Articles Tagged with: Alcohol Branding

Blog: Successful Wine Branding

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.

Blog: Brand Identity Creation

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.

What Exactly is Brand Identity?

Brand identity refers to a brand’s visual identity, brand assets, brand voice and experiential elements that represent a brand and distinguish it from competitors. It includes the brand’s name, company logo, colour palette, typography, messaging, and other visual elements, as well as the brand’s values, brand personality, and positioning in the market. A strong brand identity serves to create a consistent and recognisable brand image that resonates with its target audience and builds trust and brand loyalty over time.

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.

Brand ad concept for POETS Country Lager.

This is the POETS way: Piss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday.

The brand strategy for POETS Country Lager centres around it being a full flavoured lager for country Australia, aimed at hard-working Aussies who have their priorities right – laying their tools down on a Friday to enjoy a few cold ones in good company. We wanted to create a strong brand that was memorable and distinctive through use of brand assets such as the Kookaburra mascot and red brand colour palette.

#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.

We created multiple versions of the ranga character and finally settled on this fun-loving beast, who isn't overly pleased that you are drinking all his beloved ginger beer.

A simple brand identity made memorable

When we were approached to create a brand identity for a new hard ginger beer, including name and all brand assets, we wanted to create something memorable and emotive, with disruptive pack design that was bold and distinctive on shelf.

We created multiple versions of the ranga character and finally settled on this fun-loving beast, who isn’t overly pleased that you are drinking all his beloved ginger beer.

#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.

Blog: Beer Branding Strategy

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.