More programs, greater reach

The Oregon Brewers Festival made changes to their pricing scheme this week that will result in far greater reach for advertisers. Here is the post on the Facebook page:

-------------------------------
Admission into the festival grounds if free, as always. In order to taste beer, you must now purchase a taster package. Taster packages are available in $10, $20 and $50 increments. All packages include a 2009 souvenir mug, which is required for consuming beer (mugs from previous years will not be filled); a souvenir program that includes a map of where the beers are located onsite; and various quantities of tokens, which are used to purchase beer.

Patrons pay four tokens for a full mug of beer, or one token for a taste. Additional tokens may be purchased at $1 apiece in whatever amount you wish.

Here's the packages offered:

$10 package: one mug, one program, four tokens
$20 package: one mug, one program, 14 tokens
$50 package: two mugs, two programs, 38 tokens

There will be no more individual purchasing of mugs - you want a mug, you buy a package. But mugs are still good throughout the weekend, you'll just buy more tokens. This should speed up the admission lines considerably.

The reason you are getting more tokens in the $20 and $50 packages is that we are reducing the size of our program and printing one for everybody, so the program price is dropping from $4 to $1. That means three more tokens per package, plus everyone will have access to beer descriptions, the hop-o-meter, and the map of the taps.
---------------------------------------------

You can join the discussion here or there. The Facebook page can be found at: Facebook Price Discussion

Brand development, accelerated

Marketers like to wax philosophic about the value of doing the difficult, but necessary work of understanding the audience, defining the brand characteristics, messages, etc. before ever associating an image with a product. In the often compressed time frames of product development and product launch, one has to work quickly. Or, there are times when the right image just plain suits the product and there is no reason to slow down.

A close friend and nationally published illustrator, Bill Cigliano, provides illustration to publishers and advertisers seeking a unique visual perspective. In the case of beverage packaging, existing and commissioned work has brought impact to craft beer brands.

"On Hop-Ocalypse, my art is used on that one specific brew and that happened because I had an existing painting of an atomic bomb mushroom cloud that appealed to them. I think it’s a really distinctive label and package, quite attractive and I like being part of that," Bill said. The client, Clay Pipe Brewing Co in western Maryland, serves a small, but growing market in and around the Chesapeake Bay area.

Hop-Ocalypse and its visual identity occupy that place where a striking image provides exactly the right emotion for the product. In this case, the product name and the illustration have obvious connections. The image, already in the artist's portfolio, found another life with beer, a happy marriage.

For the Captain Lawrence brand, Cigliano created an enhanced image that could be carried across an entire product line. This approach, common visual identity across products and packages, enables the brand, regardless of the product, to be easily identifiable to the consumer. (The exception in this product line is their Belgian-style summer ale.)
In these cases, exciting imagery matched marketing expectations. The many questions appropriate to brand and product development were answered, perhaps intuitively, before the images were selected or commissioned. Regardless, they work for their respective owner/brewers and contribute to the interesting body of work in brewing and beer art.

Package and label expertise

Several acquaintances, friends and relatives have agreed to provide you with their insights into package and label design. Perhaps more broadly, their experience can lead to even greater value for those seeking a differentiated brand in the growing craft beer market.

I have invited three designers and artists with diverse backgrounds to comment on the following questions. I will let them speak for themselves as their answers are posted here, but let me introduce them briefly.

Dean Lindsay: Dean has many years of experience in package design and in food package design in particular. There is plenty to see and learn from his website.

Holly O'Leary: Holly is a talented designer and illustrator with experience in food packaging and is currently working on another favorite beverage, coffee. Her portfolio is available here.

Paul Mort: Paul works with clients across a range of design disciplines. You can reach Paul at Felt Hat.

The questions submitted to Dean, Holly and Paul are:

1. Describe the process for developing a good package design. What steps do you take with a client and in what order?

2. How do you incorporate existing brand identity, i.e. logos, color, typography, into a package or label design?

3. Do you treat package design differently than you would an overall brand and identity scheme for a client?

4. What considerations, other than legal requirements, do you see as unique for beverage package design, and in particular, beer package design?

5. What impact does the package as a physical entity have on the overall design? For example, when do you recommend a special bottle or can vs. a graphical treatment of a standard bottle?

6. For you, what makes a great package and/or label for a beverage?

7. For some brewers, making the step from draft beer to packaged beer is a big one involving significant investments. What weight, in terms of time and budget, should a brewer put on the package and/or label design?

8. When do you know it’s time for a new design?

9. In your opinion, what are three particularly interesting package or label designs?

The questions are not exhaustive, but should give you some workable ideas about the use of packaging and labeling as a way to differentiate your products. If you have questions you would like to submit, just add them in the comment boxes below.

A fanciful look at beer brands

The New York Times reported on efforts to reduce binge drinking and the fallout from those efforts. While there is no reasonable argument to increase alcohol problems, the illustrations of beer coasters from the article is humorous.

The brand, pt. 2

Today's post is really a place holder. Draft Magazine just posted an article about Penn Brewery's label update. Since I spent my formative beer drinking years at nearby Bethany College (a good decade or so, really, before craft brewing existed), the article merited a post. Iron City was the brew of choice for me and its brand has remained strong in the Steel City, and not because of label art. But, I digress.

Draft equates the appreciation of label art with album art, a sort of misnomer in the age of iTunes and the vanishing CD market. Regardless, the few nuggets from the article and comments from the CEO are worth tucking away.

The brand

Folks who ply their wares in the brand and marketing realms are careful always to point out the "The Brand" is not simply your logo and typeface. It is, depending upon the source, the entire experience of a consumer with your product and company. But, we're trying to sell beer, here. We just want to stand out from the crowd on crowded retail shelves. We want our tap handles to scream, "Try Me!"

I subscribe to the guidance that before a label is designed, marketers and brand managers have to answer the who and why of their consumers, the questions of how their beer is different and what attributes are likely to make that beer stand out.

So, what to do? Can't engage in months of evaluation, consumer testing, alternative versions of a preferred label. Here's a short cut. Return here for Packaging 101.

Brewers Festival Advertising will explore package design from a practical perspective in a series of upcoming postings. As new material is posted, I will announce it via Twitter. To follow, go to @markreber.

But, what does this have to do with beer festivals in general and the Oregon Brewers Festival in particular? Quite a bit. If you are exhibiting at festivals, consumers will know you by your brand and by the visualization of that brand. They will want to see you at the festival in the familiar clothing of the labels and packages they see elsewhere.

Festivals, and in particular the OBF, offer brewers a good opportunity to reinforce existing brand references and to extend the brand as new products are introduced.

Your comments on "brand" as well as the integration of retail packaging schemes with consumer trial marketing are all welcome. As well as any other comments.

Mythologies and mythos

Scouring the interwebs for beer marketing so that you don't have to, I came across a campaign for Sea Hag Ale from New England Brewing. They were profiled two years ago in a Fortune magazine article for developing a mythology about their beer. This led to a campaign with interaction among customers and the like. In itself, this is not especially new. The Republic of Tea accomplished this on a grand scale many years ago, developing an entire product line based upon a fictional place.

What I found interesting about the campaign was the confluence of my searching and the dozens of "tweets" popping up each day and the Fan pages on Facebook. In just two years, the opportunity to build a story around a beer, or even an entire mythology, is greatly abetted by technology that enables us to reach thousands in just seconds.

So, how does a brewers festival fit in? We only need to look at the use of King Gambrinus by the OBF as an example, but we are limited only by our imaginations. And, as Aristotle pointed out, mythos, or plot, is the essential element of the play, in his case tragedy. No tragedy in beer stories are necessary.

How does a good yarn or story put your beer in the spotlight?