Sophie chats to the Distillers Journal about the importance of spirits branding and common challenges we’re seeing for distilleries brands, especially in our post-lockdown world.
As we emerge from a world of lockdowns here in the UK, Distillers Journal came to us to provide insights for a feature they were writing on spirits’ branding and rebranding in our changing Covid climate. Our Strategy Director Sophie discussed market trends, how to strengthen your brand to appeal to the modern consumer, and why now is the right time to do it.
Here are a few snippets but you can read the full article here (from page 41!).
“Although we finally seem to be returning to some sort of social normality, it’s safe to assume that some Covid-cultivated habits will remain and people will expect brands to be convenient for home use, and not just revert back to trade and offline retail only.
Businesses have learnt a lot about their values, their market trends and their changing consumer mindsets over the last year, and distilleries should be no different.
As we emerge from Covid people want certainty and consistency more than ever, so it’s a great time to invest all that learned knowledge back into your brand and make sure it really reflects who you are and what you offer.”
“It’s a difficult time for many across industries to be investing money back into their brands for sure, but the tough times are often when people need to do it most and I’d argue when they are more focused on what’s really important. We’ve definitely experienced this with our own business too.”
“From an agency perspective we see many distilleries without a strong consumer-facing identity. It’s very hard to differentiate on just quality or process or botanicals now, and there were a record number of distilleries opened in 2021, despite Covid-19. For distilleries who want to be more than just local, it’s a real challenge to get noticed.
When an existing distillery comes to us, common themes are often they don’t have a clear and engaging proposition, or very distinctive brand assets (usually due to not having a strong proposition) and lack brand consistency across platforms and selling channels.
Distillery brands of course need to be flexible as they’re engaging visitors, buyers, bar managers, bartenders and now consumers in their home and offline, so parts of the brand will need to be dialled up, depending on the audience and format. However having consistent and engaging visual brand assets that flex and strengthen the brand and hold everything together are sure to build trust and loyalty”.
