7 Crucial Benefits to Strong Brewery Branding
There’s ~8,000 breweries out there today, and you’re one of them. What’s going to determine your success? Quality of your beer, the types of beer you brew, your location, your customer service and customer interactions, your taproom, your point of differentiation, social media, web presence, your employees, friends and family…the list can go on.
Guess what?
Every item on that punch list relates to your branding.
Quick practice here. What breweries stand out to you?
Make a quick list in your head.
If you look at the qualities of your most memorable or favorite breweries, I’m sure that strong branding is a large part of why you’re quick to recall them. A strong and consistent brand identity, good packaging design, well designed taproom and brewery, fantastic customer service and experience, location, and of course really good beer.
Let’s look at why strong branding is so important for your brewery.
Good First Impressions
Look at how much time, investment, and attention you put into your brewery and beers. If you deliver quality beers with attention to detail and have mediocre packaging design or brewery branding, you will send a conflicting message to your customer. Don’t fall short when it comes to the branding that represents your brewery and beers. Great beer deserves branding that represents it properly.
Branding Creates Trust and Reaffirms Credibility
People are more likely to purchase from a business that appears polished and legitimate. Your first impression provides a sense of trust that you care about your craft. Once your customer tries your beer and it matches their expectations, you’ve just made the first step in solidifying your credibility. If you carry consistent branding over time, you start reinforcing its place in the customer’s mind, creating fortification, and developing a special relationship with the customer.
Branding Generates New Customers
Strong branding will result in that good first impression which might lead to their first purchase of your beer, or a visit to your taproom. If there is a positive impression from your branding, customers are more likely to do business with you because of the familiarity and assumed dependability of good brand. Once your brand is well established, you can expect the benefit of word-to-mouth growth as loyal customers convey their positive experiences to their friends, family, and peers.
Attitude Strength
A strong brand increases the consumer’s attitude strength toward the product associated with the brand. Attitude strength is built by experience with a product. The consumer’s awareness and associations lead to perceived quality, inferred attributes, and eventually, brand loyalty.
Loyal Customers
First off, congrats. You’ve created great beer, have solid branding, and now you are solidifying those experiences and connections with customers. This is huge for so many reasons, but when you have a strong brand and loyal customers, they are more likely to pay more and go out of their way to buy your beer.
Easy Introduction of New Products
When you have a strong brand and loyal customers, it is easier and less expensive to introduce new products or test them out before you further invest in them. If you have a loyal brand following, your customers will often be interested in your new products and even anticipate them being released. Make use of your best customers! They are a great resource to get feedback on your new beers, new packaging designs, and to bounce ideas off of.
Improve Employee Pride and Satisfaction
If you have an awesome brand with some really great merchandise, your employees are going to feel good wearing that gear and representing your brewery. They will feel confident in telling their friends about their job and have a higher degree of pride in the work they do. If your brand is held in high regard, positions working for your brewery will be well sought after.