Craft beer marketers are selling you an aesthetic. Is it authentic?
The beer shelves are rife with outdoor-related imagery. Is this authentic, or is it a marketing ploy?
Can I offer you a Hazy Trail juicy India pale ale? What about a Nature Calls mountain IPA? If you’re in Oregon, you might find yourself ordering a Chainbreaker White IPA, or if you’re in Colorado, a Ski-In Ski-Stout.
I’ve always been fascinated with craft beer branding. Colorful cans line the shelves at supermarkets and liquor stores. The beers have clever names, and lots of them have neat artwork too.
What’s more, is that craft beer branding is completely different from wine branding. Whereas wine labels are often white, with classy typography, beer cans feature skeletons and mountains and surfboards.
All of the beers in the introductory paragraph are real beers, maybe you’ve even drunk one before. I’m sure you can catch on to why I’ve picked these examples. They all have something to do with the outdoors, whether it’s skiing, biking, or vague references to nature or the mountains. As somebody who participates in, and writes about, the outdoors, I appreciate this branding trend. However, are these appeals to the “outdoorsy” aesthetic authentic?
Beginnings of craft beer branding
In the early days of the craft beer industry, professional branding was looked down upon. As CODO Design pointed out in its 2020 Beer Branding Trends report, a professional branding strategy was seen as too “corporate,” and it was thought that it would alienate the base of craft beer consumers.
Perhaps a central figure in beer branding who contributed to a “corporate” branding campaign was Milton Glaser, the designer who created the iconic Brooklyn Brewery logo. Glaser took inspiration from the Brooklyn Dodgers logo as well as classic German beer labels, and the branding launched the brewery to international success. Today, Glaser is known as one of the greats of beer branding, in addition to many other iconic design projects.
If early craft brewers were bitter about the Glasers and Brooklyn Brewerys of the world, it wouldn’t last. Today, according to the CODO report, even the smallest upstart breweries are in search of a cohesive branding strategy so they can compete on the shelf with giants like New Belgium and Sierra Nevada.
Crowded shelves
The beer aisle is getting more and more competitive, seemingly by the month. In 2019, $29.3 billion worth of craft beer was sold, a six percent increase, even as the beer industry as a whole was on the decline. In early 2020, drinkers turned toward buying beer in bulk, which meant purchasing flagship beers from big brands instead of obscure four-packs of triple IPA or pastry stout. All of this adds up to the fact that craft brewers need to market themselves well if they want to survive. And if they want to survive, they need to stand out on the shelf.
When you are staring at six-packs upon six-packs in the beer aisle, what goes through your mind when you are picking out a beer to bring home? I usually have a brand or style in mind, or if I don't, there’s a number of subconscious factors that crescendo into me reaching into the fridge and making a purchase.
Any one thing could be the deciding factor, including the color of the can, the design, or the typography. It could also be aesthetic, like a picture of a bike or something “outdoorsy.”
That’s consumerism, baby
Of course, beer isn’t the only industry to tap into this aesthetic. The outdoor industry has been doing this successfully for decades, albeit in a slightly different way. Buy these skis, and you’ll be getting face shots like our pro athlete in the shop window. Buy this bike, and you’ll be faster than all your riding buddies.
I actually don’t mind breweries going after a specific aesthetic, but some seem to be too on the nose for me. Athletic Brewing is a non-alcoholic brewery that just landed a stable of celebrity investors, including the disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, interestingly enough. The brand sells non-alcoholic beers with names like Run Wild IPA and Stump Jump Autumn brown. A similar non-alcoholic brewery tapping into the sporty aesthetic is Sufferfest, though the brand was recently put on hiatus by parent company Sierra Nevada. There’s nothing wrong with this branding, or the people who drink it, but it reminds me too much of flowery-positivity and health fads—it feels inauthentic.
Whether your favorite brewery is authentic in its branding is a crapshoot. But I’m inclined to believe that most brewery’s branding is reflective of who they actually are as brewers and salespeople and marketers. Or at least I hope so. This video has some great tips for ethical beer buying if that’s your thing.
Every time you buy a product, the marketing team behind that product is trying to sell you a story. It’s your own call if you choose to buy into that story and drink the kool-aid...er, beer.