In late 2023, the Malibu team reached out to CODO to discuss that package refresh, but a broader scope as well that included a Brand Strategy and Architecture review in a bid to shore up their overall identity ahead of this planned growth. 

Ryan and Jill have been gracious enough to let us give you a full behind the scenes look at this process. We’re going to explore a few big ideas in this case study:

– Malibu’s Brand Strategy and Brand Architecture mapping process. 

– Malibu’s paint points and opportunities.

– The nuts and bolts of their package refresh, including initial sketching, revisions, illustration and retail considerations.

Let’s get into it.

Malibu’s Brand Architecture

Malibu Brewing has a lot of exciting things moving right now. And they wanted to properly organize their Brand Architecture ahead of some of these larger initiatives so they could pre-make some decisions.

A few things they wanted guidance on:

– If we were to acquire another brewery, how could we fold their brand under the Malibu banner? 

– If we were to open another brewery in Malibu, should we call this “Malibu Brewing” as well or develop a more localized, neighborhood name?

– If we were to launch a Hop Water (and other NA products), would this be a Malibu product, or should we create a separate Endorsed, if not entirely standalone lifestyle brand?

– Is Malibu Brewing a Craft Brewery, or a broader hospitality group?

– Does the Malibu name limit where we can take the brand? Does being from Malibu help, hurt or even matter to folks in Rancho Cucamonga (as an example)?

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In working through these questions, we recommended Malibu build a Hybrid Brand Architecture Model with a Branded House foundation. This allows their core portfolio to continue growing and defining the beer scene in Malibu while also allowing their team to explore select products and categories over the coming years (e.g. Hop Water, hybrid beverages, a differentiated hard seltzer)

Here are a handful of other interesting ideas we discussed through their Brand Strategy work:

Working against the craft beer stereotype 

Something we heard over and over in our initial field work was how surprised people were when they first stepped into Malibu’s taproom. 

We mentioned earlier that there’s not really a Craft Beer scene in Malibu. What this means for someone who wants to build a brewery there is that they’re working against an entrenched (and kinda true?) stereotype for what a brewery is — uninspired industrial space, uncomfortable furniture, poorly lit, no food, homogenous crowd, etc.

And if that’s not your vibe, you’ll just skip the entire scene.

Malibu Brewing bucks this stereotype with a gorgeous taproom. Right on the beach, Ryan and Jill have put every bit as much intention into their FF&E as they have their pilsner or hazy recipe. 

I wanted to highlight this idea here because this has been a crucial part of Malibu’s fast growth. And I believe more breweries should reimagine, and invest heavily in their taprooms and overall brand experience, if they want to attract new customers. 

Is Malibu a brewery brand or a broader hospitality group?

I wanted to highlight this idea as well, because we’re seeing breweries across the country struggle with this. 

One question Malibu had going into his process was whether or not it made sense to create a separate hospitality brand ahead of their expansion. 

We’re Malibu Brewing now with one location. What happens when we open our second location in town? Or if we open a new taproom over in Rancho Cucamonga? Or if we open a cocktail bar? 

Our stance is that Malibu Brewing is a Craft Beer brand, albeit one with an outsized hospitality focus. We see a real opportunity to buck the negative craft beer tropes by blowing customers away with an unparalleled experience (everything from decor, to food and branding and package design and staff eduction and customer service).

While the hardcore craft beer fan may not be motivated by this alone, we think local folks who are new to craft (underserved demographics, younger LDA drinkers and even craft’s traditional demo of Millennials and Gen Xers who never caught the craft bug in the first place) will respond inordinately well to this approach. 

This issue — brewery vs. hospitality group — collided directly another important and timely question:

How well does the Malibu name travel?

Does a localized name (e.g. named after a place) limit where the brand can credibly go? 

Does being from Malibu help, hurt or even matter to folks in Rancho Cucamonga? How about further away in Los Angeles?

Directly from our Brand Strategy document here:

We believe the Malibu brand (beautiful beach, scenery and people — an aspirational California getaway) is imminently exportable. 

However, we recommend giving each location its own unique vibe, bespoke to the area. So different interior design features, murals, colors, furniture, fixtures, etc. You could also give them a fun, colloquial nickname (e.g. “Malibu North”). So even though the location flies under the Malibu banner, you won’t be perceived as a chain.

Art Direction & Mood Boarding  

From an art direction standpoint, several big ideas — Brand Essences — emerged from our conversations, stakeholder interviews and fieldwork.

The first, “Vacation in a 6-pack” spoke to Malibu in an expected way. This is as aspirational as it gets. A beautiful day on the beach. Phone turned off. The wind, the sand the sea. This direction sells Malibu as the brand. A nostalgic, sunny beach trip. 

The second and third directions “Craft Beer, Elevated,” and “Down-to-Earth Excellence” each spoke to the idea of quality, through their beer itself, but more importantly at the hospitality level. Malibu has a gorgeous taproom—it’s aesthetic and instagram worthy (without being overbearing). How can we capture this idea and pull it through to inform their packaging and broader marketing? 

How should your taproom inform your brand identity and packaging and vis versa?

After a few lively conversations, their final Brand Essence ended up centering around this idea of Approachable Elegance. 

This positions the Malibu Brewing brand as confident and intentional. Attentive to detail, but still laid back. Elevated, but grounded. Timeless, with just a touch of nostalgia.

With the Brand Strategy (positioning, messaging and Essence) and art direction (mood boards, brand voice and personality) all set, we moved right into the package design process. 

Malibu’s Package Refresh 

Malibu’s package refresh work itself was pretty straight forward (thanks to the Brand Strategy and Architecture work on the front end). 

We explored two different concepts here, that:

– Looked less like seltzer and more like beer (an important project goal).
– Looked premium without being too fussy (an important communication goal).
– Retained the visual equity that was working from their previous packaging (so a clear evolution).

This resulted in two initial directions that each explored a different take on evolving their previous look.

The Malibu team loved (LOVED!) the first direction, so we moved right onto revisions. 

We can fast forward at this point since most of our time in revisions revolved around dialing in illustrations and color ways for each brand, debating which messaging made the most sense to include on their packaging (including differences between the primary and secondary formats) and overseeing the production process to ensure everything prints as we envisioned.

Wrapping up 

This package refresh is rolling out as we speak and I predict (as does the Malibu team) that it’s going to perform really well out in the market. 

But when this happens, we can’t really take credit for their growth.

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It’s easy to find scary stories about the beer industry today. And there’s no need to sugarcoat it — times are tough.

But if you understand your story and what you stand for, if you understand what makes your customers tick, if you make phenomenal beer, if you invest in your critical touch points — your brand identity, packaging, merch and taproom design — you can still thrive.

Malibu Brewing proves this every single day. 

And we’re honored to play a small part in seeing where they go from here.