Building a successful beer brand

By conducting relevant trade mark and in-use searches you can establish the potential risks that could be associated with the launch of your new brand. Brand creation agencies can help come up with great name suggestions and logo designs but advice on their availability for use and registered protection should involve the services of a qualified trade mark attorney.

Connecting with consumers

Behind the name and logo sits your story and company ethos.

The story gives the brand personality and is the base for any marketing message to your customers on everything from social media to print advertising. Consumers buy in to the history and narrative of the brand and its people. However, the story should also give an insight into the company’s culture, mission, and values in a genuine and transparent way, avoiding virtue-signalling, greenwashing, and tokenism.

Keeping an eye on the competition

Understanding your competitors’ position in the marketplace is vital. Awareness of what your competition is doing will help avoid imitation and ensure you differentiate yourself in a crowded market.

Understanding your competitors will also enable you to identify gaps in the market and position your brand accordingly.

Safeguarding brand reputation

Once you have chosen your unique brand identity, it is important to protect it (by design and trade mark registration) and to manage the goodwill and reputation in the brand by policing its use against imitators and infringers and attempts to diminish its distinctiveness.

Any beer brand aiming for longevity must be able to deliver a superior value proposition to its consumers. A proposition based on a unique brand can be copied. It is therefore important to understand how to protect that brand concept to maintain its novelty and distinctiveness.

This could involve enrolling in a watching service that monitors for competitors’ and newcomers’ activities that might conflict with your rights and taking the appropriate action to safeguard your brand.

Brand strategy

A successful brand identity is only as strong as the brand strategy on which it relies, which helps to keep the brand unique and involves management of all intangible aspects of the brand, from the names, logos, designs, colours, trade secrets, domain names. A solid strategy should involve the following:

• Brand Guidelines - a clearly defined set of rules and standards that communicate how your brand and brand assets should be used and represented.

• Brand Protection and Enforcement –protection of valuable brand assets and taking action to prevent third parties from using those assets without permission.

• Business Plan - a description of your business, its objectives, strategies, sales, marketing and financial forecasts and how it plans to achieve them.

• Market Research - the gathering of information about your target markets and customers.

• Marketing Strategy - best and efficient practices for reaching those target markets and customers to increase sales and achieve a competitive advantage.

• Organised Assets - good housekeeping of all files and supporting materials for ease of use and distribution.

Think how you’re going to achieve the above, involve qualified professionals to realise those goals and help build your successful brand.

Potter Clarkson helps companies, organisations and individuals across all sectors of business to understand, create, protect and defend the commercial value of their innovations anywhere in the world through intellectual property rights.

As a full-service intellectual property law firm with expertise in patents, trade marks, designs, litigation, licensing and consultancy, the firm can provide specialist support in all areas of IP. Find out more at www.potterclarkson.com

When times are plentiful and the beer is readily flowing, it can seem as if money is no object. Sponsoring the festival beer glasses? Sure thing! Hey, let’s go with the super embossed shiny golden flyers; that’ll make us look premium. Mailchimp Professional? Why not, it’s only £35 a month.

But when the chips are down, what’s the first thing to get axed from your expenditure? Marketing. Oh no, we couldn’t possibly take out a Facebook ad right now; I might as well buy a bucket of steam. Flyers to promote our new taproom? I’m pretty sure if we build it, they will come!

Given that marketing and its effectiveness are difficult to measure in real life, even with technological tools at our disposal, it’s not hard to understand why brewers immediately slash their marketing spend in tougher financial times in favour of pushing sales.

But what people often fail to recognise is that marketing is what got people into the shop in the first place; sales is merely the point where a purchaser puts their money where their mouth is.

Telling your story

I once worked for a brewery housed in beautiful red-bricked Victorian former polish works. Rustic timber beams and vintage memorabilia adorned the interior. It was a hipster’s paradise.