“I really loved what doing with modern looks, keeping things sleek and so simple,” says Matt McComish, a supply chain director with Highland. It was serendipitous for Ashburn to find a partner who was familiar with Asheville and her brewery, and who had previously done branding work for breweries like Spencer Brewery in Spencer, Massachusetts, Modern Times Beer in San Diego, and Boulevard Brewing Co. She had a second follow-up conversation with three of those vendors, and estimates that altogether she spent about 20 hours doing research and talking directly with potential partners to find the right fit.Īshburn decided on Helms Workshop, a brand design studio based in Austin, Texas, whose founder, Christian Helms, had taken family trips to Western North Carolina every summer while he was growing up. Lastly, nearly 100 full- and part-time employees who work for the brewery also contributed their views.Īfter collecting the responses to the surveys, Ashburn created a list of 15 design firms and made use of time at the annual Craft Brewers Conference to talk directly with representative of half of them. Nearly 75 percent of 500 social media responses said the brewery needed to change some aspect of its branding. Highland also set up an informal poll through its social media platforms, including Facebook, where the brewery has nearly 44,000 followers, 55 percent of whom are male, and 45 percent female. residents 21 and over who self-identified as their household’s primary alcoholic beverage decision maker and who had made a craft beer purchase within the previous three months. To decide on the direction for the rebranding, Highland went through several steps, first making use of a Nielsen survey to test 400 U.S. “This is going to get people to take a second look at our beer, because we’ve been surprising people with what we’ve been creating the last few years-and this will surprise them more.” Positioning the Building Blocks “I think we’ve been automatically deselected by certain consumers because they think they already know our beer and what’s inside,” says Molly McQuillan, Highland’s marketing coordinator. In all, the cost of the transformation of the brewery’s identity landed somewhere in the six figures. The new packaging features the colorful, rolling hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains on bottles and cans, with the visual centerpiece of a pioneer’s compass-a nod toward the brewery’s connection to Asheville and its history as the city’s first brewery after 1933. A logo that once required up to 11 colors now has a maximum of four. Throughout the process, Ashburn and her team relied on employee and customer feedback to guide choices that mark a stark departure from the brewery’s 1990s look, which relied heavily on “Scotty,” a Scottish character who adorned packaging, tap handles, and promotional materials. When Highland’s new look is unveiled this week, it will have been just over a year since the idea for a redesign was first broached. What came of those initial discussions led to six months of research and development, including the distribution and analysis of a collection of surveys, a search for a design company to lead the project, and intricate planning for rolling out new looks and branding. Ashburn points out: “Our brand and beer were saying two different things.” In April, the project moved forward. What didn’t come up one time was ‘Scottish.’”Īfter more than two decades, it was decided in January 2017 that to better showcase how Highland had evolved, a new look and feel would be necessary, as would a full refreshing of the brewery and its marketing strategy. “When I asked for words that described us, there was a pattern of ‘pioneering’ and ‘super consistent,’ and areas of authenticity, leadership, sustainability, and community. “We were getting input from the people that know and love us the most that was very revealing,” says Leah Wong Ashburn, the family owner and president of Highland.
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