Why bad beer brands are good

Beer is sensual. We know it best for its taste, but we often find it first by its sight. Visually, a beer’s brand is expressed in everything from bottle shapes and tap handles to merchandise and websites. A brewery that doesn’t invest in the look of its beer is costing itself customers. That’s bad for business but good for the brewing industry.

The commercial growth in brewing and branding over the past three decades has been explosive. There were fewer than 100 American small craft brewers in 1980. Thirty years later there were nearly 1800. In that same time, the world entered the Information Age. Computers democratized marketing, and the number of graphic designers, ad agencies, and brand specialists blossomed like an atomic bomb.

Why bad beer brands are good

That’s the first reason why bad beer brands are good. They are a result of the dramatic expansion in the brewing and branding professions. More brewers need logos and labels, and more artists and agencies have the tools to meet their needs. Some businesses will invest in creating valuable brands, but others will fall for faster or cheaper options. The remarkable variety of bad beer brands is evidence of the market’s robust growth.

Bad beer brands also create opportunities for savvier competitors. The market is in the midst of a generational shift. Branding was once an afterthought, but it is fast becoming essential. Brewers who build brands now will stand out on store shelves. Soon, every product will require a professionally designed identity, limiting the competitive advantage that bad beer brands currently offer others.

Why bad beer brands are good

Not every beer needs a great brand. The brewing community is constantly innovating with new flavors and techniques, producing small batches of atypical ales for select local bars and retailers. It may not be worth the time and expense to develop a durable identity for a product limited in quantity and availability. Bad brands testify to the brewing trade’s vibrant creativity.

That experimental curiosity is a key trait of craft beer’s communal personality. Humor is another, and it’s often conveyed through a beer’s brand. Few industries permit the freedom of expression that is commonplace in the marketing of beer. Consumers can interpret levity as a lack of seriousness, but people brew for fun and friends as well as sales and profits. Bad brands reflect beer culture’s welcoming appeal and bacchanalian spirit.

Why bad beer brands are good

Bad beer brands are bad for brewers using them. For the broader industry, there is a silver lining. They are visual proof of craft beer’s health and vitality today, and its promising future.

Beer label templates and brand balance

A beer label combines two brands: the beer’s and the brewer’s. Striking the right balance between the two can make or break a brand’s identity.

The brewer’s brand consists of those items that are constant across all labels in the product family. The brewer’s logotype and brandmark are the most obvious examples, but taglines, URLs, establishment dates, and other such elements also represent the brewer behind the beer. These combine with the labeling requirements of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to form the label template. For a brewer producing a family of beers, an effective label template is essential to consistent packaging and brand enhancement.

A beer’s brand is defined by the design aspects that are unique from label to label within the template’s structure. These images, colors, and text capture the beer’s personality and convey it to consumers. While the brewer’s brand coaxes the customer with familiarity, the beer’s brand promises a special and specific drinking experience.

But what is the proper balance between these brands? Two companies addressed that question in 2011 with identity redesigns.

Craft Brew Alliance rebranded the Redhook Brewery and Widmer Brothers Brewing product lines. The same design philosophy, that the brewer is preeminent to the beer, was applied to each brand.

When the brewer’s brand is dominant, the label changes little between beers. The Redhook and Widmer labels are primarily templates, rigid in form. Solid fields of color become the focus of differentiation, while minor modifications in imagery and text require close inspection to identify. People see form first, before color and content, so such distinctions are lost on buyers’ eyes as they scan their purchase options.

This design style is economical. When a new beer is ready to market, a label can be generated with relatively little effort. The resulting decline in eye-catching appeal may not make it cost-effective.

Also in 2011, Uinta Brewing rebranded itself and its beers. The new label designs struck a finer balance between beer and brewer. The 18 brews are united by a template that tells the brewer’s tale, incorporates the legal necessities, and conveys a sense of creative craftsmanship. The brewer’s template stands to the sides and yields center stage to each beer and its story. Every label makes a singular impression, yet all are clearly siblings in the same family. Customers recognize the quality of the label’s design and assume the same for the beer inside.

When cost makes design decisions, the perceived efficiency of a template-centric identity can lead to customer indifference. A new beer in old clothes is invisible to buying eyes.

When market success is the motivation, labels with these two brands in better balance are a wiser investment.

Beer brand blues: why color matters

Anheuser-Busch launched Bud Light Platinum during Super Bowl XLVI with two commercials. Of more than 50 ads broadcast during the game, they ranked among the least popular. Each included a Twitter hashtag, #makeitplatinum, to encourage an immediate online viewer reaction.

#makeitplatinum WTF?

#makeitplatinum is terrible.

#makeitplatinum is crap! Drink only craft beer!

The strong negative reaction is partly explained by a vocal online craft beer community that is inherently opposed to industry-dominating corporations like Anheuser-Busch InBev. Another significant though underappreciated factor is the color.

Blue. It seems a reasonable assumption that this would be the ideal hue to convey a sense of cool refreshment. Blue, like water and ice. It feels crisp, clean, and antiseptic, and is thus predominant in the packaging of bath and body products. To assume that this same emotional appeal applies to drinks, however, is most often wrong.

Coca-Cola, the world’s most popular beverage brand, is as brown as mud with a label in fiery red, yet for many millions of customers, it’s the image of thirst-quenching.

Beer brand blues: why color matters

Beer is brown like cola. It’s also amber, red, gold and other inviting tones. Also like Coke, successful beer labels and brands are often created in warm and earthy shades that consumers find deliciously appealing. Platinum’s cold reception suggests that as a dominant brand hue, blue is best avoided.

One of the most popular spots during the football game was also by Bud Light, but not for the new Platinum brand. No doubt the little beer-fetching dog in the “Here We Go” commercial is its primary appeal. But like the familiar Bud Light bottles he retrieves, the dog is brown. In beer branding, color matters.