The brief

To revitalise HonestBrew’s brand, design, and tone of voice so as to boost sales among the casual craft ale-drinker market.

The challenge

The HB brand had to appeal more to the mass market without marginalising their existing aficionado customer base.

We summed it up as: ‘Make them less like Amazon and more like your favourite bottle shop.’

Starting at the top

We hosted a number of interviews and workshops with HonestBrew’s senior team to understand their current business, their future aims, and the challenges we’d help them overcome in getting there. 

We worked out that to grow market share, we’d have to broaden HB’s proposition from functional ecommerce to joyful mass-market brand experiences across every touchpoint.

Brand audit

We audited the HB brand against three key parameters: the competition, the audience, and the HB colleagues.

HB weren’t doing anything worse than the competition - but they weren’t doing anything better, either. 

While their key audience are connoisseurs, the growth in craft ale popularity meant HB had a broader market they couldn’t ignore. 

The brand wasn’t reflecting the personality of their welcoming, passionate and knowledgeable colleagues

So we needed to bring their DNA into the brand.

Distinctiveness over differentiation

HonestBrew aren’t unique. There are other brands that deliver craft ale from across the world to people’s door. 

But they’re not very exciting.

So instead of focusing on trying to make HB unique through their proposition, we made them unique through their creative. 

Playing the Jester

Discovering what creative route to take was made easy by applying a brand archetype - just as we did with Guild Living.

We made HonestBrew a Jester. Playful, amusing and unpretentious, the Jester is a laugh to be around - but they’re smart rather than silly. They can push boundaries, press buttons, and say what other brands can’t - a great way to stand out from the crowd. 

Added to this, we crafted a brand essence, mission, vision and value proposition, giving the brand a rock-solid identity and a clear creative direction for us to go down.

Transformed from head to toe

Our creative execution has brought our strategic thinking to life 
and totally transformed both the brand and the market.

• A vibrant colour palette, fresh photography, and bold, oversized typography to guarantee cut-through. 
• A tone of voice to bring the spirit of the HB team to the 
  fore - chatty, irreverent, honest and educational.
• Playful illustrations (brewdles) that immediately make 
  you think of HonestBrew.

The client loved it, and it’ll soon be rolled out across social, the website, email and packaging.

The result

We’ve crafted a brand that scores big against our three initial parameters: 

1. It appeals to a broader, younger and more inclusive market.
2. It stands HB out from - and head and shoulders above - the competition. HB is the only craft ale delivery service that looks, feels and sounds as joyful as the product they sell.
3. It brings the personality of the people behind the brand shining through. Which we think is kind of the whole point.