Rebranding Local Brewing Co.

There are many different reasons for a brewery to rebrand. As the craft beverage industry in Australia matures, we see more and more businesses choosing to evolve their look and feel. There are definite signs that hint this is a good business decision, for a run down on these check out our article here. In Local Brewing Co’s case, they felt their POD (point of difference) was not being communicated through their current branding and after gypsy brewing for 3 years they were finally about to open their first tap room. Getting the branding right before this milestone of a physical hub was key in order to give the punters an immersive brand experience when they visited the space, as well as let people know their POD in order to increase sales. Here is the step by step process we took....

01 Brand Foundation Workshop

We welcomed the Local Brewing Co (LBCo from here on) team into the studio for what ended up being a marathon session of nailing down key brand foundations, aspirations and a defined target audience. This workshop is summarised into a document which then acts as a guide for the entire branding project. We never start a branding project without running this workshop, I’ll let you know why in a future edition, but for now all you need to know is that this is a vital step in creating & maintaining a strong brand. 

LCBCo is a purpose led business, their POD is that for every pint or 4 pack sold, a person in need gets a free meal through their charity partner SecondBite who rescue food to feed the hungry.

Furthermore, their Surplus Sour series rescues fruit destined for landfill and turns it into beer! As we all know, a POD is hard in a sea of craft brands, and theirs was a cracker! If their target customers understood this from the get go, it would be an easy sell, and could be the start of a loyal relationship.

02 Brand Audit

We took a look at everything LBCo had released in the past with their brand on it. We analysed how their current cans worked in the fridge against other brands, and examined their brand architecture (how their portfolio of releases work together). We summarised our findings in to these key points:

• Core message 'Drink a local. Make a difference' or similar communicating the purpose of the brand (inspire and drive real impact)

• Disjointed visuals across promotions

• Missed opportunities of unique story telling (eg who benefits from LBCo, Surplus Sour and the communicating their POD) 

LCBCo is a purpose led business, their POD is that for every pint or 4 pack sold, a person in need gets a free meal through their charity partner SecondBite who rescue food to feed the hungry.

Furthermore, their Surplus Sour series rescues fruit destined for landfill and turns it into beer! As we all know, a POD is hard in a sea of craft brands, and theirs was a cracker! If their target customers understood this from the get go, it would be an easy sell, and could be the start of a loyal relationship.

03 Logo Evolution

We decided that an evolution rather than a revolution of the brand was required. LBCo were still a small operation, completely changing their logo could risk isolating their current customer base. Furthermore, their current logo at the time did a good job, it was bold and stood out on the shelf. We just needed to push it forward to communicate the POD.

The result! The addition of an icon that represented the POD through arrows representing the sustainable & full circle attitudes of the brand, which they achieve through beer. Plus we included their core message as a tagline to drive home the POD.

04 Packaging Evolution (bordering on a revolution!)

LBCo’s original core range packaging had strong colour palette that matched their tone of voice outlined in the brand foundation. The graphics, while bold and striking, didn’t communicate anything in particular, they just looked good.  We pounced on the opportunity to create a visual that communicated the POD, told their story and was flexible across their brand touch points (packaging, signage, merch etc). Keeping the colour palette from the previous core range beers worked to help customers over the bridge from old to new. Apart from the Lager, which was an entirely new beer.

We designed a mural style pattern that told the story of LBCo beer, from harvesting grains, brewing, distribution, to their charity partner cooking meals from reclaimed food, to the beers being served and enjoyed in different scenarios by a diverse range of people.  We then split this pattern up into three sections, to use on the three different core beers, and recoloured to suit.

05 Brand Application

Brand systems are what it’s all about, having a system ensures consistency throughout all your brand touchpoints, which equals strength, which equals the big one, brand equity. We designed the LBCo’s brand system using their core range cans, then applied this system to all the brand touch points. The pattern became a key element of the rebrand, with its unique illustrative style and flexibility, we applied this graphic to vehicle graphics, merch, cartons, tap decals and even the painted mural in the tap room.

06 Communicating to Customers

Once the new artwork was complete and in production, letting customers know a change was coming was super important. People feel ownership over brands they love, and if there is a sudden change to them, they can (subconsciously) feel a little betrayed! Yep, we are a funny lot, us humans. Rebranding can run the risk of turning away existing customers in order to chase new ones. The existing customer base need to be treated with the care they deserve for their loyalty. So a careful social media campaign was executed by LBCo to communicate this as well as letting their on and off premise customers know via email and directly as well.

The Result...

A refreshed brand identity that communicates the POD and core messaging of the business both at a glance and through a deeper study of the artwork (pattern) whose story ‘reveals’ itself to reward the viewer.

A practical system design that is flexible, consistent and unique. One that opens itself up to further releases too.

And importantly, a happy client!

"What can we say, the results clearly speak for themselves. 

The investment into our brand and packaging has been a game changer for the business. 

Not only does the product look miles better but it so much more clearly articulates our values and point of difference as a brand. The process from start to finish with Craft Instinct was fantastic and the team's experience was invaluable at each step of the journey. 

The refreshed branding has only been live for a couple of months now but already we’re seeing great results with cut-through and brand recall being significantly higher.”

Sam Harris - Local Brewing Co