Category: How To Guides

The Key to Beverage Branding and Packaging Design Success

The Australian beverage market is currently worth $438.9 million and expanded by 2.1% during 2021, overtaking the consumer goods and services sector and the overall growth of the economy. Producers of alcoholic beverages in particular benefited this year, with a 3.4% increase of Australians drinking wine, a 2.6% increase in sales of spirits, and a 0.5% increase in beer consumption (after a decade-long slump). Whether you’re an established brand looking to attract a different demographic with your latest product, or an ambitious newcomer determined to make a splash with your innovative offering, now is the time to start preparing. Once your product is on the shelf, the power passes to the consumer. So, how can you convince customers to take a chance on your beverage over the competition? One key component: packaging.

How to Do Drinks Branding and Packaging Design the Right Way

Since we eat (and drink) with our eyes first, it makes sense that the visual elements of beverage branding are the most important to get right. On a subconscious level, consumers are having to make decisions and form opinions about products faster than ever before, because more and more brands are clamouring for their attention. Once customers form an emotional connection with your brand, the challenge becomes retaining their loyalty as new products enter the marketplace. You may find that a packaging redesign or complete rebrand is necessary to recapture the attention of your audience or to expand your appeal.

What Makes a Successful Beverage Brand?

For us, successful drinks branding is about creating a meaningful, lasting connection with your customers. As the humanity and sociability of brands becomes more important than ever, the last thing you want to be seen as is a faceless company focused on revenue. To stand out, follow these key steps.

Define Your Market Demographic

On the surface, it seems logical that wine should be marketed to an older, more sophisticated demographic, beer to a predominantly male demographic, and energy drinks to the youth. But as the beverage market continues to diversify, generalising about your audience can be a recipe for disaster. Creating a profile of your ideal customer – how old they are, where they work or study, what they do to relax, what are they currently drinking and more – will help you create targeted branding that cuts through the noise. If you don’t understand your audience, how do you know what is going to connect with them on an emotional level?

Deliver Your Message (in a bottle!)

We believe that at the heart of any successful brand is a good story. Humans are hardwired to respond to storytelling – it’s how we make sense of the world and of ourselves. Storytelling is also the key to creating a genuine connection with your audience. If you can evoke an emotional reaction from customers, they’re going to remember your brand over your competitors. Focus on what it is that makes your brand and business truly unique. That’s your silver bullet, but you have to find it and then articulate it for your audience, and that’s where we come in.

Develop Ownable Brand Assets

Any beverage branding agency worth their salt stresses the importance of developing a strong brand identity. But too often their advice is to use your rivals as inspiration, which can lead to derivative branding or uninspired designs. Sure, you should see what your competitors are up to, but you need to zig where they zag. Your brand identity and visual design elements must be ownable and distinctive – customers should be able to recognise your product range even if you take the logo off. With your personal brand story already articulated in a compelling way, unique ownable assets and clever packaging will help amplify it.

Design Disruptive Beverage Packaging

Beverage packaging and labels tend to have a small surface area, making it difficult to include everything that you may wish to communicate to consumers. That’s why you need intelligent design, where everything from the bottle shape to the choice of font represents your brand in a cohesive and interesting way. Don’t be afraid to get creative, either. Taking risks may not always pay off but disruptive packaging design done intelligently will get you noticed. Products that stand out, sell. So make your beverage leap off the shelf!

Tips for Effective Drinks Branding and Packaging Design

We strive for intelligent disruption with each of our packaging solutions, and conduct a brand and category audit specific to each project, however there are several packaging cues to consider in each particular market. Different colour palettes, typography and imagery evoke different feelings and are associated with specific flavours and types of beverages. Following familiar trends can win the trust of consumers, but breaking the mould is where you will yield the best results.

#1: Beer Packaging

From progressive craft beer to old-school, mainstream beer brands, packaging designs in this market tend to favour colour palettes which complement the type of beer itself. Striking patterns are used to signal experimental flavours or to appeal to a younger audience. Badges and crests commonly adorn more traditional beer labels, suggesting heritage and legitimacy within the wider marketplace. The use of discoverable design elements can help create something truly unique. Coca-Cola Amatil came to us wanting to refresh their Vonu Pure Lager label – a low-carb, handcrafted beer known for its crisp, pure taste. By switching to a clear bottle and incorporating elements of surfing culture into the logo and imagery, Vonu Pure Lager now clearly reflects its brand identity of carefree living.

#2: Soft Drink Packaging

Arguably the most iconic soft drink brand is Coca-Cola, with its timeless red and black colour palette, old-fashioned scripted font, and a contoured bottle design inspired by the cocoa bean (which the designers mistakenly believed was on the list of ingredients!) Soft drink packaging primarily features vibrant colours and simple logos, which can be easily recognised at a distance. Customers are also accustomed to colour reflecting flavour; red or pink for strawberry and other berry flavours, green for apple or lime, brown for cola, orange for orange, and so on. Again, the use of design craft and discoverable brand elements add depth and give consumers something new to engage with each time they interact with your brand.

#3: Wine Packaging

Wine packaging design trends revolve around the variety and varietal. Muted tones work well with sparkling wines and pastels are a great accompaniment for blush wines, while moody shades and geometric imagery suit sophisticated red wines such as cabernet. Wine packaging design also generally reflects its price point; consumers expect an expensive wine to exude elegance, while cost-effective wines can experiment with more playful bottle shapes and label designs. Never underestimate the importance of clever beverage branding. With our help, the Saint Clair Family Estate have created a world-class, highly awarded New Zealand wine brand in less than one generation.

#4: Non-Alcoholic Beverages Packaging

For juices and dairy products, conveying freshness and wellness is key. Clear bottles are typically chosen to showcase the product and for appetite appeal, and the labels used to convey nutritional information, with less focus on communicating brand identity. Healthy drinks like kombucha, iced teas and vitamin-infused water follow these trends, highlighting their ingredients and utilising clean, minimalist packaging designs. In stark contrast to this are energy drinks, which convey their benefits through frenetic patterns and vibrant shades. And it makes sense – if you’re tired and looking for something caffeinated, only the wildest designs are going to grab your attention! When Nexba approached us to refresh their brand it was about more than just a packaging update for their range of kombuchas. We needed to develop a full brand architecture that would work across a wide range of non-alcoholic beverages including liquid breakfast, veggie blends and seltzer.

#5: Spirits Packaging

There are six basic types of distilled spirits – rum, gin, brandy, whiskey, tequila and vodka. Head to any bottle shop and you will immediately pick up on the design trends of each variety. Vodka brands use the blank canvas of the colourless spirit to suggest hidden flavours or evoke certain moods, while whiskey brands use vintage bottle shapes and typography to attract a more mature demographic. With spirits branding, less can definitely be more – we stripped back Wild Turkey Rare for a refined yet still masculine feel, and focused on the Fijian heritage of Rum Co. of Fiji to foreground their authenticity.

From elegant wines to experimental energy drinks, the success of your beverage branding can depend on having the right packaging design. Whatever your vision is for the future of your brand, we can help.

Contact us today so that we can create the best drinks branding strategy for your business.

Ultimate Rebranding Best Practices

Picture this: You’re sitting in a meeting with your team, bouncing ideas off each other. Perhaps your brand has failed to gain traction in the market as quickly as you’d hoped, or sales are falling as consumers seem to lose interest in your products. Then someone says that dreaded word – rebranding. We get it. Rebranding a business can be a daunting task, with no guarantee that the changes you implement will be embraced by your existing customer base. But trust us when we say that the rewards far outweigh the risks, as long as you avoid the common mistakes companies tend to make when undertaking a rebrand. Successfully rebranding your business can revitalise your position in the marketplace, attract new customers and align your brand more fully with your company mission and values. So let’s get cracking!

The Most Common Mistakes to Avoid When Rebranding a Business

The first thing you should ask yourself is – do I need to rebrand, or do I actually need a brand refresh? (Yep, they’re two different things.) The last thing you want to do is overhaul your entire brand identity only to alienate your current buyers who have an emotional connection to and familiarity with your existing logo, packaging and other visual elements. You might find that a new marketing campaign or fresh look at your packaging design does the trick to improve sales, increase awareness and re-energise your brand in the eyes of consumers. You also need to consider if you’re undertaking this rebrand for the right reasons. A recent study showed that the success of rebranding is affected by the complexity of brand meaning creation and negotiation amongst different stakeholders, including consumers. In essence, the longevity of your business relies on customer recognition and loyalty, so make sure that you aren’t transforming your brand into something unrecognisable. We all know the pressures of keeping up with an ever-changing and expanding marketplace, but change for change’s sake can ultimately damage your reputation and could result in the loss of any existing brand equity. Remember that as consumers, we tend to prefer consistency above all else – the knowledge that our favourite restaurant, food product or beverage (and the brands behind them) will always deliver the same level of quality.

Why (and When) Your Business Might Need to Rebrand

There are several reasons why you might decide to rebrand your business, from trying to capture a new target audience to differentiating yourself from your competitors. The purpose of rebranding is for consumers to perceive your brand in a different way while maintaining your accumulated brand equity. Legacy brands in particular can benefit from rebranding, allowing them to maintain a competitive edge while evolving to meet industry expectations. Partial rebrands are more usual than full rebrands, where companies update certain elements of their visual design such as their logo, while keeping the original colour palette and imagery. A partial rebrand can effectively overcome a slump in sales or attract new customers while still maintaining the integrity of your brand identity.

Our Top Tips for Successful Rebranding

Not to brag or anything, but we’ve helped some pretty cool companies with their brand identities over the years, from entrepreneurial start-ups to global corporations. We’ve learned firsthand that rebranding can be a game changer for any business, if you do it the right way. Here are our top tips for a successful rebranding:

#1: Pinpoint What Makes You Unique

If your brand is struggling to stand out from the crowd, then it’s time to find out what makes you different. Following popular design and packaging trends might work in the short term, but without a unique visual presence and authentic brand story, customers are likely to overlook you for your competition. Start digging deeper and get to the heart of what makes your brand distinctive, meaningful and interesting. Telling your unique story is the silver bullet of branding building. We believe that behind every good brand is an even better story – stories make us laugh, cry, reminisce, think and care. Not only does good storytelling humanise and modernise your business, it will help you forge a valuable, lasting connection with your customer base.

#2: Create a Strong Emotional Connection

During the process of rebranding, it can be hard to figure out what parts of your existing brand identity you should keep, and what parts aren’t serving you well anymore. We like to think about it this way – which elements of your brand create the strongest emotional connection for consumers? If you’re a legacy brand, perhaps it’s your name, logo or typography that people find comfortingly familiar, in which case those elements should be maintained – and amplified. However if you’re a newcomer, opportunities for connection could lie elsewhere in your company’s purpose, story or values. You can then feel free to completely change the visual elements of your brand, secure in the knowledge that your customers are drawn to your passion for organic ingredients, eco-friendly manufacturing methods or experimental flavours.

#3: Focus on Longevity, Not Being On Trend

In any market, companies look to their competition for inspiration. A certain brand gains popularity out of the blue, so naturally you examine everything from their packaging to their ad campaigns for something you can use. That’s how trends form – a successful brand might have graffiti-inspired typography and a high-contrast colour palette, and suddenly everywhere you look there are similar designs. The issue with following trends is that (you guessed it): they change. Rather than risk being left behind, focus on creating distinctive brand assets which you can own and develop over the long term. For example, when Yenda Brewing Co. decided to rebrand after losing market share in the highly competitive craft beer industry, we crafted a unique, easily customisable logo and set of distinctive assets that would punch off the bottle and intelligently disrupt on the shelf.

#4: Establish a Clear Purpose for Your Rebrand

This might sound pretty obvious, but you need to be able to clearly articulate why rebranding your business is necessary, as well as what you hope to achieve by it. Are you trying to engage a new customer demographic, or appeal to an international audience? Are you looking to expand your business, or are you trying to distance your brand from a previous mistake? Once you know why you want to rebrand, you can create a focused rebranding strategy which is more likely to succeed and help you achieve your business goals. You should also consider sharing your reasoning with your customers through social media, both to reassure people that the essence of your brand will remain intact and to demonstrate that their opinion and trust matters to your company.

#5: Know Your Audience Really, Really Well

As an established brand, you should already know your target audience inside out. But pivoting to target a new audience, or expanding to appeal to a broader demographic, means going back to the drawing board. Research your ideal customer and analyse your rivals in the marketplace, factoring the information you accumulate into your rebranding strategy. Look for gaps in the market, what your customers need or desire that hasn’t been provided so far; you want to zig when everyone else zags, and stand out in the process. When Delta Estate Wines wanted to evolve their brand, we appealed to a sophisticated, modern audience looking for exceptional quality, handcrafted wines and a brand with a clear passion for viticulture. The result was elegant, memorable and significantly increased domestic and global sales.

#6: Don’t Be Afraid to Get Creative

Sometimes companies are scared to experiment, worried that their existing customer base might dislike the changes or no longer recognise the brand. While this is a valid concern and a risk to be considered before the rebrand begins, you should also think about rebranding as the perfect opportunity to push the boundaries and intelligently disrupt. We know creating a brand that people will love and remain loyal to is hard, and it makes sense to stick with what you know. But being too cautious can result in a brand that is generic and boring, the opposite of everything you’re trying to achieve. Bold, intelligent design sells. Clever, disruptive design cuts through the noise and is remembered. And every successful brand began with a leap of faith, so get creative!

#7: Commit to the Rebranding Process

We’re going to let you in on an industry secret – getting cold feet halfway through a rebrand is completely normal. You might want to put on the brakes, or stress that all these changes are happening way too fast. But hesitating could leave your brand lost in the middle of an inconsistent present and incomplete future, never reaching its full potential. When Oporto came to us, they were known as the famous Bondi Beach chicken burger restaurant by Sydney-siders. In order to target regional areas, Oporto had to move away from their wildly popular ‘Bondi’ brand positioning. The risk paid off, with a vibrant blend of Portuguese culture and Aussie humour coming to define their brand. Commit to the process.

Whether you want to re-energise your brand, attract and retain new customers, or maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace, our team of experts can help you rebrand and share your unique story.

Contact us today to see how we can create a successful rebranding strategy for your business.

How to Create FMCG Branding That Can’t Be Ignored

When it comes to modern mass marketing, the fast-moving consumer goods industry (FMCG) is undeniably king. Including packaged foods and beverages, toiletries, cosmetics, alcohol, household products, tobacco and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, what differentiates fast-moving consumer goods from other categories is that they are in high consumer demand, tend to be perishable, have a high shelf turnover and are sold in large quantities at low prices. Since the end of WWII, the FMCG industry has been using a massively successful value-creation branding model which resulted in the foundation of 23 of the world’s top 100 brands by 2010. This value-creation branding model is based on strategies including creating partnerships with mass retailers and grocers, cultivating growing market categories to capitalise on the increase in consumer wealth, and designing company operations to consistently produce goods while simultaneously reducing the cost of production. And since it’s served the industry pretty well so far, it makes sense to continue using the same model, right? Wrong. Over the past few years in particular, the marketplace and the consumer experience have drastically been reshaped. During the height of the pandemic, as our physical space became more limited, our digital landscape – including e-commerce and social media platforms – expanded. And whether you’re an established business or in the process of creating your own brand, you need branding strategies that reflect our new reality. The value-creation model was unbeatable before the dawn of the digital age but now it’s outdated, affecting the organic growth of even the biggest FMCG companies.

Staying Competitive in the New Marketing Reality

As new brands continue to emerge and the marketplace becomes more crowded, the power of the consumer grows exponentially. To maintain a competitive edge, companies need to understand their customer base and – more importantly – concentrate on creating a meaningful connection with them. Recent research has identified seven major drivers that affect the attitudes, beliefs and purchasing behaviour of Australian consumers including the use of personalised marketing, the healthy lifestyle trend as popularised on social media, the level of convenience offered and a preference for purpose-driven, ethical organisations. FMCG companies have also been encouraged to embrace digital marketing, which has permanently changed how we learn about and engage with brands, and learn how to work with the millennial market, who are completely different from any previous generation of consumer. (Feeling a little overwhelmed? We don’t blame you!) So how should we approach branding in this brave new world? Simple – we evolve.

Why the Best FMCG Brands are Agile and Disruptive

Now, by evolve we don’t mean tearing your branding strategy apart to start from scratch. Think of brand evolution as shifting your focus, drawing on your own experiences as a consumer and what gives products value in your eyes. We all have our favourite brands – there’s a reason why we reach for a Coca-Cola when we’re thirsty or crave a packet of Tim-Tams with our cup of tea. But we don’t often consider why we identify with these brands, or why once we decide on a particular brand we won’t accept similar alternatives. (Pepsi just isn’t the same, okay?) Part of our preference for particular brands is the comforting familiarity of them; we feel emotionally connected to them, which plays a critical role in shaping our subconscious purchasing behaviour. But brands also need to fit seamlessly into our changing lives, maintaining relevance so that we continue to choose them over the competition. It’s a balancing act of innovation and consistency, where tipping too far in one direction could alienate existing customers or lead to being overlooked by new audiences. The best FMCG brands are agile enough to walk that tightrope with ease, disrupting the status quo and reaping the rewards.

The Five Pillars of Successful FMCG Branding

We thrive on evolutionary and revolutionary branding, combining bold visual design that leaps off the shelf with the meaningful brand purpose, sociability and authenticity which consumers demand from modern companies. Creating successful FMCG branding that customers will love is hard, but we’ve got you covered with these five game-changing strategies.

#1: Align Yourself with Your Target Audience

Whether you are opening a restaurant or releasing a new product line, your target audience always needs to be at the forefront of your mind. This may seem obvious, but many FMCG companies don’t do enough research into what motivates their customers. We know that mass marketing is no longer an effective tactic to engage younger consumers – there is a growing expectation that marketing will be personalised for individuals, not demographics. If you don’t align yourself with the values and interests of the audience you are trying to attract, what’s stopping them from moving on to another brand who will?

#2: Increase Customer Loyalty to Your Brand

Once you’ve built the foundations of a strong customer base, the challenge becomes securing their ongoing loyalty. The more distinctive and interesting your brand identity is, the more you will stand out from your competition. Your brand identity is everything that the customer sees, from your product packaging and logo design to your customer service and social media presence. To tell a coherent, compelling story, each element of your brand identity needs to be cohesive. By doing so, your company effectively becomes more professional, trustworthy and authentic in the eyes of consumers. It will make you worthy of their loyalty.

#3: Tell Your Unique Story

If you look at any of the top FMCG brands, one thing that you will notice is the amount of work that goes into their visual design, down to the smallest detail. Through effective packaging design and visual storytelling, you can share your brand identity with consumers at a glance. One thing we’ve learned in our decades of packaging and design experience is that great brands are built on great stories. Telling your personal story will humanise your brand, help forge an enduring relationship with your customer base and make your product stand out in saturated marketplaces like craft beer.

#4: Develop a Genuine Purpose for Your Brand

Australian consumers have discovered that their voices and purchase decisions can directly affect the practices of commercial organisations. There is a social responsibility attached to consumption, meaning that people are looking beyond the value of the product at the social, environmental and ethical impact of the brands behind them. So before diving into the essential rules of packaging design, take the time to step back and consider the values and causes that inspired the creation of your brand. Are you passionate about traditional ingredients, or eco-friendly production methods? Is your focus on providing convenience, innovation or healthy living? Make sure the visual design of your brand reflects these beliefs.

#5: Stay Relevant for Future Success

The world of retail has truly gone digital, and the last thing you want is to get left behind. If you’re currently in the process of rebranding and relaunching your FMCG business, digital marketing is the key to attracting and retaining your kind of customers while gaining brand traction in a short amount of time. Cultivating a strong digital presence through e-commerce, an official brand website or building active communities on social media platforms will allow you to significantly expand your reach to potential customers, and create a lasting connection.

Whether you are an FMCG company focused on maintaining the loyalty of your customer base or an entrepreneur with the beginnings of a dream, you need competitive branding that can’t be ignored.

Contact us today to see how we can build you the best branding package for your business.

How to Develop a Successful Wine Branding Strategy

With more and more wine brands and wineries popping up every year, whether you’re a newbie with a passion for winemaking or run a multi-generational family estate, it’s time to face facts: running a successful business in the wine industry is no longer just about selling good wine.

As the shelves get more crowded, the importance of having packaging design that cuts through to the consumer only increases. Next time you take a stroll through the aisles of your local liquor store, consider the bottle design of your competitors. There are certain wine labels that will leap out at you, capture your attention and excite your curiosity.

This is successful wine branding strategy at work, each element working in perfect harmony to create a product that you cannot ignore. So let’s crack open a bottle (see what we did there?) and discuss how to take your wine from anonymous to acclaimed.

#1: Define Your Identity

In a market full of world-class wines, you need to find a way to stand out from your competition. This is where your brand identity comes into play. Without a strong and distinctive wine brand, you could have the best quality wine ever made and still get left on the shelf.

Customers respond to products that they connect with emotionally, and companies that strive to show their human side. This emotive connection is how you turn a consumer into a loyal customer, and the most effective way to achieve this connection is through the creation and maintenance of a unique brand identity.

Establishing A Meaningful Wine Brand

Take it from us – the last thing you want is for customers to be ambivalent about your wine. As consumer choice increases, people are making more informed decisions about what products they buy, decisions based on the values of the businesses which provide them.

Your wine branding should be meaningful, and by that we mean stand for something more than just selling a good product. Are you a family-run vineyard trying to keep old traditions alive, or a young company looking to shake up the market? Are you passionate about local winemaking, sustainable techniques or experimental flavours? Discover what drives you, and the right audience will respond.

#2: Understand Your Audience

A successful wine branding strategy relies on knowing your target audience inside out, from their age and their socio-economic bracket to what they like to do in their spare time. Just like beer branding, targeting a generic audience of ‘wine drinkers’ is no longer a viable marketing tactic. As the market continues to diversify, you need to identify your ideal customer and work to lock in their loyalty. But how?

Your product might answer that question for you – blush and sparkling wines tend to appeal to a youthful crowd, while red wines have an association with sophisticated, professional types. How your rival winemakers position their brands can also reveal gaps in the market.

How Do Consumers Decide What To Drink?

A recent study of consumer purchasing behaviour for wine found that customers tend to rely on ‘extrinsic cues’ to determine product quality, as they usually aren’t given the opportunity to taste different wines before purchase. These extrinsic cues include the brand name, price and packaging, crucial elements of your wine brand identity.

Wine labels not only offer customers essential information about region and grape variety which influences their decision to purchase, but can also make your product more attractive to a certain demographic. Engage younger buyers with modern, innovative label designs, or draw in older consumers with more traditional packaging.

Saint Clair Family Estate uses rustic, handcrafted design cues in its Pioneer Block packaging to appeal to buyers looking for top quality, small parcel wine.

#3: Captivate With Creative Packaging Design

Now we get into the really fun stuff – crafting a distinctive visual look for your brand that will catch the eye of your ideal customer. Since we know that wine labels are such an influential factor when it comes to consumer choice, designing packaging that best represents your brand should be at the top of your priority list.

Once again, knowing your target audience is vital here to create wine branding that connects and sells. Like food packaging, wine labels have limited space to communicate both key product details and persuade people to choose your wine over the fifty-odd alternatives on the shelf. Smart food packaging design makes intelligent use of this available space. Your wine should do the same.

What Makes A Wine Bottle Leap Off The Shelf?

When it comes to packaging, our philosophy is simple – aim to disrupt. A bold design is a memorable design, and your creative vision doesn’t have to stop at the wine label. Little details like the shape of the label itself, colour selection and brand blocking can create a striking first impression for potential buyers. You should also take into account the variety or varietal when designing; certain colours, fonts and imagery will naturally complement particular types of wine.

Remember that you want wine branding that not only captivates, but endures. With clever packaging, you can create an instant classic.

Each varietal of Whalebone Bay features a different type of whale that creates the illusion of whales swimming swims across the shelf.

#4: Tell Your Unique Story

If the packaging design is the driving force behind your wine branding strategy, then your brand story is the heart. We’ve been in this game for a while, working with some of the best food and beverage brands in the world, and one important thing we’ve learned is that customers respond to brands that share their personal stories.

Think about it – in this golden era of e-commerce and digital marketing, we get bombarded with advertising all the time. Out of necessity, consumers have become adept at blocking out the noise; only those brands which affect people on an emotional or individual level cut through. And the most effective way to create that genuine connection with your customers is through storytelling.

Finding Your Authentic Brand Voice

Not sure if your personal story is compelling enough to build an entire wine brand identity around? Don’t panic! Above all, consumers want companies to be authentic, not pretentious. People respond to honesty, humour, warmth and humanity. Inviting your customers to participate in the ongoing story of your brand is a brilliant way to forge a lasting connection.

Great brands are built on great stories, so start sharing yours. And remember: in vino veritas – don’t be tempted to fabricate or embellish your brand story to outdo your competition. You could lose the trust of your customer base in the process.

How do you tell the story of grapes grown in the region that receives the most hours of sunlight in the world? With nudity of course! Marlborough Sun embraces its brand story and tells it in a unique way.

#5: Consolidate Your Brand Identity

Although it can be tempting to let your creativity run wild and develop radically different designs for each wine in your product range, keep in mind that consistency is key when it comes to the longevity of your brand. Yes, your wine branding should be distinctive, but it also needs to be easily recognisable and elevate your product in a positive way.

Your wine brand identity is made up of multiple elements, each of which must work together cohesively to set your brand apart. Any detail which seems out of place, like using fluorescent, graffiti-inspired graphics to sell vintage port, could cause potential buyers to overlook your brand in favour of another bottle design which better fits their perception of that wine variety.

Why Consistency Creates Brand Loyalty

For casual drinkers and wine connoisseurs alike, choosing which wine to buy is a time consuming process. Once customers are invested in your brand and trust you to deliver a high-quality product, the difficulty becomes maintaining a competitive edge against all the new brands flooding the market.

Being creative yet consistent with your wine branding strategy will ensure that your customer base remains loyal. Striking that delicate balance between innovation and cohesion can be hard without help, which is why we run innovation strategy workshops and ideation sessions. Check us out if you’re looking for a little creative enlightenment!

#6: Maximise Your Marketing Material

Winemaking is a true art, with ancient origins and time-honoured techniques stretching back thousands of years. But that doesn’t mean your marketing needs to be stuck in the past.

Long gone are the days when the success of a wine branding strategy was dependent on the cellar door or being noticed by a certain number of browsing shoppers. Today companies have more control over brand awareness than ever before. Whether you’re selling wine or opening a restaurant, now you can actively engage your target audience rather than waiting for them to find you.

From organising free tastings to wine club memberships, there are a variety of ways to reach out to potential customers. But the real secret weapon of modern wine branding is social media.

Cultivating A Strong Social Media Presence

Creating a Facebook business page, Instagram account or Twitter page is an easy way to reintroduce and re-energise your brand if you’re in the process of rebranding, or to gain traction quickly when launching a new product or campaign.

The sociability of brands is only becoming more important to consumers in the digital age. So dust off that keyboard, and establish a genuine online community.

Delta Estate Wines embrace social media to connect with consumers in a real and emotive way, further enhancing the authenticity of their brand.

Let’s talk about your wine branding. Whether you are an established winemaker looking to evolve your brand or an entrepreneur with a great vintage and the beginnings of a dream, our team can help.

Contact us today so that we can create the best wine branding strategy for your business.

How to Develop a Unique Brand Identity for Your Business

Close your eyes for a moment and picture your favourite food or beverage product. (We know it seems weird, but trust us – this is important.)

What comes to mind first? Is it the logo? The visual design or colour palette? The product’s name and tagline in its signature typography?

Or is it how the product makes you feel – comfort, desire, satisfaction, excitement?

Even in a world of near-constant advertising, we all have favourite brands that cut through the noise and become important to us. Thinking about them triggers a flood of associations and emotions – from memorable ad campaigns to enjoying their products with family and friends – increasing our loyalty and making us more likely to choose that brand over a competitor.

What all these brands have in common is a powerful and distinctive brand identity. And it can mean the difference between your success, or being lost in the crowd.

Why Building a Strong Brand Identity is so Important

Let’s face it – the marketplace is growing exponentially, with new food, beverage and retail brands emerging every day. So how can you attract an audience, ensure your customers remain loyal, or maintain a competitive edge?

Simple: by making people care. Care not just about your product, but about your story, your values and your company. A recent worldwide study found that consumers wouldn’t care if 75% of existing brands disappeared, driving home the importance of having a meaningful connection with your customer base. Pair this with the fact that the power of consumers in the retail relationship is only increasing, and engaging customers becomes more than just a marketing tactic. It’s essential to ensure the future of your business.

That’s why all the best brands are focused on creating a brand identity that is unique, authentic and consistent. A strong brand identity is your superpower – it makes your customers care.

The Key Elements of Successful Brand Identity Design

In essence, your brand identity is everything that the customer sees, from your product packaging to your social media presence. So it makes sense that you would need striking graphics and a catchy name. But good branding design runs deeper than that.

Each branding element needs to be cohesive, telling a consistent story that your customers can understand. If you say your brand is eco-friendly but use non-recyclable materials, or claim to prioritise customer satisfaction but ignore enquiries on your social media, customers will consider you inconsistent and inauthentic. With only 47% of brands deemed trustworthy by consumers globally, it doesn’t take much to damage a brand’s reputation these days.

Customers also prefer purpose-driven organisations, who stand for something more than the products they sell. Just as we expect to be treated like people by brands, people expect brands to act more human, focusing on positively impacting society rather than on profit. The more transparent, engaged and sociable your brand is, the deeper your connection with customers will be.

Creating a brand identity that people will love is hard – creating a brand that customers will remain loyal to is even harder. Luckily for you, we’ve got the key elements covered.

#1: Know Your Audience Inside Out

When you create an amazing product, you can’t help but want to share it with as many people as possible. After being in that intense creative headspace for so long, it seems inevitable that everyone will be as excited about your product as you are. Why shouldn’t you just market it to all demographics and audiences, and shape your brand identity later to suit the customer base that responds?

Unfortunately in trying to appeal to everyone, you run the risk of becoming just another generic brand, ultimately appealing to no one. Successful companies know their target audience inside out; they know how to appeal to them and what they need. Crucially, clever businesses know the gap in the market which only their product can fill, flipping the switch from disposable to essential in their ideal customer’s mind.

Figuring out your target audience is a huge step towards creating a brand identity that lasts. So close your eyes again (yeah we know, it’s still weird), but this time picture your product and how it makes you feel. We guarantee there’s people out there who want that same experience. That’s your audience.

#2: Define and Refine Your Brand Position

At the heart of brand positioning is the ongoing quest to set your brand apart from your competitors and make your product the most favourable in the eyes of consumers. We know it can be tedious, but thorough research of the marketplace is the best way to discover your unique flavour, whether that’s the quality or convenience of your product, your unprecedented level of customer service, or your innovative approach to retail.

With the rise of e-commerce, success can no longer be measured simply by owning the aisle or having the best eatery in a particular postcode. It’s about creating a brand identity that truly means something to your customers.

We know that consumers trust meaningful brands, those who offer ongoing value beyond their products and work to create deeper emotional ties with their audiences. And in the digital age, one of the best ways of sharing your company values and brand mission is by cultivating a strong social media presence. If you demonstrate a genuine interest in your customers and work to create an engaged online community, your brand will become associated with authenticity, credibility and most importantly, humanity.

#3: Command Attention with Clever Visual Design

Ever heard the saying that we eat with our eyes? There’s a reason why branding design focuses so much on the visuals. Having an eyecatching logo or bold packaging that leaps off the shelf is a brilliant way to connect companies with customers, and if cleverly utilised the visual design of your brand can come to symbolise your entire brand identity.

Our creative team has decades of branding and packaging design experience, so you can trust us when we say that products that stand out, sell. The first thing customers will see and judge your product on is the visual design, and the decision to go with one product over another is made almost instantly, sometimes even subconsciously. Since that decision could be based on any number of branding elements from the typography to the colour palette, it pays (literally) to put the extra effort in.

It’s not just about being aesthetically pleasing, either. A memorable brand is one that intelligently disrupts the status quo, making a potential customer stop in their tracks and think, or smile, or laugh, or reminisce. Never underestimate the power of effective packaging design.

#4: Use the Art of Storytelling to Connect with Customers

Since the dawn of time, there’s nothing that we as a species have liked better than sitting around the fire and sharing a few yarns. Stories are not only how we understand the world around us, but also one of the most effective forms of communication available to us.

Like we said earlier, the success of both your brand identity and your business relies on making your customers care. Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of branding. By forging an emotional connection with your audience through story, whether you’re making them grin or tugging at their heartstrings, you ensure that they keep choosing you over your competition.

Believe it or not, one of the best ways to create an enduring and authentic relationship with customers is by telling them your personal story. Great brands are built on great stories, ones that create interest, warmth, trust and connection. And if you’re worried that you don’t have a unique or interesting enough story to tell, check out our work with some of the most recognisable food and beverage brands in Australia. Sometimes it’s simply a case of asking the right questions to uncover the perfect yarn.

#5: Combine Creativity with Brand Consistency

By now you’ve probably realised the essential role that creativity plays in developing a strong, distinctive and authentic brand identity. A cohesive brand identity is actually made up of multiple creative branding elements that need to be refined and cultivated to tell your unique story. Whether it’s introducing a food product into the market or opening up a new restaurant, you should never miss an opportunity to be creative in your branding design. However when it comes to retaining the loyalty of customers, consistency is key.

We can learn from industry giants like Coca-Cola Amatil about the importance of maintaining a consistent brand identity – if someone mentions cola, the Coke logo and its iconic red and white colour scheme immediately comes to mind. Coca-Cola doesn’t just sell cola-based beverages, it has come to represent cola itself in Western popular culture. By continuing to deliver high-quality products while repeating key visual design elements across their range, Coca-Cola is both instantly recognisable and beloved by its audience. People may appreciate innovation in the short term, but it’s familiarity and consistency that will keep them aligned with your brand for years to come.

Whether you are a long-established business looking to re-energise your brand or an entrepreneur with the beginnings of a dream, having a unique and memorable brand identity is essential for success.

Contact us today to see how we can build you the best branding and design package for your business.

Key steps to beer branding success

Working in the beer and alcohol industry has its obvious perks – beer on tap (pun intended), invites to the best events and beer brand launches, and working alongside some pretty large and legendary personalities. But it can be a hard graft. The Australian Craft Beer Brewery list reported that in 2018, a new craft beer brewery opened every six days in Australia, and Statista estimates that there are currently over 300 beer brands available to Aussie beer lovers.

How do you create beer branding and packaging design that stands out and sells?

Know the person you want to buy your beer – really, really well

When you’re competing with 300+ other beer brands, you’ve got to really get inside the heads of the people you want to appeal to in order to understand what’s going to make them reach for your can over the competition when they’re dying for a cold one. How old are they? What socio-economic bracket do they fall into? What is likely to be their drinking occasion? Are they looking for a six-pack to take to a mate’s to watch the footy or a rich, dark pint to sip and savour after a long week in the office? What do they do in their spare time? Where do they live? All of this information drives the style, tone and positioning of your beer brand and packaging design.

Vonu is a great example of a beer that knows exactly who it’s speaking to – surf, ocean, and exploration lovers. Coca-Cola Amatil approached us to develop the Vonu brand identity and packaging into something that better reflected its pure, rustic, Fijian roots, and the aspiration of “living free”. See more here.

Tell your story and the story of your beer

Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of branding and a story easily interpreted and shared amongst consumers goes a long way to people remembering your brand and product. Any beer brand can talk about hops, strength, and fresh and fruity flavours – it’s the brands that tell a compelling story that see the most success. Is there a story behind how you came into the beer industry? Is there some nostalgia behind your beer or a certain SKU? Is there a story worth telling in the way the beer is produced or where it comes from? Stories evoke emotion, and emotional connections can drive loyalty and sales.

Doyles is one of the oldest fishing families in Sydney and that story is brought to life in the brand identity and on the packaging for their Fisherman’s Lager beer. Check it out here.

Define your position in the sea of beer

Craft, mainstream, everyday, special occasion, old school, progressive, strong, light, safe? There is a multitude of ways to position your beer brand and what you choose should resonate with your target audience and help to tell your brand story.

Yenda Brewing Co. has been around for a number of years and is the current sponsor of the Wallabies Rugby Union team. Over the years Yenda had lost its way and, due to a massive influx of players into the craft beer space, had also lost market share against its competitors. To help regain its position, Yenda needed new brand identity and beer packaging that would drive more of a mainstream craft beer positioning that appealed to a regional Australian audience. See how we helped Yenda regain its rightful position here.

Cut through with distinctive brand assets you can own

If we had a dollar for every beer that included a badge or crest in its beer branding, we’d have a lot of dollars. Sure, they’re a fundamental design cue within the beer industry and crests can signal heritage, but how can you make them work harder?

Vonu is a pure lager targeted at surfers that tells the story of living free. When redesigning their beer branding and packaging we crafted a crest that retained a key part of their brand – the turtle – and added two surfboards as discoverables. Clever touches like this give your beer branding depth and give consumers something new to discover every time they interact with your brand.

When redefining Yenda Brewing Co., we used the Y as a core visual brand asset to reflect the name of the beer and to ensure it is easily seen at a distance or in low light. The Yenda logo device is also a unique shape, crafted in such a way that it punches off the bottle and throughout all beer branding pieces.

There is so much more to successful beer branding and packaging than a nice looking label.

We’ve been branding beers and booze for decades for local breweries and companies like Lion, Coca-Cola Amatil, Campari, Casella Family Brands and more. You can check out more of our work here or get in touch if you have a project you’d like to discuss… over a well-branded beer.

The Essential Rules of Food Packaging Design

Let’s face it – you put months or years into perfecting your product; pound the pavement getting it into the best boutique grocers or chain supermarkets; get your pricing strategy just right; but what the consumer sees and judges after all this effort is – your food packaging design. Packaging design is a crucial part of whether your product makes or breaks it in the big wide world of FMCG. You might use the best tasting combination of unique ingredients, give the biggest nutrient hit, or provide people the ease and comfort they need when heading home after a long day at work, but if your food package doesn’t reflect this well, or it doesn’t stand out on a busy shelf, or is simply too similar to a cheaper option, why would anyone buy it? Successful food packaging design stands out, connects with people, is authentic, unique and answers what they’re looking for. And it does all of this in an instant. It takes years to learn and perfect this craft, but luckily for you, we’re here to share our essential rules of great food packaging design to get you started.

Food packaging design rule #1: Do your research

We know – after months of market and consumer analysis and testing, you’re all researched out, but do us a solid and take the time to research from a brand and packaging perspective. What are other companies doing in the space? Who is doing it well, and why? What semiotics apply to the category? Are there certain colours, fonts, materials and structures that best reflect your product benefits? What white space opportunities are there for your food package to own? Sultry Sally Potato Chips is a great example of a food product that, through copious amounts of research, sought to fill a glaring gap in the market – low fat potato chips. 97% fat free, gluten and preservative free, but still full of flavour, our client got the product just right. What they needed was high-impact food packaging design that reflected their key message – high flavour, low fat. in 2008, Sultry Sally Potato Chips filled a gap in the market for a healthy, tasty snack. Our food packaging design appealed to an audience searching out a healthier food alternative on shelf The illustrated character clearly enjoys her chips guilt-free and helps the product stand out in the crowded crisp market. The silver bag reflects better for you, subliminally enticing those after a healthier snacking option.

Food packaging design rule #2: Know your story

Storytelling is one of the oldest forms of branding, dating back to many moons ago when our ancestors sat around the fireside having a good yarn. Fast forward to today, and the same basic principles apply – great brands are built on great stories that create connection, warmth, trust and, most importantly, authenticity. It’s crucial that you know your story before you start to build your brand or packaging – who are you and why are you in the food business? What does your food product deliver that no other product can? How do you do it better? Where does your passion for food come from? How do you create or cook your product? Is there anything unique about your methods or recipes? What do you want your customers to tell their friends about your food? Many people starting out in the food business don’t believe they have a story and that it’s all about the product, but by asking the right questions a great story always emerges. The Casa Gusto brand design and food packaging is centred around the story of their father who followed the circus around Italy Casa Gusto didn’t believe they had an interesting story for their range of imported Italian food and ingredients – until we began talking about how their father first discovered the products whilst following the circus around Italy in his twenties. The Casa Gusto brand identity and food packaging designs were built from there. View full project.

Food packaging design rule #3: Understand your target consumer

With so many packaged food options available in-store or at the click of a button online, you need to really know your ideal customer in order to build a brand that talks their language, makes them laugh or feel good about their purchasing decision, and ultimately leads them to pick up your product over the competition. Doyles on the Beach – Sydney’s oldest fish’n’chip shop – approached us because their existing customer base had been loyal to them for decades and, well, they were getting old. Doyles needed to refresh their food packaging to appeal to a younger demographic, without losing their sense of quality, heritage and story dating back to 1885 when they used to catch their product by hand line. We created reinvigorated takeaway food packaging design with typography, graphics, and language from the late 1880s to bring the Doyles story to life in a contemporary way, and solely used the iconic Doyles blue to drive the idea of a fresh, seaside dining experience. View the full project here. Doyles on the Beach wanted to update their brand design and food packaging to appeal to a younger audience, whilst retaining the heritage of the brand

Food packaging design rule #4: Make the most of the space available

Most food packages only have very limited space, so you need to use it intelligently. There is nothing worse than a food label that is crammed with “key” messages or overloaded with unnecessary details. Use the category codes and semiotics from your research phase to get your message, benefits and brand story across without taking up precious space. The package design we created for the Guzman Y Gomez range of sauces featured photographs of real team members taste testing each product in the range. We captured their facial expressions after trying a teaspoon of sauce to authentically portray the flavour and intensity of the product in a fun and unique way that celebrates the character of the GYG brand identity without having to type out the full brand story on the bottle label. The Guzman Y Gomez sauce packaging designs feature real employees tasting the food product on the label

Food packaging design rule #5: Create a smile in the mind

With all this research we keep banging on about, it’s easy to forget that consumers are people too. Nothing will help them remember your food packaging design more clearly than connecting on an emotive level – and what better way than with a smile? When Sumo Salad wanted to drive a greater sense of freshness, connection to the farmers and community, and create a unique language for their food branding, we decided to disrupt and get a giggle by giving the ingredients real character. The Sumo Salad packaging design features fresh ingredients with fun facial expressions to bring character to the food package We designed packaging stamps and badges to further reinforce the key brand messages on the box

Let’s talk about your brand

Whether you’re a brand manager looking to reinvigorate a multi-national food brand or an entrepreneur with the beginnings of a dream, as one of Australia’s leading brand agencies, you can talk to us. Contact us today to see how we can build the best brand and food packaging solution for you today.

The Complete Guide to Restaurant Branding

With relatively low barriers to entry, it can seem like anyone with a family recipe, a healthy amount of passion, and a dream can make a go of it in the restaurant industry. However there are a number of important factors to consider to ensure you not only make it through the crucial first 12 months of trading, but that you’re set up to succeed and thrive for years to come.

Along with negotiating supplier agreements, choosing the best location, creating a great menu and pricing strategy, and employing the right team with the right experience, developing a solid restaurant brand should be up there in your list of priorities.

Don’t I just need a logo, some fonts and colours?

Your restaurant brand encompasses so much more than just a logo or what your brand looks like – it is everything your customers experience in relation to your restaurant from first hearing about you from friends and checking your menu on the website, through to how your staff greet and treat them whilst dining, and even what they see on the back of the toilet door.

We have over 20 years’ experience creating, rejuvenating and refining restaurant brands to help them connect with customers, stand out from the ever-increasing competition, and endure the ups and downs of hospitality. Here are our key recommendations for building your successful restaurant brand.

Know your story

It’s crucial that you know your story before you start to build your brand – who are you and why are you in the food or restaurant business? What does your restaurant deliver that no other restaurant can? How do you do it better? (And we are not talking about using the freshest ingredients as everyone says that!) Where does your passion for food come from? How do you create or cook your product? Is there anything unique about your methods or recipes? What do you want your customers to tell their friends about your restaurant?

Many people starting out in the restaurant business or trying to save a restaurant brand don’t believe they have a story but it’s simply a case of asking the right questions.

Casa Gusto didn’t believe they had an interesting story for their range of imported Italian food and ingredients – until we began talking about how their father first discovered the products whilst following the circus around Italy in his twenties. The Casa Gusto brand was built from there.

Understand your customers

With so many food and restaurant options available within a dining precinct or at the click of a button online, it often comes down to personal or group preference as to where your potential customers will go. You need to really know your ideal customer in order to build a brand that talks their language, makes them laugh or feel good about their purchasing decision, and ultimately leads them away from your competitor and straight to your restaurant door.

What’s in a name? Soo Zee is Sichuanese for “number” and 23 represents the number of ingredients that go into Soo Zee 23’s signature beef broth. Aimed at customers seeking a truly authentic Sichuanese experience, the logo also contains the Chinese characters for “eat” and “23”, further enhancing the authenticity of their specialty cuisine, and causing our client to literally jump up and down in joy when he first saw it. View project.

Find your voice

Knowing your story and your customers will help you define your tone of voice – should your restaurant brand be humorous, edgy, elegant or mainstream? There is a place for all of these approaches, but what is right for you, your restaurant and your style of customer?

Your tone of voice and brand style should apply to more than just written words. How should your staff greet and treat your customers throughout their experience, right down to saying goodbye? Should you bring personality into the restaurant with hidden pieces of messaging or imagery? How can you use your staff uniform to reinforce your voice and style?

The opportunities to bring personality and further reinforce your brand are endless and pay dividends when people walk away with a smile or even better, share with their networks – free marketing!

The refreshed Oporto identity features authentic Portuguese tiles and language to reinforce their heritage, with images of chickens throughout to showcase their specialty cuisine.

Inspired by Portuguese “azulejo” tiles, the refreshed Oporto brand oozes authenticity, clearly represents the cuisine, and provides a smile. See how our work improved NPS 40 points.

Restaurant branding opportunities

Having worked with hundreds of restaurants and food brands over the years, these are the most underutilised areas we see for amplifying your brand:

Whether it’s on the wall or handheld, your menu is something every customer is going to read or at least look at – use it to connect and push the key messages you want people to know about your brand and business, but not to the detriment of readability.

Encased in leather, with the logo branded on the front, the 6Head menu not only feels premium, but also ties in with the story of the six head of cattle rumoured to be the first in Australia that formed the basis for the brand. View full branding project.

Wall graphics

Restaurant, fast food outlet, drive thru, market stall – they all have walls. Use this space to illustrate a key message, talk about your story, food or brand principles, or simply create a smile in the mind.

Every Guzman Y Gomez restaurant has a feature wall that reinforces the Mexican street-style roots of the brand. See our work with GYG over the past 15 years.

Takeaway packaging

Your takeaway bags, boxes and cups should be treated as walking advertisements. Create something truly clever and/or interactive and watch those Instagram posts write themselves.

Dang! One word says it all, really. Chicken Treat fried chicken is dang good! Read more about why we used a comic book style for the Chicken Treat restaurant branding.

Let’s talk about your restaurant brand

Whether you’re a brand manager looking to reinvigorate a multi-national food brand or an entrepreneur with the beginnings of a dream, you can talk to us. Contact us on +61 2 8231 9977 or us@thecreativemethod.com and let’s see how we can build the best brand solution for you today.