Visual Marketing: 99 Proven Ways for Small Businesses to Market with Images and Design

38. A Local Brewery Makes the Case for Better Beer Branding: Using Images from Your Business and Local Area to Brand Your Product

When the Colombia-based microbrewery Bogotá Beer Company (BBC) decided to redesign its identity, the solution was parked outside in the street. Their iconic Ford delivery truck became the central image for their brand and was included on the new labels for their line of beers. In Colombia, the SAB Miller Company dominates the beer market—they even own most of the local beers. BBC runs a small chain of 10 pubs and is the only local beer sold in convenience stores and in some major supermarkets.

Why It Works

BBC needed a distinctive design that celebrated Colombia. Each beer is named after a local Colombian neighborhood, and the names are boldly positioned on each label. The old Ford delivery truck appears in different angles so that each bottle has its own view of the truck. “We don't believe in design-based solutions. We believe in the thinking-based solutions,” says creative director Lucho Correa of Lip, Ltda. At first Correa and designer Viviana Flórez created some pretty label designs, but Correa admits that they were just designs without much soul. They began working with the old truck images and thought about the posters announcing the wrestling and bullfighting events that resonate with the Bogotá urban scene.

According to Correa, the design just ...