An important part of a brewery’s brand is their beer label design. The beer label is the face of their company when customers are drinking their beer outside the taproom. It causes someone to notice their beer at retail stores. It compels many to ask the classic question, “what are you drinking” at social events.
From font to logo to imagery, there are so many different strategies to consider for a beer label design. The end goal is to attract consumers to buy the beer while representing the brewery’s brand. This is a tricky balance since there isn’t much space on a beer bottle or can.
And as time goes by, most breweries enjoy the opportunity to evolve their brand and alter their beer label design. This is their chance to become more engaging and help their customers better understand their beer and brewery.
Since the boom in new craft breweries, many are feeling the pressure of added competition and have revised and updated their beer label design as a means to boosting retail sales. To achieve these goals, there are a few aspects that I believe a brewery should focus on when creating a new label design.
Fresh look
After years of the same design, a brand refresh should make the beer look more appealing. An old look makes the beer look old. The beer label design changes can be part of a total brewery re-branding or simply a fresh look for just their packaging.
Brand Continuity
Shelf presence is really important as a brewery grows and focuses more and more on the visual impact their beer makes on the retail store shelf. When different beers from the same brewery sit next to each other on a shelf, it should be evident they are from the same brewery. A new design should present a more unified image.
New Target Audience
Your past customers aren’t always your current or future customers. For that reason, it is important to evolve a brand so it continues to catch the attention of your potential customers. For many young breweries, they may not always know who their customers will be when they open. Years later, it is wise to update branding to appeal to the bulk of their customers.
Packaging Changes
The last reason I’ve noticed for beer label design changes is a shift in the type of packaging they use. This has happened a lot over the past few years as breweries shifted from bottles to cans. The designs that looked nice on bottles doesn’t always translate well to cans so a shift in label design is necessary.
See Which West Side Beer Made My Best Craft Beer Of 2019 List
West Side Brewing Beer Label Design Update
One of my local breweries just made updates to their beer label design and are a great example of when, why, and how it should be done.
West Side Brewing opened in 2017, quickly their brand and presence became a major force in the Cincinnati craft beer market. Even with a great taproom and consistent canned beer in retails stores, there’s always room to improve and evolve.
This brewery wasn’t shy about getting their beer into packaging. They’ve grown the brand by having consistent marketing in the taproom, online, and in retail stores. As a continual evolution of their brand, their beer label design just went through an update.
Many of the elements have remained the same or gone through slight changes. This helps consumers to continue to recognize their beer as the changes were not drastic. The logo, beer name, and stats are still easily found on the front of the can while the back includes more details to help the customer understand the beer and the brewery.
West Side Brewing has made these changes to their beer label design because they shifted away from shrink wrapped cans to labeling blank cans. When using shrink wrapped cans, the minimums can orders are quite high for small breweries. This limited their flexibility and was more expensive. Labeled cans means they can be more nimble with which beers made it into packaging.
The result is a great beer label design that continues to represent who the brewery. And gives them more control over the beer they provide to retail stores. This is a win for both West Side Brewing and their customers.
And one of my favorite parts is the labels can be removed. If you ever collected bottle caps, then I encourage you to start collecting beer labels as well. And a label that easily pulls off makes the process really easy.
Kudos to Brick Solid Brands for all of the great design work to give West Side Brewing a great beer label design.
Check Out More About West Side Brewing
Final Thoughts
Marketing is just as important to the beer world as the actual beer. And while that is hard to believe sometimes, it is evident when walking down the beer aisle. Beer label design is how breweries talk to consumers.
As more breweries package their beer, the importance of great branding will only increase. Grocery stores have more options on their shelves than ever before so every brewery has to ask themselves, how will our beer stand out?
Having a strong retail shelf presence is key to capturing the attention of shoppers. It is really intriguing to watch brands shift and update their labels to keep their beer looking attractive and also communicating their brand.
Which brewery do you think has the best label design?
