From The Great British Bake Off to Brooklyn Brewery, craft doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. Its appeal that it taps into consumers’ desire for individuality, authenticity, attention to detail and tangibility.
Craft’s popularity presents a potentially strong commercial opportunity, but brands must tread carefully. Consumers can spot the “Emperor’s new clothes” from a mile away (if they’re not really hand-stitched by a true artisan). Even where craft claims are credible, does its omnipresence reduce its potency for brands?
The current momentum of craft suggests there is plenty of mileage left, as long as over-use doesn’t reduce credibility and creative execution is kept fresh.
The drinks industry is clearly a frontrunner in harnessing the power of craft, successfully using its values for both product development and brand positioning. Flavour is often the primary common denominator in the craft drinks industry, as seen in both a pint of Camden Pale Ale and the “Find Flavour” advertising for Fullers Frontier.
But this is not the end of the story; there are a number of established craft codes (themes and values) operating in a cultural context, which have been used successfully by brands over the years. We at Cubo recently commissioned a semiotics study that identified a range of existing dominant codes. These included localism, passion and obsession, rebels, English eccentrics and magic and fairytale.
They’re all very familiar when you start to think about it.
Too familiar, you might say. When you look more closely at “mainstream” beers such as Foster’s and Beck’s, you can see both incorporate a number of the dominant craft codes. With its humorous Australian advertising campaign, Foster’s featured clear links to heritage and localism, while Beck’s branding featured limited edition artwork labels.
However, many other big beer and cider brands are failing to connect with this cultural phenomenon, missing out on both this rich set of cultural values and commercial potential. Naturally, independent breweries such as BrewDog draw heavily on these craft codes, but as they get saturated into the mainstream, there’s a danger that they start to feel clichéd.
Of greater interest to both our clients and us are the emerging codes we identified, as these have the potential to weave craft into branding in a relevant and fresh way.
These codes are important to the mainstream breweries – who can’t claim to be tiny back-room artisans, but may want to “walk the walk” of craft –
and smaller craft breweries that are either looking to build their brand or refresh existing brand values, while not losing their craft heritage.
The broad range of emerging codes, from experimentation and techno-artisan to art and industrial scale, provide fantastic potential for drinks brands. As further codes emerge and the idea of craft changes shape, brands must be at the forefront of what this truly means and make sure their identities never become worn and tired.
Chris Walmsley is co-founder and head of planning at Cubo
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