Brand Equity vs. visual equity 

One of the first things CODO does when rebranding a brewery (Legacy, or otherwise), is review all of their historic packaging. We do this to get a sense of how the brand has evolved over the years so we can 1) logically evolve the identity if that makes sense, and 2) see if there’s anything magic hiding in the archives. 

In reviewing Wachusett’s original brand identity and packaging, we found that everything was pretty much par for a brewery that came to market in the 90s. Homespun labels consisting of inelegant images and clunky typography abound. This was so long ago that it doesn’t warrant critique. (And besides, there’s a certain charm that usually comes with beer branding from this era.)

But while there was a certain charm here, interestingly — quizzically? — we found that there weren’t actually any strong visual elements that defined the brand. It was all bland enough that nothing stuck out. (The fact that they grew as big as they did at their peak is a testament to their beer itself and how the brewery enmeshed itself throughout New England.)

Art Directing Wachusett’s rebrand 

At this point, we shift gears and start to explore how all of these ideas can come to life visually. Through this, we explored three big ideas that came from our conversations with Wachusett’s distributors, retailers and the Finestkind team. 

– Red Barn Romanticism: Centers around the rustic, pastoral central Massachusetts countryside. This would feature faded colors, worn textures and nostalgic farmers market iconography.

– Boot Stompin’ Good Time: Celebrates the idea of enjoying live music and drinking beer with the sun in your face. This would feature expressive, fun typography and illustrations you might find on screen printed concert gig posters. 

– Outdoors Escape: Positions Wachusett as a companion for all of your central Mass outdoors adventures. Fill your cooler with Blueberry Ale and spend the day kayaking, catching bass and hiking beautiful old growth forests.

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While all of these ideas were true, and appropriate for Wachusett, the second direction was the most fitting. The first concept left out the important idea of outdoors music and fun, while the third direction pushed into the overly-trod outdoors trope you find throughout craft beer. (How many outdoorsy beer brands can you think of in your market?)

“Boot Stomping’ Good Time” meshed well with Wachusett’s existing “Commonwealth Country” Essence. This allowed for a blending of the first and second mood boards into a nice mash up that felt authentic and defensible from a positioning standpoint. 

From here, we begin sketching.

Initial sketching 

We explored two fully-developed directions consisting of a Modular Brand Identity system and packaging concepts for Wachusett’s #1 and #2 brands, Blueberry and Wally. 

The identity options each explored the arched typography in their own way, and the supporting iconography fleshed out a handful of other compelling claims we framed during our up front conversations, things like:

– “Catch a good time” (tagline)

– Bringing the barn back (in some form)

– “Every season is blueberry season” (vs. “It’s always blueberry season”)

– “Around here since 1994” (one of my favorite lines we’ve ever developed)

Direction 1 leaned more into the rustic, textured farmers market aesthetic you’ll find throughout Central Mass, while the second direction leaned into the warm, expressive typography you find on screen printed gig posters.

All of this work was well received, but the real star of the show — the reason we’re all working on this — was the packaging revamp itself. So let’s discuss that now.

Blueberry 

Each packaging direction followed its respective brand identity’s look and feel. The first direction looked like something hand painted on a country-side U-Pick operation. 

The second direction presented a much bigger leap from where Blueberry has historically been. Here, we’re intentionally positioning the brand to look less like a beer and more like a more mainstream CPG beverage. 

This was by design. 

This brand has an opportunity to continue speaking to Wachusett loyalists, while reaching beyond the beer aisle and grabbing people who are interested in familiar flavors and experiences, but may not otherwise know, or care, that much about Craft Beer. 

> We discussed this tension, and the resulting conversation the Finestkind team had in our podcast with Rob. This segment starts around the 28 minute mark. Listen to that here.

This can easily spin into a deeper conversation about where the beer and Bev Alc industry is headed right now, so I’ll cut it short and offer that this direction is a move meant to meet a potential customer right where they are. Be that at a grocery store, a liquor store, a C-store or digging around in a battered old cooler tucked up in the shade on a sand bar on a river day). 

This is a blueberry beer. Period. 

We don’t need to worry about style names and IBUs and SRM and all that traditional Craft Beer baggage. If you like Blueberries, then give this a shot.

Revisions

I’ll skip right to the point here. The Finestkind team fell in love with the second direction, almost lock, stock and barrel. 

There were a few items from the first direction they wanted to see incorporated into the final identity, so our revisions mostly centered around getting all of those assets brought in line with the second direction and squared away for production.

We made our requisite million changes that no one will ever notice (kerning, subtly shifting the color palette, adjusting grit levels, etc.). And we focused on developing a few other supporting icons that highlight Wachusett’s history. 

(Again, this line, “Around here since 1994” is one of my favorite things to come out of this process.

Wrapping up

At this point in the process, we wrapped up Wachusett’s brand identity and style guide while their in-house team took our packaging concepts and continued revising internally. All of this work was completed on a super tight timeline in order to reintroduce the Wachusett brand to their distributors during ABP season. 

I’m happy to report that this new direction was resoundingly well-received internally, including amongst Wachusett old timers and during a handful of critical ABP presentations. 

That means this new look is rolling out as we speak in Massachusetts and across all of New England, and should be fully out in the market by Spring 2025. 

Here are a few snapshots of major placements that are happening behind the scenes. (It’s always fun seeing these roll in.)

Shoutout to the Barrel One sales team for grinding it out and earning tons of important new PODs during the launch period.

A few big takeaways (because this case study isn’t already long enough…) 

1. Your visual and Brand Equity are important elements of your rebrand. If you’re thinking about revamping your brewery’s identity, you need to honor where your brand has been, but only if this helps you steer the business where you want to take it. 

2. There will be a lot of Legacy beer brands on the market in the coming years. If your team is built for it, there will be some fun opportunities to build a larger portfolio with this IP. Stay tuned for a larger series exploring this idea this summer. 

3. And finally, the beer industry is facing a rapidly changing market. And we all need to work hard to ensure that we’re actively speaking to new drinkers, whether that’s lapsed fans or a newly LDA twenty-something. In either case, style names, highlighting a beer’s flavor and familiarity itself are all compelling levers you can tinker with to reach out to new folks, bring them into the fold and sell more beer.