The drinks world has seen unprecedented change in the past few years, with the number of gin distilleries soaring, craft breweries beating the beer titans, and rum in higher spirits than ever before. Even blended scotch, which has been struggling to attract the all-important millennial and female fan base, is starting to engineer a turnaround.

But all of this heat and excitement means that brands are having to stand-out on a shelf like never before and work harder to engage target consumers. 

To build that connection, brand managers need to look beyond their products’ face value and drill down to how people feel about them and the role they play in their lives. We are talking here of a brand’s inherent worth, its ‘reason for being’.

Whether you’re a start-up microbrewery or Brewdog, the aim for brands must always be to deliver what people want. And that process begins with developing an acute sense of your brand’s meaning, which in turn will help you understand how consumers evaluate and value it. 

It’s all about tapping into the consumer mind-set. Get it wrong and, at best, your marketing communications will fail to resonate with consumers. At worst, you’ll alienate them. Get it right and you’ll have your hands on a distinctive, meaningful and ultimately valuable brand.

So how do certain brands stay more relevant than others? Why did Sipsmith wake up bright and perky while Qream suffered the worst possible hangover?    

Challenge assumptions and unleash your reason for being

If you are to connect with your target consumer and understand what they’re looking for, you have to be willing to ask the difficult questions and challenge commonly held assumptions – look at every aspect of your business and take nothing for granted. 

In the premium spirits market, the two founders of Warner Edwards Gin were understandably proud of the fact that they had started out by distilling on their beautiful farm in Northamptonshire. They were influenced by the phenomenal success of accessible and down-to-earth foodie personalities like Jimmy Doherty and Jamie Oliver. They’d been capitalising on their ‘farmer founder’ story at trade fairs and had gone all in with this messaging in their branding and marketing.

When we started working with them, however, we quickly realised that the assumption that this back story would appeal to a premium gin market needed to be challenged. A deeper analysis of the sector, consumer and brand revealed that Warner Edwards had a more engaging story to tell that could connect with a wider audience. Premium gin is about experience. Craft, skill and provenance play a part, but farmers in muddy fields do little to support the affordable luxury message, especially in the all-important overseas market.

Biles Hendry created a packaging design that used the founders’ story to underpin the bigger engagement opportunity of artisanal luxury. In the year following our work, the brand achieved 230% growth in off-trade sales, with on-trade achieving a massive 390% increase.

Consumer profiles are changing and so must you 

The role that your brand played in the lives of consumers in the past may be very different from the role it plays today, or that it will play in the future. Consumer needs change, and the perceptions of how brands fit into their lives also shift. Brands need to keep up.

Target demographics are experiencing a seismic shift, too, as the world’s biggest and most powerful consumer group – millennials – moves into its prime spending years. Brand managers need to ask themselves how they’ll remain relevant. We’re constantly being told that this group craves individuality, that they’re looking for something that meets their specific needs. Look at how millennials have embraced the gin boom, for example, along with its customising culture and the sense of individuality that inspires. 

In an effort to ditch whisky’s fusty image and ride the zeitgeist, Haig Club Whisky dropped founder stories, heritage dates, gold foiling and old-fashion typefaces in favour of a square, blue bottle, a no-rules ad campaign, David Beckham and a more balanced gender profile. 

Find your compelling truth 

Brands may have many important truths, however, every brand has only one unique reason for being, and if you can’t see it yet, you haven’t looked in the right place or distilled the thinking down far enough. Understanding the real reason a brand exists, and has a right to exist, is the key to unlocking its potential.

With Warner Edwards, that reason for being was ‘united in spirit’; a gin brand that marries traditional values with a modern tone of voice that engages ‘in the know’ discerning customers all over the world.

Data vs intuition

Research is important, but a slavish reliance on consumer findings rarely produces remarkable results. By looking beyond the output from traditional consumer panels and by asking progressive questions driven by informed intuition, you’ll be able to get to the heart of the marketing challenge.

All too often, data becomes a good way to argue against genuine understanding. Some of the world’s most successful brands – think Coca-Cola, Innocent, Apple – were created without a reliance on research. When I created the Amazon logo in 2000, there were no research groups, just a big idea and a brave client in Jeff Bezos, who just knew it was the right solution. It’s still being used, unchanged, 18 years later.  

It’s essential to have a clear understanding of your brand, and bear in mind that truths are so much more powerful than marketing spin. But be sure to unearth the right truth, the one that will engage and motivate your target consumers, and the one that is truer of your brand than anyone else’s.

Take a step back, be prepared to challenge existing assumptions about your brand, and remember that consumers, the market and the competition don’t sit still, they change.