Branding Brews Podcast

2021 Craft Beer Marketing Awards with Jim McCune and Jackie DiBella Find the CBMAs online: craftbeermarketingawards.com  // Instagram: @craftbeermarketingawards I was honored to be asked to participate in judging the 2021 CBMAs. Since the CBMA organization and awards started last year, I thought it was about time we learned more about them and spread information about the awards. Deadline for the 2021 entries is coming up on January 29th, so make sure you check out all the categories you can enter! Talking points: Bringing together creative and marketing folks in the industry Raising awareness and learning about successful marketing Recognizing branding and marketing for the beer industry Highlighting unique categories, such as Pandemic Marketing and Human Rights. Sustainability in the industry Quotes: "How are you getting people’s attention? How are you getting them to buy your beer, get them through the door, wear your merch out. This is a super hole in the industry and now we can really recognize everybody that is apart of it." - Jackie DiBella "We wanted to make sure it was something that brewers would really want to showcase, really encapsulate the industry, how cool it is, and how much work and passion they put into everything they do from brewing the beer to packaging and labeling it." - Jim McCune "The CBMAs is drawing together this community that’s never existed. They’re all out there in disparate worlds of “we do merch” “we do tap handles” and “we’re a social media agency” and “we’re an illustrator.”  We’re kind of pulling this together into this network…and really creating this little family." - Jim McCune "When we went virtual…there were a bunch of breweries who were live-streaming in the brewery to their teams as we were announcing winners, which was awesome." - Jackie DiBella "The feedback we got was all honestly great. When people had comments or ideas we had a whole document. I would say 90% of the ideas got applied to this year and people are noticing. It’s a very cool thing." - Jackie DiBella "A big part for me is the sustainable stuff. I love to see tap handles and t-shirts that use reclaimed materials. That’s a big thing in our industry…We have met just incredible people that care about each other and the world." - Jim McCune  

Using Untappd for Brewery Marketing with Jon Dispenza and Harrison Hickok FIND UNTAPPD website: untappd.com  //  podcast: untappd.com/podcast Untappd reaches a huge audience, so it only makes sense that breweries look at ways to utilize this platform to increase their marketing reach. I was stoked to make a connection with Jon and Harrison who both work at Untappd and also host the Drinking Socially Untappd Podcast. I figured these guys would be able to deliver some solid insights and advice for using Untappd for your brewery. Talking Points: What makes a label successful Using social media channels alongside Untappd Data and insights pulled from Untappd reviews Using Untappd events for new beer releases QR codes for touchless menu links Effective ways for using digital beer menus Quotes: "Then there’s this classic approach where it’s centered around the label…have a very uniform label, maybe the color is different for each beer… maybe I haven’t had the IPA that is yellow from this brewery, I see it pop up off the shelf  and I want to check it out." - HARRISON "You’re going to have a profile…doesn’t matter if you’re on an island by Greece or in Detroit, someone is going to check in your beer…Just control that because it is an extension of your brand and if you do nothing more put a label on there, use it as a way to interact with people." - JON "There’s a space you can enter, on Untappd, where you can learn about your customers, about how the perceive your beer, about where they drink it “this is the best pool beer I’ve ever had” “this is my go-to beer for the summer” all of these anecdotes you can pull from it."   - HARRISON "You’re hitting maybe a larger audience…on Facebook with cool information on Untappd. At the same time making people that follow you on Untappd and Facebook feel like feel like they’re part of a bigger experience and now not every checkin is a checkin in a vacuum…Wherever beer fans, make sure they see you made a new beer" - JON "…a lot of times it is new breweries just opening that are spending time pulling honeycombs out of beehives and writing beer names on that…and then by beer 50 they’re like ‘holy cow’ there are no more honeycombs…The business side of it kicks in and my taproom manager is already doing 20 things let’s not make harvesting bees be one of them, let’s set up a digital board" - HARRISON "With beer releases, make it an event in Untappd. An event in Untappd is unique in that everyone can see them… People are going to see those pop up in their phone. Those events are linkable, right now if you have an online store or you require people to reserve a spot…You can link inside an Untappd event to whatever space they need to go to make that order. Someone is now a click away on their phone from supporting you." - HARRISON

Austin Beerworks with Helms Workshop Find Austin Beerworks Website: austinbeerworks.com / Instagram: @AustinBeerworks  / Facebook: @AustinBeerworks / Twitter: @AustinBeerworks Find Helms Workshop Website: helmsworkshop.com /  Instagram: @helms_workshop / Facebook: @HelmsWorkshop / Twitter: @HelmsWorkshop Austin Beerworks co-founder Michael Graham along with Helms Workshop founder Christian Helms join to discuss branding for Austin Beerworks. Talking Points: Development of branding and brand identity, beyond just a cool logo Development of core and seasonal cans Connecting your branding to the beer you make Breaking out of the typical look in beer branding and being different. Creation of premium bottle labels and how they're integrated into the core Austin Beerworks brand.    

Co-Branding and Collaborations with Jordan Hoffart and Fish Scales Find Jordan Hoffart and Black Plague Brewing Website: blackplaguebrewing.com  // Instagram: @blackplaguebrewing Find Fish Scales and Atlantucky Brewing Website: atlantucky.com  // Instagram: @atlantucky The idea of collaborations between breweries has proven to be a successful way to promote brands and your beer. I wanted to take a look at some ways that other industries, brands, and celebrities are collaborating in the beer industry to reach new customers. Jordan Hoffart is a professional skater that co-founded Black Plague Brewing. Hoffart and Black Plague created a collab. beer with Tony Hawk, cleverly named Tony Hawps - Birdhouse IPA.  Fish Scales comes from the music world and the successful group Nappy Roots. Fish Scales, being a brewer himself, has collaborated with a number of breweries and has come up with some great ways to promote those beers and brands.

New Label Initiatives - Craft Label Co and All Together I have two related announcements that I wanted to bring to your attention. Both of these are efforts to help our community during the COVID-19 chaos. The first is an initiative that I have been working on for the last month. I have been working with breweries and label printers to assist getting beer into packaging. A number of breweries have never packaged and need label FAST and AFFORDABLE. I created Craft Label Co. to be a pre-designed craft beverage label shop. You can browse through a variety of label designs and choose the label that best fits you. From that point, you can totally customize your chosen label by selecting colors, your logo, beer name, style, and get a print-ready label generated. Each label only costs $90! And since this is a brand new launch, I am also offering 30% off entire orders through April. Use code: LABELS30 With this discount, you can get a lineup of 6 customized labels created for $378 If you know of anyone that could find this useful, I hope you can let them know. Check it out at: craftlabelco.com All Together Our friends Craftpeak brought this to my attention. This initiative has been embraced by over 500 breweries worldwide. They are providing the branding, recipe, and label templates to release one large community beer effort. They want to help raise awareness to support small breweries, but also raise money for hospitality! REALLY cool stuff. Check it out here: alltogether.beer  

Working with Marketing In-House or External with Holly Amlin aka PDXBeerGirl Find PDXBeerGirl: Web: pdxbeergirl.com // Instagram: @pdxbeergirl Facebook: @pdxbeergirl   In the past, we've discussed some ways to navigate working with internal and external teams. Both have unique advantages and disadvantages along with best scenario matches depending on your brewery size. Here's a few points we touch on in this episode: Hiring within...is that the best way? Should  your front of house run marketing? Best fit for your brewery, solo freelancer or agency Finding help that knows the beer industry COVID-19 - what is successful marketing and social right now PDXBeerGirl is helmed by Holly Amlin, local beer writer, marketer, and social media influencer. Her aim is to make beer more accessible to the everyday craft beer drinker, especially women. Holly has lived in Oregon the majority of her life, but decided to put down roots in Portland five years ago for a job doing web design and branding. She is now one of those nerds who documents her beer adventures, rides her bike when it’s sunny, cheers loud for the Timbers, cries about the last season of Game of Thrones, and explores new places as often as possible. PDXBeerGirl came to life after a summer road trip to California in 2016, stopping and talking with breweries along the way. The journey made her realize just how welcoming the local beer industry was, which inspired the decision to start writing about her experiences. Holly has since covered all things beer: Brewery reviews, openings, new beers, events, and more. In addition, she has contributed to the Oregon Beer Growler, Inc.com, and been featured in Men’s Health, “30 Female Beer Lovers You Must Follow on Instagram”.

7 Crucial Benefits to Strong Brewery Branding Solo episode here covering a recent article published on Craft Brew Creative. We'll break down these branding ideas: Good First Impressions, Branding Creates Trust and Reaffirms Credibility, Branding Generates New Customers, Attitude Strength, Loyal Customers, Easy Introduction of New Products, and Improve Employee Pride and Satisfaction.

Stories within Beer and Branding with Bryan Roth For this episode, we're taking a look at the 2019 BC Craft Brewers Guild Keynote presentation done by Bryan Roth titled: What Narratives and Numbers Can Tell Us, and What You Can Do About Them. The guild has the presentation video posted here on YouTube, definitely give it a watch! Of course, Bryan brings his strong game of charts and data, but he does so in a way that tells a story and specifically focuses on how the customer is the hero in these journeys. Since Bryan is great with crafting and uncovering stories, I wanted to pick his brain a bit on how breweries should tell better stories and how their customer fits into those stories.

Working with staff to build a stronger brand, with Jessica Ferrell We've covered in past episodes the importance of your team in representing your brand. (Episode 41 - Year one with Blaker Brewing, Episode 10 - Building Teams for a Strong Brand)  There are so many aspects to developing and representing your brewery's brand through your staff, I think that it is a topic worth exploring further. Jessica Ferrell comes from a deep background in restaurant and brewery experience. Along with just starting her own consulting business, Jessica teaches Pub & Tasting Room Management through the Business of Craft Brewing certificate program at Portland State University. In this episode, Jessica gives us really solid foundations to delivering a great customer experience through easy to understand formulas. It was great to see the alignment between branding concepts and how these can be implemented in your taproom or brewery experience.

Beer membership clubs with pFriem Family Brewers Find pFriem: pfriembeer.com Along with doing your own brewery events, I think utilizing a membership club is one of the best ways to market and brand your brewery. Whether you go more towards something like a mug club, or more towards the style of a wine club, you have an opportunity to connect more deeply with your core brand fanatics (or create them!) You can be sure that bringing someone closer to your brand will develop a stronger affinity, which can result in those folks being more of an advocate for your brand. Those that are closer to you and your brand will be sharing your beer and stories with their friends and acquaintances. pFriem Family Brewers is a great case for building a wine club style membership. They have just launched this club and have been strategically organizing it to make sure they can run the club well. So far, they started the club with an invitation only process and are now starting to roll it out more to public. Join in with Michelle Humphrey of pFriem as we discuss the branding benefits that come from running a membership.

Reduce Your Label Costs Over the years working with breweries of different sizes, saving money on the cost of labels has always been important. Through all of this experience, both in the printing and design of labels, I have been able to better understand ways to save money on labels and in many ways create better branding at the same time (!!) I hope you find these tips useful in saving money, and how you can approach creating your labels. This is an extended audio format of the PDF guide, that you can download for free here.

The transition and advantages of having custom label art, with Jessica Clare of Cleophus Quealy I have worked with Cleophus over the last couple of years, and we just moved from a "wine" style label to doing custom artwork for each bottle release. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches and I was also curious about the timing and positioning to start creating custom labels for a smaller brewery. Some key talking points: Why using 750ml bottles work well for their brewery and branding "Wine" style labels, just changing the name for each label Why uniform labels cause confusion to customers Does a membership club influence labels and beer release strategy? When is it the time to create custom labels for each release? The photogenic aspects of labels, social media and marketing imagery. Merch tie-ins from label artwork Collectibility, or creating a series of label art Building buzz and selling more bottles by releasing more than one beer at a time.  

Freshly Wrapped - label branding process with Big Stump Brew Co and Trademark Brewing Welcome to this special two-part series where we cover an upcoming seminar that will take place at CA Craft Summit in Long Beach, CA. Freshly Wrapped: An Inside Look at Label Branding Strategies will take place Thursday, September 12th, 2019 at 11:35 am. For the second part of this series, we dig into the process for creating a label branding strategy. Nick Longo and myself each have similar processes when it comes to branding, but there are many variations that are dependent on each brewery's situation. Here we outline and discuss how each label branding project went with Big Stump Brew Co. and Trademark Brewing.

Freshly Wrapped - an introduction to the branding seminar and participants Welcome to this special two-part series where we cover an upcoming seminar that will take place at CA Craft Summit in Long Beach, CA. Freshly Wrapped: An Inside Look at Label Branding Strategies will take place Thursday, September 12th, 2019 at 11:35 am. For this introduction, Nick Longo and myself cover the idea of the seminar and our partnering breweries - Big Stump Brew Co. and Trademark Brewing. We learn the special situation each brewery is in and why now is a great time for them to develop a package branding strategy!

Running a brewery with a professional background in design with Ben Parsons of Baerlic Brewing. There are brewery owners out there that have an added benefit of coming from another professional background. Someone who has an engineering, business, or marketing background for instance, can have a leg up running their brewery. There has been many times that I wondered what it would be like to make a major career shift, away from branding and design, over to owning a brewery or taproom. Over the last few years in Portland, I have had the pleasure of getting to know Ben Parsons of Baerlic Brewing. Ben fits this exact mold, he left a career as a professional designer to chase his dreams of making beer and opening up a successful brewery. I wanted to dig into what life was like for Ben, and how his background in design has helped in running his brewery. Listen in as we discuss branding beer releases, opening a taproom in a food cart pod, and running a brewery as a designer, on this episode of Branding Brews.  

Mass Brew Bros on recycling and sustainability in beer Find Mass Brew Bros: Website: massbrewbros.com Check out the article How to Be An Eco-Friendly Craft Beer Drinker There are a many different ways and angles to better sustainability in beer. Many breweries are taking steps to be more eco-friendly, but there is also an important role that beer drinkers can play.  Education on the consumer side can help elevate better practices, and also play part in the sustainability process. Take for instance the use of plastics in the market. We’re all familiar with PakTech can carriers. Did you know that PackTechs usually require special handling and often cannot be thrown in your city’s recycling? Consider the amount of one-time use cups at beer festivals or events. Sometimes we get a false sense of sustainability because these cups are marked as compostable, or made from corn-based plastic. Educating ourselves and being able to avoid greenwashing can help create demand for better sustainability and also help our environment. Rob Van, along with his partner Bob Kelley, started promoting breweries in Massachusetts and connecting drinkers with good beer. The results of their efforts have come together on the website MassBrewBros.com.  Rob caught my attention on Twitter with an article he wrote on this topic. Listen in as Rob breaks down some knowledge on recycling and what we can do as drinkers to better sustainability in beer.

A look back at year one with Tyler Lucas of Blaker Brewing Find Blaker Brewing: Instagram: @blakerbrewing  // Website: blakerbrewing.com Over the years, I have worked with a number of startup breweries and I know there are listeners out there that are either planning a brewery, or maybe just recently started a brewery. One of the brands I helped develop was Blaker Brewing, in the Central Valley of California..my old stomping grounds. They opened their doors to great success and it has been fun working with them and watching them grow. There are essential items when it comes to launching your new brand, but I wanted to shed some light on what things looked like after running a brewery for a full year. Having plenty of time to develop your brand before opening your doors is really great, but what happens after things are up and running? Where expectations met around developing the brand? Where there areas that where totally missed? What areas have been the most effective at developing your brewery brand? Tyler Lucas, the Director of Marketing and Brand Development for Blaker Brewing joins me for this conversation. We get to dig deep into social media marketing, building strong teams, and relationships with your customers. Listen in as we take a look at the first year of Blaker Brewing, on this episode of Branding Brews.

CBC 2019 Brand Forward Seminar Questions and Answers Had some great questions during the seminar, so decided to put this out as a shorter episode!

Craft Brewers Conference 2019 - Brand Forward Seminar As you probably have heard over the last few episodes, I have been working on a label branding seminar for the Craft Brewers Conference. Not only developing a seminar, but also participating in a special artist series for the CBC 2020 Commemorative Beer labels. For this episode of Branding Brews, I will be sharing with you the audio recording of the Brand Forward seminar at CBC this year. There were some visual aids that went along with the seminar, but I think most of the ideas come through pretty well over audio. During the beginning of the seminar we view a video showing the 2020 label designs and the process work from each artist. If you would like to check out that video, head over to brandingbrews.com, go to the page for this episode and I will have that video in the show notes. Also, a special thanks to the Brewers Association for being so awesome and helpful for this seminar, and for providing the audio recording. CBC 2020 Commemorative Beer Label Design Process Video It was really great connecting with friends of the show in Denver. A shoutout to Mike Kanach, Chris Gartman, John and Julien from CraftPeak, and everyone else that stopped by to say hello. I’m truly honored to have made such great friends and community through this podcast. And, speaking of friends and community, This podcast would not have made it this long without you. This episode is also special because it marks the two year anniversary of this show. We’re close to 50,000 total downloads which kind of blows my mind. I don’t ask often, but I would really appreciate if you can share this show with friends or colleagues. Also, if you would be willing to take a minute to rate and review this show that would also be super helpful. Thanks for hanging around with me and listening to the show, it means a lot. Let’s jump into the Brand Forward seminar, cheers.

New Belgium Specialty Brands with Andrew Emerton Find Andrew: Twitter: @andwoo One topic we've yet to dive into, is what the role of specialty brands play in your portfolio and overall brand. There are so many decisions you can ponder when it comes to branding and marketing these beers. How elevated do you go? Do you want to be known has a brewery with elevated brands and higher price tags? How do you relate these labels to your core lineup and the branding of your brewery? I think the questions could go on... I've been following Andrew Emerton, the Specialty Brand Manager for New Belgium Brewing on Twitter. He's been active in the Twitter beer community and its been fun to follow. In this interview, we dig into the role that specialty brands play at New Belgium. What is the strategy in branding and marketing for the specialty beers they offer. What are the goals that New Belgium has around their specialty brands. Andrew is a smart dude with a history in the beer game. I hope you enjoy the conversation we had. Kick back and listen as Andrew Emerton speaks some brand knowledge on this episode of Branding Brews.

Rebranding Old Town Brewing with Jordan Wilson Find Jordan Wilson: Web: jordanwilsondesigns.com Carrying on with the topic of rebrands, this episode is looking at a very successful rebrand for Old Town brewing. You’ve might of heard of Old Town through a trademark dispute that the brewery got into with the city of Portland. That in itself is an interesting story with a happy ending, but the rebranding done by my good friend, Jordan Wilson, really has elevated Old Town in a number of ways. We dig into the how and why Old Town decided to approach a rebrand. As with any brewery that might struggle to keep up with the ever-changing market, Jordan and Old Town jumped into this rebrand to create a label and branding system that would allow them to be more nimble with their beer releases. The rebrand also brought more attention to the Old Town brand as well, establishing more of a connection with their customers. Besides an amazing rebrand, they have gone all in creating captivating and entertaining videos and photography for their products. The result of all their work saw overall beer sales increase by over 50%  Merchandise sales are up 70% and community involvement and promotional requests have dramatically increased. Listen in as Jordan and I dig into his rebranding project and branding efforts for Old Town, on this episode of Branding Brews.

Fred Hart of Interact Boulder on the Packaging Rebrand for Dogfish Head Find Interact Website: interactboulder.com During my planning process for the Brand Forward design seminar at CBC, I had the pleasure of connecting with Fred Hart of Interact.  Fred and his team do some great work, including the Dogfish Head packaging rebrand. After some insightful conversations, I thought Fred would be a wonderful guest to have on this show. There’s a lot that goes into a rebrand, and it was definitely fun to hear some inside details on this one. Dogfish Head, in all of its great history, had never worked with an agency. Looking back at their existing packaging, things were all over the place and did not have much of any consistent structure. Interact worked with Dogfish to dig deep into some core brand elements and brought those to life in an entirely new packaging system. The end result? 20% increase in year-over-year sales. Something that is pretty much unheard of for a brewery the size of Dogfish. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did. Join in with Fred Hart of Interact on this episode of Branding Brews.

Using Brandfolder to manage your beer brand assets Find Brandfolder: Web: brandfolder.com We’ve talked on this show before about the importance of having a brand or media kit easily accessible. There are a number of ways to manage this, but there is a specific platform, Brandfolder, that was made just for this purpose. There can be a large number of assets that you need to manage as a brand. Logos, sales sheets, UPC codes, photography, point of sale and retail graphics, plus more. As a designer that creates many of these items, and needs to manage these assets in folders, it can become a challenging task to stay organized and up to date. Not only does organizing this stuff become daunting, so does distributing them. With Brandfolder, you can create special kits, containing items of your choice, that can be made just for certain needs. Have a kit for retailers, distributors, a kit for your sales team, press kit, a brand kit, or any other collection of assets you need distribute. Today we are joined by Luke Beatty, who is the CEO of Brandfolder, and has lots of insights on brewery brand management through a number of breweries that use his platform.

Refillable Beer Bottle program at Bottledrop Find Bottledrop Web: bottledropcenters.com Over time, the idea of convenience has been sold to, and taken a priority in our culture. Often, this convenience results in negative effects to our environment. One-time use items like plastic shopping bags, straws, coffee cups are all items that we can use daily and be thrown away. When it comes to the beer world and environmental footprint, the container is a big item to consider. For sure, cans and bottles are recyclable, which offers a reduced impact. There’s also been some debate on the idea that cans are better for the environment than bottles, which we touch on a bit in this interview. One thing that other countries are still doing, which has fallen off the American radar, is the idea of washing and reusing bottles for beverages like beer. This is not a new thing, and it makes total sense right? Enter Nick Munson-Phelps, the refillable program manager for BottleDrop Refill. Nick has been leading an effort in Oregon to design and implement a refillable bottle program that breweries have already started using. Join us on this episode to learn all about the sustainability and benefits of using refillable bottles on this episode of Branding Brews.

Craft Beer Market Research with DataQuencher Find DataQuencher Website: dataquencher.com  //  Twitter: @dataquencher As part of an industry that is creating a product for consumers, having insights behind those consumers can really help drive decisions, marketing, and of course your branding efforts. How aware are consumers of your brand, in your area? What kind of thoughts come to your customer’s mind when they hear your name? What are their political leanings? What kind of beers do they drink based on their lifestyle? Hopefully you are talking with customers and trying to extract insights that you can use to help drive your business. You can, of course, keep a pulse on what’s going on with your customers through Untappd or other review sites like Yelp or Google. These are all very helpful, but imagine pulling large amounts of this kind of data from a variety of craft beer consumers in your area. Rob Cartwright, Co-Founder of DataQuencher, comes from a background of market research. Rob took his passion for craft beer and decided to start his  own business providing market research for the craft beer space. Let’s dig into some interesting insights and learn more about the beer market on this episode of Branding Brews.

Communicating Effectively with Jeff Alworth Find Jeff Web: beervanablog.com  //  Twitter: @Beervana Communication is an essential part of promoting your beer and your brand. It’s a major part of how customers understand who you are. The stronger and more concise your communication is, the better your customers will understand your beer. To communicate better, it’s important that everyone on your team knows and understands the solid identity behind your beer. If you ask your brewer, delivery driver, and marketing staff to explain your brand in one simple statement, would they say the same thing? In branding and marketing, communication is huge. From your labels and packaging, sales sheets, website, email campaigns, and of course social media. As a writer and author, Jeff Alworth has a deep background when it comes to communicating. Along with his great website, Beervana: The Blog, Jeff has written a number of books on beer and cider. Join us today as Jeff digs into some fundamentals of communication on this episode of Branding Brews.

Communicating your brand story with Jeff Pillet-Shore of Allagash Brewing Company Find Allagash Website: allagash.com // Instagram: @allagashbrewing // Twitter: @allagashbrewing There are many ways you communicate your brand, your values, and your story. Through your Intstagram feed, website, blog posts, videos, and of course through your beer. I’ve always been drawn to the Allagash brand because of how well they tell there story through so many touchpoints. They first drew my deeper attention from their amazing photography, but as I learned more about them, I really enjoyed how they tell their story using beer profiles, blog posts, and informational pages on their website. Allagash cares about the details, it’s all about making everything count and making it positive. They take the approach of using Instagram and their website as a virtual tasting room and they are very keen to sharing stories. They realize that not every social media post is going to appeal to everyone, but they put importance on sharing values visually, with words, and video if possible. Jeff Pillet-Shore from Allagash took some time to talk with us about their brand story, how every employee is apart of that story, and is excited to participate in that brand. Join us and Allagash Brewing Company today, to learn about communicating a brand story on Branding Brews. 

Design for Beer Labels with Adam Feller Find Adam Web: aviditycreative.com // Podcast: Food Business Podcast To continue the conversation on beer label design and branding, today we’re going to dive a bit more into planning content and design elements for your labels and packaging. When you are creating new labels and packaging, there are lots of things to consider. What messaging should go on the label, placement and size of branding elements like your logo, how to utilize colors, and more. In previous episodes, we’ve discussed planning content for your labels, also tips and ideas for creative printing and label production techniques. This time around, I am having a conversation with another creative on covering many aspects of making new labels and packaging. Adam Feller, designer and owner of Avidity Creative, also host of the Food Business Podcast, joins us to discuss strategy of label and packaging design on this episode of Branding Brews

Beer Branding Photography with Roscoe Myrick Find Roscoe Instagram: @shotboxer // Website: shotboxer.com // Twitter: @shotboxer Photography is such an essential aspect in marketing and branding. A good photo can draw your audience in to your culture, taproom, and create stories for your brand. There’s the obvious needs for photography, like product shots of your beers for your website, sales sheets, brochures, and advertisements. Those are essential, and should be done well, but if you start thinking of capturing moments in your photography, you can really start to create engaging images. You may be fortunate enough to have a photographer friend that can help bring these photos to life and create a catalog of photos to use. In other cases, hiring a photographer may be your best bet. In both of these scenarios, you will likely be setting up specific photo shoots and hope to create a solid library of images to use in the future. There are so many moments in your day-to-day life at the brewery that can make great snapshots to help tell stories and reinforce your brand. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and blog posts on your website all benefit from good supporting images. If you can get some basic photography gear and start thinking about capturing these moments yourself, you can take this into your own hands and be able to regularly create these wonderful snapshots. My good friend, Roscoe Myrick, is a professional sports photographer, but he has also done photo shoots of all kinds. His photography style is unique, and really draws the viewer into the frame. Roscoe helps break down the basics of getting into photography, and starts digging into the creative aspects of taking great photos. Join us as we break down photography for your brand, in this episode of Branding Brews.

Designing and producing point of sale items When it comes to promoting your brand, especially when you’re distributing, tap handles are a crucial element. The Alison Group has joined our show before to discuss designing and producing tap handles, but they also design and produce a wide variety of point of sale items that can also promote your brand outside of your brewery or taproom. From metal tackers, to displays and signs, the possibility is almost endless when it comes to design and bringing your brand to life with the physical products. Budget is always a concern, and I am always a fan of creating more than one use for any design or product you create. Breweries have found a lot of success when it comes to selling apparel and merchandise at their breweries, and some of these POS items can be sold as merchandise or be used in your event booth setups. Jeff Schweiger with the Alison Group talks with us about some of the options for POS items on this episode of Branding Brews.

Perceived Quality through Branding with Nick Longo Find Nick Longo Website: longodesigns.com One topic I have been into lately is the perceived quality of your beer, or brewery, based on its branding. Your potential customers will judge your ability to provide quality beer based on your branding and brand identity. Also, customers are more likely to purchase products from a brewery that has a polished and legitimate brand. If you brew quality beer, having bad branding can create a conflicting message, or bad impression to your customers. On the opposite end of that spectrum, good and consistent branding can create loyal customers and better brand awareness. How you approach your branding can have a direct impact on the perceived quality of your beer and brewery. There are many approaches and techniques to strengthen you brand, and it can be overwhelming to go down that rabbit hole. You can of course partner with someone to help build and maintain your brand, or if you are mindful of branding, can take some of these things into your own hands. I think you can build yourself a stronger brand foundation buy just being aware, creating some structure or guidelines for your brand, and one of the biggest things…being consistent. This episode is exciting because it marks the one-year anniversary for Branding Brews. I have invited back Nick Longo from Longo Designs to discuss with us the idea of perceived quality. Nick always has great insight, is well spoken, and has been a guest and supporter of this show since day one. Let’s dig into some ways you can build a stronger brand with a higher perceived quality on this episode of Branding Brews.

Brand Systems and Guidelines with Joseph Szala Find Joseph and Vigor Website: vigorbranding.com  // Twitter: @vigor  Website: gritsandgrids.com In order to maintain a strong and consistent brand, having a good brand system and brand guidelines is an essential tool. It not only provides your internal team with a brand compass, but it is also a very valuable resource for media, vendors, and service providers. In any way possible, you want to be able to take control of your brand and not have it run away from you. In terms of brewing, you can consider a brand guideline like a brewing recipe. If you want to have consistent, good beer, you will want to rely on a solid process and a recipe to follow. A good system and guideline will provide you with this recipe for a successful brand. If you’ve been a scrappy startup and haven’t considered, or had the opportunity, to have a brand guideline, it’s not too late to get started! We dive into how you can take a brand audit by analyzing what your brewery is putting out to the world. There are definitely some great ways you can start analyzing and putting together some brand rules to live by. Today we’re joined again by the very talented Joseph Szala of Vigor Branding. Joseph did a knock-out job on a previous episode, and we’re very excited to have him back. Get your brand bearings, and learn all about the importance of brand guidelines on this episode of branding brews.

Let's take a look at your brewery website with Craftpeak Find Craftpeak Website: craftpeak.com // Twitter: @craftpeak // Instagram: @craftpeak Your website is one of the most important and most available places customers will find you to learn about your beer and brand. If someone is visiting your town, chances are, they are going to scroll through Google listings to discover your brewery. For a number of reasons, websites often become neglected, or in some ways an afterthought. Why might that be? Well, some common reasons seem to be budget, man-power, complexity, or a poorly designed or outdated website that is hard to maintain. I hope this episode will shed some light on why your website is one of your most valuable assets in representing your brewery and some ways that you can audit your current website experience. This interview can get a bit technical, because website definitely are, but there are some valuable ideas and strategies to consider. There are some DIY tools and tips for analyzing and improving your website that we will discuss. If anything, I hope you take away enough insight to reach out to a professional for assistance in building up your web presence. I am joined by a super sharp web technology team, Craftpeak, who has narrowed their specialty to the craft beer market. If you follow their Instagram account, you will see they live and breathe beer. We’ll discuss your branding and content, managing your website, how you are placing on Google search, and more on this episode of branding brews.

Label materials with Alex Kidd of Avery Dennison Often when it comes to creating a new label, the first place you start is with the design. The general look and feel, colors, typography, images, and content. These, of course, are must haves for a great label. In the earlier stages, have you ever considered starting with the label material? There are a wide variety of materials that you can print on that can help your product stand out on the shelf. Label materials like cotton, wood veneer, recycled, textured, and more can give your label a unique feel and look that people want to pick up and feel. When you start by looking at materials, you can be inspired to take your label design in a whole new direction. The label material creates the background and a “base” look for what the label design will go on. Where should you start with new and fun label materials? If you haven’t explored this already, your label printer should be able to show you paper or material swatchbooks. Otherwise, label manufacturers like Avery Dennison can be your go-to source for researching swatchbooks. Alex Kidd, Creative Design Manager at Avery Dennison joins us to talk about label materials for your next label project, on this episode of Branding Brews.

Branding at Creature Comforts Developing not only a visual brand system that functions well, but also a brand strategy can be a challenge, especially for younger breweries. How do you approach working with a designer or artist? What kind of ground work do you have laid out for the brand, how do you communicate that with your internal and external teams? How are you going to approach developing the brand into a strong system that will function and duplicate well? With many breweries, this is quite a learning process that will evolve over time until you can catch a groove. Creature Comforts spent a lot of time and took a number of approaches to tackle these challenges. They’ve come to a great end result and process when it comes to branding their beers and putting out new releases. I connected with Creature Comforts to discuss their can designs and branding system for these cans. Each beer release has unique artwork, but the brand system in place created a consistent look that says “Creature Comforts.” As we dug into the interview, we were able to get a good look at the process they took to get where they are at now, what they learned over time by working with various designers, and what they learned about developing their brand. Chris Herron and David Stein from Creature Comforts joins us to discuss the ins-and-outs of developing their brand on this episode of branding brews.

Trademark for Logos and Graphics with Chris Gartman, Head Brewer and IP Attorney Find Chris: Email: chris@gartmanlawoffice.com  //  LinkedIn One of our more popular episodes recently covered aspects of legal trademarks around naming. I wanted to follow up that episode with another interview focused on logo, trade dress, and visual graphic trademark. In recent news here in Portland, Oregon, there was a logo trademark battle between Old Town Brewing and the city of Portland that caught big attention in the local brewing community. With the rallying support of the community, Old Town was able to settle and solve the dispute, but this ordeal proved to be a case for getting a logo trademarked. I’m sure most of us aren’t legal experts and focus on areas of brewing, marketing, design and branding, so I reached out to Chris Gartman who is not only a head brewer, but also an IP attorney. There are lots on intricacies and legal terminology to dissect and I think Chris does a great job of breaking this down into understandable and more common language. Join us as we discuss trademarks for logos, labels, trade dress and more on this episode of Branding Brews!

Ex Novo brewing and philanthropy in your brewery branding Find Ex Novo: Website: exnovobrew.com // Twitter: @ExNovoBrew // Instagram: @ExNovoBrew Many breweries, to varying degrees, give back to their community. Ex Novo has made this their core foundation and built their brewery business on philanthropy. Joel Gregory had a passion for brewing and also for supporting his community and causes in need. One avenue he could have taken was getting into the world of non-profits, but the idea of constant fund raising was not overly appealing. His idea? Start a brewery as a non-profit where he can not only combine his passions, but also use beer as the method for raising money to donate. This had the benefit of allowing him to work at his passion of brewing great beer and not have to spend countless hours raising money for causes he cares about. Joel’s brewery, Ex Novo, has since moved away from the non-profit designation and is now setup as a Benefit Company in Oregon. This move has allowed for some beneficial business aspects, while still giving 100% of profits to good causes. Listen in as Joel goes into detail about why he started his brewery with the idea giving back, and all the nitty-gritty details of running a brewery and brand with this in mind. Philanthropy is the topic for this episode of Branding Brews.

Inclusivity in Your Branding & Market with Carla Jean Lauter Find Carla: Website: thebeerbabe.com // Twitter: @beerbabe Beer doesn’t see race, gender, sexual orientation or class. When it comes to branding and marketing, why not take an extra effort to make sure you are being inclusive and reaching a larger audience in a positive way. Inclusivity doesn’t stop at how your customer perceives your packaging and visual branding, but it also is the environment in your brewery and your employee culture. Customers are seeking genuine and authentic brands that represent real and positive values. They want to connect with and believe in the the breweries they visit and the beer they drink. Women are an increasing market to craft beer consumption, but also are taking more roles in the beer industry. Craft beer took an opportunity to move away from the sex sells marketing and branding strategies of the older big beer brands and provide products that are unique and can stand out based on quality of the liquid. We’re going to cover how inclusivity can benefit not only your brand, but the craft beer industry as a whole. With so many breweries opening their doors, it’s important that we’re looking forward and trying to reach and connect with larger audiences and communities. Carla Jean Lauter has been passionate about this topic and has been very active online, engaging other breweries and fans. Carla joins us today to talk inclusivity in the beer market, on this episode of Branding Brews.

Creating a Content Calendar for the New Year with Emily Hutto. Find Emily and RadCraft: Twitter: @emilyhutto // Website: radcraftbeer.com // Twitter: @radcraftbeer // Instagram: @radcraftbeer Content, content, content. An all too often afterthought, but yet plays an integral role in how your brand is represented across many channels. Content presented from your packaging, marketing and press materials, social media and your website all come together to bring your brand to life. Since we are about to start a new year, now is a great time to take audit of your content and take a look at creating a content calendar for the new year. What should go into planning and building a new content calendar? Well, it would be of great benefit to start analyzing all of your visible marketing materials and online presence. This would cover not only the copy on your website or social media posts, but also building a strong library of visual assets such as photos, videos, and also revisiting the content of your brand guidelines and also your media kit. Your website can play an integral role for any customer before they reach your taproom. It’s vital that you   stay up to date on your website content from your beer releases, general brewery information, to events and blog posts. Being active on your website, by way of a blog or similar ways of posting information, can provide a great place to have engaging content that can create stories and connections that will strengthen your brand. RadCraft is co-op resource providing communications support, social media, marketing and consulting. Emily Hutto started her career as a craft beer journalist and that eventually grew into providing breweries all sorts of communication services through RadCraft. Emily joined us to talk about starting out your new year by taking a good look at your content needs and planning for the future on this episode of Branding Brews. Show notes and links Maui Brewing Co - Online Branding Guide Great Divide - Press Kit on Brandfolder Brandfolder - Cloud or web based brand asset manager

Your Portfolio's Role in Branding with Michael Kiser of Good Beer Hunting Find Kiser online: Website: goodbeerhunting.com // Twitter @goodbeerhunting // Instagram: @goodbeerhunting How does your beer portfolio connect with and represent your brand. Does your branding speak to and set up the right expectations for your beer portfolio? There are many elements and ways that a brand will come to life and play a role in your customer’s eyes. Indeed having a strong and unique visual brand are of utmost importance, but your beer must be connected with that brand experience. Having a brand experience that will setup expectations for your customers can create a recipe for success. If you position yourself well with your branding, your audience can be warmed up to what kind of beer they are about to drink and result in a stronger connection. If you are able to frame your brewery and your positioning around the beers, and have an awesome and well designed experience, expectations can be met and things like beer style trends or even preferences may not be as important. There’s no doubt that your beers will evolve over time, and your brand efforts should continue to live and grow as well. It’s important to keep your branding up front and center in the same way you that you constantly focus on your beer. Michael Kiser with Good Beer Hunting has been writing about, drinking and focusing on beer for almost a decade. His background as an innovation strategist for products like Nike, Samsung, HP, and Adobe, paired with his passion for beer has created a great platform for Good Beer Hunting. Listen in as Kiser and I get into how your brewery’s portfolio should play a role in your branding and how your branding connects customers to your beer in this episode of Branding Brews.

Steve Schmidt, host of Market The Brew Podcast, talks with us about promotional ideas to keep customers coming back. Find Steve and Market The Brew: Website: marketthebrew.com  // Twitter: @marketthebrew // Facebook: @marketthebrew A cold barstool is not a warm thought for brewery owners. Finding interesting and unique ways to bring customers into your taproom and keep them coming back can be challenging. There are some successful ways for doing this like beer glass giveaways, mug clubs, brewery tours, or special beer flight offerings. In an effort to keep promotional efforts new and enticing, along with the ability to strengthen your brand and following, there are some great ways you can kick marketing efforts up to a new level. Various ways of hosting VIP mug clubs or memberships can provide an opportunity to build a strong community around your brewery and brand. These clubs can also become great ways to get valuable feedback on new releases before going to market. Being able to tell your brand story, along with stories behind your beers, in captivating and welcoming ways can help customers feel more connected to your beer. Having specialized tours or tasting events can bring people in and sometimes become brand ambassadors for your brewery. In this episode, Steve Schmidt from Market The Brew podcast, joins us to talk about promotional ideas to keep people coming back. Let’s dig into various ways to bring butts to your barstools on this episode of Branding Brews. Show links and resources: Marty Neumeier - Branding http://www.martyneumeier.com/ Marty Neumeier - Brand Ladder

Jason Frostholm with Creative South joins for a special crossover episode! Find Jason and Creative South Podcast Website: creativesouth.com  //  Twitter: @creativesopod  //  Facebook: @CreativeSoPod Twitter: @jfrostholm  //  Dribbble: dribbble.com/jfrostholm  //  Instagram: @jfrostholm Hey there friends, welcome back. I don’t have a deep thoughts kind of introduction for this episode, because it is something unique and new for this show. I listen to a lot of various podcasts and design podcasts are a good chunk of what I listen to. One of those is the Creative South Podcast. On one of those occasional awesome moments on Twitter, our two podcasts were able to connect and start a conversation around doing a crossover episode. If you’re a designer, this episode will be more aligned to your interests. I get an opportunity to dive into who I am, what my l professional history is, and how I got to the Branding Brews Podcast. The other half of this crossover is with Jason Frostholm and the Creative South Podcast. Jason is also a graphic designer that shares a similar background. Creative South, while it has a rad podcast, is a creative design conference in the south. If you’re a designer, Creative South Podcast has interviewed some awesome designers and covered a variety of topics as well. On another note for episodes this month, we are releasing an extra episode and not on the normal schedule. The next episode is also a special recording where the Market The Brew Podcast and the Branding Brews Podcast come together for a special release. So, let’s try something new here and get started with this crossover interview on this episode of Branding Brews.

Being authentic in today's beer market is important, let's dig into why. Find Bryan Roth: Twitter: @BryanDRoth What is your why? Part of being truly authentic is knowing why you are brewing beer, why should people care, why are you located where you are and apart of that community? Beer drinkers are attracted to the benefits and lifestyles of being able to visit a local brewery taproom. Big brands and products that are shipped thousands of miles are becoming less intriguing, where the idea of knowing where your beer, ingredients, and the people that make it are coming from. So that leads us to this episodes topic. Authenticity. What does it mean to be authentic? Bryan Roth is an experienced beer writer who crafts well written articles on all sorts of interesting beer industry topics and ideas. Bryan joins us today to discuss being true and connecting with customers with your beer, your brewery, and your brand. Let’s get genuine, real, and authentic on this episode of Branding Brews.

Trademark Attorney Mike Kanach Discusses Branding of Craft Beverages A lawyer and a designer walk into a bar. This podcast continues the podcast series of Branding Brews, covering topics of beer branding, design, and marketing. In this episode, designer Ryan Wheaton of Portland discusses branding and trademarks with attorney Michael Kanach of San Francisco.  Mike is an intellectual property partner at the law firm Gordon & Rees in San Francisco, where he has experience with trademarks and trade dress for food and beverages, including craft beverages, beer, wine, and spirits. Ryan and Mike discuss various topics involving branding and trademarks related to craft beer, including some benefits of obtaining a registered trademark and strategies of choosing a strong or distinctive name or brand.  They also discuss some famous disputes over trademarks involving breweries and other alcoholic beverages, strategies on avoiding a dispute, as well as what to consider when re-branding. Mike suggests talking to an attorney who is familiar with the craft beer industry and trademarks, because they can help to avoid certain foreseeable disputes. But when choosing a name for your brewery or beer, Mike suggests that breweries use a few free search tools first, before talking to an attorney, because it will help save some time and money, including searches on google and various government and industry-specific websites: Searching for registered trademarks and applications (USPTO TESS):  http://tmsearch.uspto.gov Searching for labels TTB (for bottles and cans): https://www.ttbonline.gov/colasonline/publicSearchColasBasic.do Searching industry-specific websites for beer reviews (may include draft, rare, and retired): Ratebeer: https://www.ratebeer.com/search.php BeerAdvocate: https://www.beeradvocate.com/search/ (can include retired) Untappd: https://untappd.com/search?q=   It makes sense to search all the foregoing before choosing your name to know your risks. It also makes sense to talk to an attorney to evaluate those risks and others you might not foresee. If you need help with your branding or trademark search, or... If you have received a cease and desist letter and don't know how to respond, or... If you want to discuss craft beer and branding... Feel free to contact Mike Kanach at: twitter: @mkanach email: mkanach@gordonrees.com phone: (415)875-3211 snail mail: 275 Battery Street, Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94111

Pressure Sensitive Label Printing Techniques, Ideas, and Tips. Find Scott McKean and Best Label: Website: beerlabelsdoneright.com  // Instagram: @bestlabel_beerlabelsdoneright When it comes to getting your branding and artwork out to the public and on shelves, getting labels printed and applied are one of the exciting parts of the process. Pressure sensitive labels, along with current print technologies, have really opened up new possibilities when it comes labeling. These labels allow breweries to produce shorter runs of labels, which can reduce costs, and allow you to test your labels in the market with less up-front investment. Also, this can allow you to release smaller quantities of certain beers that you may not have considered in the past. These pressure sensitive labels and printing techniques also open the door for numerous unique styles of labels regarding colors and other special printing effects. Anything you can put in your tool belt when it comes to presenting your brand visuals is a big plus and standing out on the shelf is of high importance. On this episode, we are going to explore some great ideas and tips on how you can create unique looking labels. Scott McKean, who works for Best Label, joins us to discuss current trends and ideas for pressure sensitive labels on this episode of Branding Brews.

Nick Yarger, Creative Director, talks with us about an unique artist in residence program. Find Nick Yarger: Website: nickyarger.com  //  Instagram: @tortilla_press_studio In many ways, brewing beer shares many similarities to visual art. It’s a process that takes creative thinking, learned skills, refinement and feedback to create a masterpiece. Artists, designers and illustrators can take the experience of any given beer and create visuals and branding design work that reflects the craft and taste of that beer. For most breweries, getting this kind of creative work done for their branding usually goes in the way of hiring contracted artists. This can have many great benefits, but can also be a challenge. Often times the artist is not local to your brewery, so you have to work with them remotely or out of your physical location. Ninkasi Brewing Company found a great way of integrating artists into their company and in-house design department. They created an artist in residence program that allows for a more intimate and a bit more solidified structure for working with artists. Nick Yarger, the creative director for Ninkasi brewing took some time to talk with me all about the unique aspects and benefits of having an artist in residence program on this episode of branding brews. Show links: Ninkasi Artist in Residence Neal Williams - Illustrator

Designing and Producing Tap Handles with Jeff Schweiger of The Alison Group Find The Alison Group: Web: customtaphandles.net  //  Instagram: @alisongroup One of the ways to market your brand, mostly unique to the beer industry, are through custom tap handles. These are fun items to create and have for your brewery, especially if you are just getting a new brand off the ground. Since these are three dimensional items, custom tap handles can take on many, MANY shapes, sizes, materials, and textures. This also becomes the challenge, where do you start with a new tap handle design? If you already have a robust brand and brand system in place, this process can be a bit easier, but often still has it’s challenges. If you are a bootstrapped and smaller brewery, costs and design factors might also be a concern. Having these unique dimensional tap handles can be a great way to draw attention to your brand and your beers. Tap handle lineups can also be very visually intensive and competitive. The question that then arises during the design process is, how can you design a tap handle that looks good, stands out amongst other taps, AND fits your brand well. The Alison Group is a design and production company that makes tap handles and other products for many breweries all over. Owner, Jeff Schweiger, joins us to discuss tips on creating a successful tap handle and what to expect during this process on this episode of Branding Brews.

Who, when, why, and how should you hire for branding and design help? With Joseph Szala of Vigor Branding Find Vigor Branding : Web: vigorbranding.com  //  Twitter: @vigor  //  Instagram: @vigorbranding  //  Facebook: @vigorbranding There’s no question that today’s beer market is bigger than ever. Not only are there more breweries to compete with, but today’s beer drinkers are also more savvy and complex. It’s important that you can stand out amongst the crowd and that you have a clear and unique brand. In order to accomplish this, you likely need the assistance of a professional branding and design expert. One big question, or possible trouble, is how, where, and when do you hire for this help? There is a lot that goes into finding a valuable partnership when it comes to working with someone on your brand. Having a good partnership can really help your brewery and brand grow in ways you may not have imagined. If your starting a new brewery, at what point in planning do you bring on this branding expert? If you are a brewery already pouring liquid, do you need to take look at how your brand has evolved? Do you possibly need to bring on someone new to assess your brand and help elevate your brewery? There is a lot that goes into hiring a designer or agency to help you out. Many people do not have extensive experience working with a designer. Where do I start looking for this help? What should I have prepared to help get started in this process? What should I expect and look for when hiring? Joseph Szala from Vigor Branding has deep experience when it comes to food and beverage branding. Joseph joins us to help shed some light on finding, hiring, and working with branding experts on this episode of branding brews. Show Links Grits And Grids - Food, Restaurant, and Beverage Branding Blog Grits And Grids - Podcast CODO Craft Beer Branding Guide Simon Sinek - Start With Why startwithwhy.com TED Talk

Getting more into building and working with strong teams Show links: Sharing Docs and Notes: Google Drive and Docs Evernote Project and Team Management Apps: Basecamp Asana Podio Trello Slack Meetings Try to have some sort of agenda ahead of time, this will keep things at least somewhat productive. If you don’t have an agenda or game-plan ahead of time, try to outline with your team when you start a new meeting what you need to discuss. Hopefully that will keep things productive. Take good notes! These will come in handy for the work to follow, or even for the next meeting. Make sure to have a good collaborative way to share and work from these notes. Google Drive or Google Docs or Evernote are great collaborative platforms. Project management apps can be really, really helpful for teams and keeping things organized. Basecamp, Asana, Podio, Trello, Slack.  These can play a few roles for your team. 1, they kind of act like a social media stream for your team to post about projects, questions, etc. 2, they can provide customizable platforms to setup project channels to work from. For example, maybe your marketing team has a channel where they post about projects, maybe there is a channel for your brewing team, etc. 3, they can also be central places to store important files, documents, meeting notes, etc. These management apps can also be great because any employee can access this information at anytime, from anywhere. Many have mobile apps, so they can access all this stuff from their phone or devices. Essentially, having easy, effective and streamlined management of your team will result in everyone being more happy and productive! Nic B mentioned about having a bottle of whiskey on the table. These meetings should also be ways to build stronger teams with deeper connections. You want to be productive, but also don’t want to be too rigid. Maybe you set aside some times during meeting days for some hangout time. When your team has strong connections and each others backs, your brewery and brand will be stronger for it. They picked Friday for their meetings. As they mentioned, at first it might seem to be a bummer and why would people want to meet Friday evening?  Their explanations really proved why this is a  good idea. These Friday meetings ended up becoming fun ways to end their normal weeks (the whiskey probably helps too) It became something to look forward to, a great way to end your week and a good way to start your Friday night and weekend.  I also really liked the idea that this gave all of their team the weekend to ponder what was discussed during the meetings. Often, good creative problem solving can happen on your off-time, so the weekend can be great for that! When Monday roles around and it’s time to get back to the grind, you have a fresh start after the weekend and maybe some new creative ideas as well. This also then gives you the entire week to work out those new ideas and projects before your next Friday meeting. Empowering your employees When hiring, screen for character rather than skill. Obv, don’t hire someone that you think couldn’t perform the needed tasks, but skills can be learned. It’s much harder to cultivate a good attitude and character. The Nicks mentioned having a document that explained the full history and idea behind the 14 Cannon brrewery. I think this is a great alternative to the stuffy, corporate style employee manual that they are trying to avoid. Having something like this can really help new employees understand who your brewery is, it’s history, and maybe even it’s plans for the future. When they get started, they will be able to represent your brand much better and likely will have less questions about things as they get started. * Tip * For new-hires, it can be a really beneficial idea to require each of your current team members to schedule a hangout with the new employee, one-on-one. This can be coffee, beer, or a lunch break.

Building and maintaining a successful team with 14 Cannons. Find 14 Cannons: Website: 14cannons.com  //  Facebook: @14Cannons  //  Twitter: @14Cannons  //  Instagram: @14Cannons Having a strong team will give your brewery and brand a healthy platform to succeed and grow. Nic Bortolin and Nick Longo ( longodesigns.com ) join the show to talk about building their 14 Cannons team in the early days before opening. Before you open your doors is a crucial time to plan out build your strong team so that you can get off to a good start.

A closer look at creating personalized connections Look at what you might be able to utilize or use from resources you already have. Crowlers? You can possibly create a series of unique labels and create special invitations or special labels Tap into your local community, being involved and active with your community is really important for a beer brand. Make sure to stay connected with everyone that has assisted with getting your brewery off the ground. Utilize the connections and friend circles that all of your team members have. Stay connected with your audience on social media, especially ones that engage with you on posts. Create a VIP experience Can possibly look at creating a VIP access or special experience for select guests. Maybe this can be early entry to the party, access to meet the brewer or owners, special brewery tour, access to special select beers. If this is a paid entry for VIP, why not giveaway some of these tickets to engaged community members?  When you can surprise and giveaway free things to your customers or audience, this will make them excited and make them feel more connected with your brand. They would likely be sharing this experience with their friends and will talk about how awesome your brewery is. The idea is that you want to create personal connections and make people feel connected to your brewery. From that point, people will be much more likely to be brand ambassadors for your brewery, and will gladly talk about your brewery in a positive way with their friends and networks. Write hand written notes or thank you notes Live tweeting or live social media engagement. They call it live because you are being attentive and connected on your social channels in real-time. You can search for folks posting about beer or breweries in your local area and then engage with them. If you have a hashtag that might be used, keep monitoring this tag so you can engage with these folks posting about you. Respond and stay connected with your online community! respond to mentions as much as you can. Make your audience know and feel like there is a real person behind your brewery brand’s social accounts. People are often used to not having real engagements with brands online. When they get responses and personalized responses, it really makes them feel connected