This is Part Four of a series about the (technically fictional but truly realistic) story of Sarah Thompson and David Miller, co-founders of a craft beer brand and their journey with craft beer brand packaging. (Here’s Part One, Part Two, and Part Three!)
We were inspired to create this series as a way of supporting brand-new craft beer entrepreneurs. It’s a way of sketching out the entire journey of a successful craft beer brand, from the vantage point of packaging. Don’t you find that the best way to learn is by hearing other people’s stories? By reading this series, you’ll get a really clear idea of what packaging elements you need to start dreaming up and thinking through.
Sarah and David are composites of the many, many brewery owners we have worked with over the years. We’ve poured decades of craft beer packaging knowledge into their story. After all, the journey tends to look similar for all successful brands in this space. You create some brilliant recipes, you open a brewery, you expand into retail, and you keep the good momentum going. As far as packaging goes, there are distinct solutions that go along with every stage.
We work with a lot of new craft beer brands, partly because we love entrepreneurship. It’s such a passionate, creative space to work in. If you feel drawn to it, good for you! We hope that we can encourage you to take the plunge, even in our small way.
Let’s pick back up with Sarah and David!
POP Case Stacker & Floor Display with Dump Bin
It’s fair to say that Sarah and David’s craft beer brand is already successful at this point in the story. These long-time acquaintances became partners when they landed on a unique concept of a line of beers based on food pairing recommendations. Between Sarah’s background as a chef and David’s as a marketer in the beverages industry, they had everything they needed to get started. Before long, their brewery was selling plenty of beer out of kegs. The partners moved into retail, complete with a line of beautifully branded labelled cans, folding carton six pack boxes, and corrugated beer trays.
So, once a craft beer brand has an established retail presence, what’s next? Simple: grow that presence as much as possible. This is where Point of Purchase (POP) displays come into play.
David and Sarah want displays that will help their products stand out in a big way. It’s great to be in a liquor store, but having a few cans tucked away into a craft beer fridge only gets you so far. Ideally, the partners want a display that incorporates the packaging they’ve already created. After all, they might be growing, but they’re still a smaller business in the competitive world of craft beer.
GLBC and the partners design two different styles of digitally printed POP floor displays: a case stacker and a floor display with dump bin. The case stacker is customized to hold nine of the corrugated trays they’ve already created. It’s also digitally printed on all sides with their branding, creating an incredibly eye-catching piece of marketing collateral. The dump bin is another big fully printed display that holds folding carton boxes and on top products that don’t stack—promotional items, like beer cozies or t-shirts, that just promote the brand in general.
Retail sales get a big bump, and they also notice more traffic on their website and social media. Customers see the POP and check out their brand online.
So, David and Sarah have successfully launched a brewery and a retail line. What’s next? Well…rest assured that in the dynamic world of craft beer, there are always new goals to meet.
Feeling inspired by craft beer? If that tickle of entrepreneurship is getting stronger and you’d like to talk to a packaging expert about what you might want to start planning, please reach out! We love this industry and the people who make it the thrilling space that it is.
Links to the Entire Blog Series
From Homebrews to Homeruns: A Craft Beer Packaging Journey, Part One
From Homebrews to Homeruns: A Craft Beer Packaging Journey, Part Two
From Homebrews to Homeruns: A Craft Beer Packaging Journey, Part Three