It’s all about the beer at Mountain Goat
Mountain Goat Brewing is one of Australia’s most well-established small breweries, founded in 1997 when the microbrewery concept was just hitting Australia’s shores. Twelve years later, Mountain Goat is a popular and well-known brand with a bar at their Richmond brewery, and their range of standard and seasonal beers is available in outlets in Melbourne and around Australia.
However, Mountain Goat’s branding, logo and labels had not changed since the company was founded twelve years ago. During that period the Australian microbrewery industry and market had grown significantly, and dozens of small brewing businesses now compete for attention from drinkers and retailers. Mountain Goat’s brewing techniques had developed and matured, as had their beer, but their look and brand identity had stayed the same.
Mountain Goat went into collaboration with Freeform, a creative agency with experience across both advertising and design. After weeks of discussion and the creation of detailed design briefs, the team at Freeform developed a new visual identity for Mountain Goat products that was ‘all about the beer’ – a label with a clean style around the base of the beer bottles to showcase the contents above all else. This new design has been applied to all of Mountain Goat’s packaging and marketing materials, and a strong positive response is already flowing back from retailers and customers.
Click here to read the full Mountain Goat Beer case study.
Facts at a Glance
Challenge
Mountain Goat Brewing is one of Australia’s most well-established small breweries. The company had retained the same branding and packaging since their founding, twelve years ago. The packaging was looking tired and dated, and didn’t reflect the growth and development of the company and the beer itself. A new brand and style was required that showcased Mountain Goat as a professional, polished product with appeal to beer drinkers at all levels of the market.
Type of designer engaged
Freeform Advertising + Design, a graphic design and creative communications agency that delivers exceptional design work across brand identity.
Most important part of the immersion process
Developing a strong relationship between Freeform and Mountain Goat that allowed the designers to understand the core values of the brewery.
Most difficult part of the immersion process
Translating those core values into detailed design briefs, and from there into a new design that would attract new customers while not alienating existing supporters.
Solution
Four possible design routes were developed, one of which was chosen and fine-tuned to become the new direction and identity for the brewery’s products.
Outcome
The new brand identity has been rolled across Mountain Goat packaging (bottle labels, six-pack cases, cartons), collateral such as signs and postcards, and additional marketing and advertising material. The packaging now reflects the brand values of Mountain Goat and is no longer an impediment to sales growth.
Results
The new packaging has been rolled out to distributors and while for the moment it’s still too early to see the far reaching benefit it will have on sales and market penetration, Cam from Mountain Goat was able to report a big increase in their sales in late 2009.
“While it's still early days to talk too much about sales increases, in November 2009 we had the biggest packaged sales month in Mountain Goat's history. In December, we smashed those sales figures by around 50%! I credit these results to our new packaging and our new beer - Organic Steam Ale - which we released at the same time. The Organic Steam Ale has already surpassed our flagship beer, Hightail Ale, in sales.”
The response from retailers and distributors is positive, though, with many feeling that the new branding gives Mountain Goat a professional and mature look that had been missing until now.
Related Links
Mountain Goat — www.goatbeer.com.au
Freeform — www.holafreeform.com