Olde Mecklenburg Brewery
Challenge
CRAFT, CLARITY LEAD TO BRAND LEADERSHIP. Olde Mecklenburg Brewery was the first craft beer in Charlotte, North Carolina. Their success spawned a craft boom in the region, with over 30 breweries opening up in the market within the next few years. OMB approached Concentric just as they were making a significant investment in a new brewing facility, Biergarten and Brauhaus—seeking to create upward pressure for a more rapid growth trajectory. Here’s what we brewed up.
Solution
INSIGHTS Like most craft beers, OMB was regarded more as a product, not as a highly differentiated brand. As Charlotte’s craft beer category matured and fragmented, it was clear that even with a strong share of market, OMB needed to shift focus to loyalty and retention (difficult in a nomadic category) and capitalize on their first-to-market “moat.” We also defined a clear best-prospect customer to segment and target for the brand. GROWTH DRIVER BRAND CLARITY By aligning the brand’s unique attributes across all touch-points, we crafted and communicated a consistent message, effectively conveying what OMB stood for. STRATEGY We continued to build on OMB’s first-to-market heritage and became the first CLT craft beer to establish a brand based on core company values. We also elevated the marketing message and overall creative to reflect the high standards of OMB beers and the brewery itself. CREATIVE The new creative clarified OMB’s position around freshness and purity, reflecting company values and product features. The new look went against conventions of a typical craft beer aesthetic, which tended to be grassroots and inconsistent looking. Instead, OMB’s new labels, POS and advertising had great cohesion across all the brewer’s varieties.
Results
No. 1 Craft in its region 308% 3 year sales increase
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