Ziggurat Helps Design Greene King Beers

06 May 2014 --- Greene King has been producing craft beers in Bury St Edmunds since 1799. Yet it was not fully capitalising on the growing trend for small batch, speciality beers.

So at the end of 2012 it commissioned Ziggurat Brands, the agency it had worked with on several branding projects in the past, to brand a new range which was due to emerge from its innovation brewhouse.

A new generation
 
“For the first time in a generation a large number of young drinkers are experimenting with interesting, new beer flavours,” says Dom South, Marketing Director at Greene King. “It is a great opportunity for us. It was also important to get our branding agency involved at an early stage. A strong brand at the outset can help keep everyone in the organisation committed through the new product development process.”
 
Dan Kimmins, Design Director at Ziggurat Brands, and his team invested significant time in the research phase. “We really got to know the craft beer market,” he says. “Our studio was full of bottles of beer – which remained full I should add – as we looked carefully at what competitors were doing, what was working, and how we could work with Greene King to develop the brand images to launch into this market with credibility and impact.”
 
Contemporary look and feel
 
The design draws on the heritage of Greene King: the crown and arrows of St Edmund’s legend, the distinctive gold foil neck label, and serrated edges to the label make it look like a page torn from a medieval book.
 
However, it also has a contemporary look and feel. This was achieved through the use of black line drawings, vibrant colours, illustrations bursting with character, and an overall sense that the design has been dashed off by craft brewers.
 
Range extensions
 
The initial range of five beers launched in January, and there are already plans to extend the range for example with Carnival, illustrated with a dancing parrot, in time for the 2014 World Cup.
 
“The branding makes it very straightforward for us to add to the range by creating a new character with its own colour, and so create products that draw on the equity of the range but are also distinctive in their own right,” concludes Dom South. “This new range of craft beers is an exciting extension to the Greene King product portfolio.”