Founders Brewing Company

A Marketing Story by Driven Creative Supply Co. about Founders Brewing Co.

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Founders Brewing Co.

Brand Development

Challenge

Founders Brewing Company opened their doors in 1997 with the vision of creating some of the most unique craft beers in the country. After years of financial strife, near bankruptcy, several brewmasters and false starts, Founders Brewing Company finally established a loyal local following and several of their beers had been lauded nationally and internationally as award winners in their respective categories. Once they’d gotten their beer “right,” they needed to get the word out and begin leveraging a strong brand presence. DCS Co. was hired to develop the Founders brand, communicate it to emerging and new markets, and help position the company as one of the premier craft brewers in the US.

Solution

DCS Co. completely “re-staged” the Founders brand by a crafting a representative and meaningful look, tone and feel that positioned Founders as a premier craft brewery and created the unapologetic brand campaign: Brewed for Us. DCS Co. initiated a comprehensive rebrand and helped with a market-by-market rollout plan that encompassed everything from packaging to a new website, from POS retail “shelf talkers” to distributor “ad planners” and market launch materials for multiple distributors—all supporting the Brewed for Us campaign. In the process, DCS Co. helped develop additional new label branding within the portfolio, including the naming, branding and launch of their first session ale, All Day IPA, which has become a beacon in the craft beer industry and is the fastest growing, best-selling session ale in the world.

Branding Strategy

Results

Over the period of our working relationship, Founders enjoyed increased demand that fueled and helped fund the explosive growth of their annual beer production and sales. They went from selling roughly 24,000 barrels a year to 600,000 barrels a year. Today, the brand continues to gain popularity and industrial expansion places them with the potential to produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 900,000 barrels per year in the near future. Founders is considered the second fastest growing brewery in the country.