We were recently asked to submit an article for the marketing focus in the SIBA journal, Harknott had just won some awards for their beer in Ireland so we decided that it was a great time to let everyone know a bit more about the work we’ve been doing for them.
Hardknott Brand Evolution
Following Hardknott’s recent expansion they asked LemonTop to help them with a rebrand. It was important to keep some of the aspects of their existing brand so as to benefit from the momentum already gained. They wanted a fresh and distinctive look and wanted to avoid the overused imagery of The Lake District, but still maintain a nod to the great outdoors.
Firstly, Hardknott wanted a new stand alone icon incorporating some of the elements associated with the brewery. We created a rock icon to symbolise the brewery’s tie with Cumbria and set the elements inside it. The same rock concept was then used to shape both the bottle labels and pump clips which when combined with the bright colours and unusual textures provides a portfolio that stands out on both bar and shelf.
The rebrand has received some glowing comments and extremely positive feedback and since then, Hardknott has appeared in FHM magazine and is now on the shelves of both Sainsbury and Booths Supermarkets. They have also gone on to win two bronze awards at the Dublin Craft Beer Cup.
Dave Bailey, owner of Hardknott Brewery was delighted with the final outcome. “As a growing company, in a competitive market, we know how important brand image is. It is important to get the look across the range of products uniform, engaging and distinctive. When we decided to invest in new brewery equipment we knew we had to back this up with the very best of brand design.
We needed a brand image that would flow through the range of packaging that we intended to produce. Be it on the pump clip, keg badge or bottle label it had to look good and provide easy, cohesive brand recognition with individual product identification at a glance. When we were considering how to tackle this important part of our growth strategy we thought very carefully how we should do this.
After considering various options, with a number of very good creative companies having been approached, we chose Lemon Top Creative as we believed they understood the microbrewing industry needs very well indeed. LemonTop Creative took our needs, our existing brewery brand image, listened to where we thought we needed to go and produced a portfolio of fantastic conceptual ideas which included a few wildcard brainstorms to add to the overall finished designs.
The original pool of ideas, through useful and interactive discussion, has created a rebrand that we truly delighted with.”
Dave Bailey, Hardknott Brewery
