Do you own or work for a brewery? If so, you’re in good company! The Guardian reports that the number of breweries last year exceeded 2,000 for the first time since the 1930s. These breweries are finding clever new ways to reach their customers, including with tap rooms. More than a third of small breweries have opened tap rooms to provide a fun and friendly space for people to sample their brews. The right merchandise or souvenirs can enhance the tap room experience. They can also be used to promote your brewery in general, whether online or at beer festivals and other events. This could be gifting small tokens of appreciation like fridge magnets or selling memorabilia like beer patches. In this post, we present a few #pinspirational ways that your brewery can tap into the power of beer merchandise.
1. Beer Badges
A “beer badge” is a customised badge that promotes your brewery or beer; it can be any style of badge, from button badges to hard or soft enamel badges. Beer badges are a fun way to engage beer drinkers and help them establish a connection with your brewery brand.
What’s great about beer badges is that they are low in cost to produce and are incredibly popular with a wide range of customers. Many people collect badges of all sorts to proudly display on their clothing and accessories. Which means, beer badges are a cost-effective way to extend the visibility of your brewery brand as customers proudly champion your beer with every wear.
If you’re at a loss for how to design a #pinspirational beer badge, start with your own brews! One creative idea is to create a collectable series of beer badges for each of your top brews. For a long-term marketing strategy, you could create a badge every time you launch a new brew, or refresh them seasonally with different colours or shapes. Beer badges can be sold in many places to bring in a little extra revenue — at brewery tours, in your brew pub, online and at beer festivals. You could also give the badges away as a special thank you souvenir to people who visit your brewery or booth.
Here’s a great, collectable example from BrewDog that features an eye-catching set of beer cap badges.
2. Fridge Magnets
Here’s something that you may not be aware that we make – custom fridge magnets! These items are a logical choice for your brewery. After all, people keep beer in fridges to keep it cool — a fridge magnet to promote your brewery serves as a helpful reminder of your product every time someone opens the door.
Many breweries differentiate themselves from others through slick branding or humorous advertising. Fridge magnets are the perfect canvas to extend this effective marketing to something that your customers will see every day, either at home or in the office. Take this striking can of Jungle IPA from Northern Monk Brew Co, for example; we think the vibrant colors and beautiful design would look fantastic on a fridge magnet, a beer badge, clothing or really anything for that matter!
And, because magnets can be produced at a very low cost, you can plan to use them as gifts or giveaways, too. If you have a contact list of your fans, fridge magnets make an easy addition to any sort of mail campaign you have planned as they are lightweight, flat and easy to ship.
3. Beer Patches
Looking to tap into a hot trend? Then look no further than customised beer patches. Patches are so in right now and people of all ages collect and display patches of all sorts, from bands to breweries. Patches are different from beer badges in that customers can proudly sew or iron them onto clothing and accessories, but the effect is the same. When your fans get a beer patch, they become walking ambassadors for your brand.
If you’re struggling with ideas for a patch, one suggestion is to focus on the shape. You can design beer patches that mimic a mug or pint glass, a beer bottle or can, a tap handle and so much more.
As with beer badges, you can sell these at your brewery, online or even gift them to your VIP customers. Perhaps if you have an upcoming event or beer release, you can advertise a campaign in which the first 50 customers get a special limited-edition beer patch.
With all of these items, another source for ideas is your own marketing plan. What other advertising campaigns, messages, or graphics have been successful on social media, in print, at events or in other formats? Chances are, these strategies will translate well into beer merchandise to extend the life of your best promotions. Camden Town Brewery, for example, created a patch that showcased their well-established logo and motto in the brand colours.
We hope this gives you some #pinspirational ideas on how to use beer merchandise to promote your brewery! For even more, see this Ultimate Beer Festival Promo Checklist. What other items do you think your customers would appreciate? If you can think it or drink it, we can probably make it! Please get in touch with us today to talk about your ideas, and cheers!
