From its origins as a pub group in 1977, Castle Rock became a working brewery in 1997 and has since grown steadily and organically to become the winner of the Good Pub Guide’s ‘Pub Group of the Year’ in 2002, 2006 and 2008, with ale production now running at capacity.
‘At the start we were a small garage brewery really. We’d make a small quantity of beer that was taken on the back of a lorry to pubs,’ explains the company’s commercial director Colin Wilde. At this stage the company was producing its own graphic designs for the pump clips that advertised its beers at the bar. ‘We had our own printer and we’d print out something we’d designed and laminate it. Later, we used a more cost-effective production of clips, but it was still our designs,’ adds Wilde.
Following substantial investment in other areas of Castle Rock’s operations, especially in the brewery itself, the company realised it needed to become more professional about its image. A weakening beer market only compounded the necessity for a stronger brand identity. Across the industry ale sales are down by 11 per cent, although local, niche real ales have performed more strongly, says Wilde. ‘We have the smoking ban, the current credit crunch and rising fuel bills which affect both us and our customers. All these are huge threats to our business.’
According to market research company Mintel, the decline in UK ale and stout sales is set to continue this year with a further 6 per cent fall in volumes and a 3 per cent drop in market value to £5.5 billion. ‘Pub closures, declining pub visits, reduced consumption and an increasing emphasis on food-led sales are creating a challenging on-trade environment for ales and stouts,’ it says. While accounting for 70 per cent of ale and stout sales overall, pubs have lost 4 per cent to retail stores over the last two years, as customers turn to cheaper in-home entertainment and drinking. According to Datamonitor, overall UK on-trade sales will continue to show a slight decline in volume (1 per cent) between 2007 and 2012.
For Castle Rock, communicating its brand and portfolio more effectively therefore became essential. Nevertheless, the decision to invest in design had been repeatedly put off. ‘A lot of the reason we didn’t do it sooner was because of cost. I had to convince the board that it was a necessary investment. We’d made huge improvements in our brewery and were making three and a half times more ale, but we hadn’t made the rest of our business three and a half times better at the same time,’ says Wilde.
The company brought in design group Strangebrew – now part of The Workroom – to examine its brand, visual identity and portfolio of drinks. As the business had grown organically, different products had been added at different times, with no common thread in the way they were presented to customers, namely at the beer pump. According to The Workroom joint creative director Nick Pettit, Castle Rock’s presentation was failing to position it as one of the country’s leading independent brewers. ‘It’s corporate identity lacked authority, was being used inconsistently and in most cases almost apologetically across its communications. The crafting and attention to detail evident in its award-winning beers was not in any way reflected in its customer-facing image.’
For an initial investment by Castle Rock of around £5,000, The Workroom brought into clearer focus the brewery’s overall identity and developed a coherent range of different beer badges. The primary logo was redesigned as a more distinctive marque that can be transferred easily and consistently across every area of the company’s communications. Individual beers were given their own personality and character, while clearly remaining part of the Castle Rock stable.
‘The process gave us an opportunity to look at where we were and what we wanted to achieve. The board is very pleased with the results and although only a year on it’s like we’ve always had these designs,’ says Wilde.
Even more than that, since the rebranding launched at the Nottingham Beer Festival in October 2007, the company’s barrel sales growth has doubled to around 20 per cent year on year – a full year ahead of business projections – and in a market which is otherwise in decline.
