Good–even great–products will only get you so far, especially in the craft beer world. According to Nielsen,  “younger, frequent craft beer drinkers are even more brand “promiscuous,” as 37% have purchased seven or more beer brands in the past year.” The fierce brand loyalty that defined macro-brews in the past doesn’t extend to craft brews. Living in an area with such a high concentration of delicious and innovative breweries like San Diego only makes brand loyalty more difficult to achieve.

One of the best ways to stay relevant to craft beer drinkers is through the use of merchandise and apparel are just the tip of the merch iceberg. Research shows that merchandise can play a big role in advocate marketing. According to Brandwatch, “the ROI on promotional products delivered a better return on investment than radio and outdoor advertising, and is equal to TV and print.”

Memorable merch will help expand your brand for less than traditional marketing techniques. Here are some of the top tips we give to our clients looking to grow their brand’s reach:

• Highlight Merch with a Dedicated Section
  Merchandise will always take a backseat to the beer, but that doesn’t mean it should be shoved into a dark corner. You want your customers to buy merch. That way, they’re representing your brewery every time they wear the shirt or hat you sell them. They will help you reach new potential customers. A dedicated merch section will vary based on the amount of space available, but a few general rules will always hold true:
  • Make it visible. People won’t buy what they can’t see.
  • Make it accessible. People like to hold, touch, and try on what they’re going to buy, especially if it is apparel.
  • Keep smaller merch items (stickers, bottle openers, etc.) near the Point-of-Sale system to encourage impulse buys.
  • Encourage people to buy more than one thing when they come to your storefront. For example, give a 25% discount on sweaters with the purchase of a growler.

• A Merch Line-up that Compliments your Brand
  Branding is critical to the success of the any craft brewery. (This blog post from Codo is a great analysis of the trends in 2017 beer can/bottle designs.) While brands put a ton of energy into their cans and bottles, merch can fall by the design-wayside.
  
  Just like tap-handles, merch is a critical piece of advertising. It needs to compliment the bottle and can branding. Find what makes your brand unique and channel that into the merchandise you sell.Take, for example, Amplified Ale Works, which translates their rock-and-roll theme into their merch by featuring slickly branded flannel button-downs in their tasting rooms. That way, customers rock the Amplified Ale Works aesthetic everywhere they go.

• Low-Cost Promotional Giveaways
  Merch that raises brand awareness doesn’t have to be expensive. Well-designed, low-cost promotional giveaways can be great ways to reach out to potential customers. Tattoos, stickers, or keychains are low cost in bulk and are easy to pass out. Consider using them at craft brew festivals where there is heavy foot traffic and you may not get to personally interact with customers for a long time.Another great use of low cost merch is to encourage social media check-ins. People love free stuff, and a check-in on Facebook or Yelp will help get your brand out there for a tiny investment on your part.

• Give Your Employees Merch
  Your employees are your biggest advocates. They are invested in seeing the brand succeed. Give them merch (beyond the shirts you give them for working in) so they can represent the brand on the weekends when they’re out and about.Give them a cache of low-cost promotional items like stickers or tattoos. That way, they can surprise fans of the brand with something, and it can function as a business card of sorts for people who haven’t heard of the brand.

These are just some of the ways to use merch to improve brand awareness. If you’re looking for more advice or want to discover unique merch for your brand, shoot us a message today!

The post Increasing Brand Awareness through Merch appeared first on College Promo Gear.

The challenge for craft breweries is gaining the attention and loyalty of new customers. One of the main places for consumers to discover new beers is from the tap handles at the local bar or pub.

According to research from Anglia Ruskin University, beer tap handles which receive the most visual attention from consumers were chosen more often than their less-conspicuous competitors. Using eye-tracking technology, researchers discovered a truth we all know: tap handles that are eye-catching or emotionally appealing to us make us want to know more about the beer itself. And this process occurs in split-second judgments.

Beer tap handles are, thus, one of the most important marketing pieces when it comes to attracting new customers. They have a lot of work to do in very little time and space. Whereas a beer bottle or case can carry much more visual and written information, tap handles have to convey the brand name, beer name, and brew style at a minimum. Other details like flavor notes and ABV can also be conveyed.

So how do you stand out from the pack? We’ve got some thoughts on what makes a good tap handle.

• Craft Beers Deserve Craft Tap Handles
  Craft beers are made with an artist’s touch, and tap handles should reflect that. Invest in high quality materials and a strong graphic designer to develop the design of your tap handle. It may be more expensive, but tap handles built to last and stand out will pay dividends in the long run.

• Visually Represent the Character of the Beer
  A color, an image, or a motif can go a long way to attracting a consumer’s attention. There are many different ways to stand out. Bright, citrusy beers warrant bright colors. Unique fruity notes in your IPA can be represented visually with images of those fruit on your tap handle. Or, if you’re Brewery Ommegang, you can use a popular show like Game of Thrones to convey the dark complexity of your ales.However you choose to represent your craft beer, the important part is that it grabs the attention of consumers. This can lead to some crazy designs…but before delving to deep down the design rabbit hole, consider the last two following elements.

• Legible from a Distance and in Bad Lighting
  Bars are great places to drink and socialize, but often terrible places for merchandising and marketing because they’re crowded and have poor lighting. Beer tap handles are just as susceptible to these conditions. Techniques like laser-etching can help you create highly legible designs that everyone will be able to appreciate.

• Function Before Form
  Sometimes the best laid tap handle plans can be undone by the reality of the bar that it lives in. Bars often have limited space for the taps. Thus, wider handles can sometimes fall victim to this lack of space and get turned sideways. This, of course, makes all of the hard work that went into the design a moot point. Don’t let your design get away from you–keep the overall footprint tall and skinny to ensure your brand is putting its best face forward.

According to an article from Paste Magazine, tap handles should “stay under one pound or it will pull a tap line open on its own

The post Tips for Taps: Designing Stand Out Beer Tap Handles appeared first on College Promo Gear.