.