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Refreshing Henderson Brewing: A brand evolution for one of Toronto’s most popular breweries

January 24, 2022Cody Fague and Isaac Arthur

This piece was provided by CODO Design, a food and beverage branding firm. Join 5,500+ other beer industry pros who receive the Beer Branding Trends newsletter each month covering trends, currents and actionable advice from the front lines of beer branding.

Henderson Brewing is one of Toronto’s most popular breweries (and one of the fastest growing businesses in Canada). We recently worked with their team on a brand refresh spanning their core identity, packaging and merch.

Why a refresh if their beer is phenomenal and sales are strong?

Like many breweries in the 5–10 year old range, the Henderson team felt they had outgrown their foundational look. It was at odds with the trajectory of their business and current positioning. It was a little dated. And it was a little too inconsistent. We caught up with Henderson’s Creative Director, Tony Halmos, to discuss this project as well as what’s on deck for Henderson as we make our way into 2022.

Cody (CODO): Tony, it’s a pleasure! First of all, introduce yourself, and outline your role at Henderson. Describe your day-to-day at the brewery for all the folks out there.

Tony: Likewise! I’m the Art Director at Henderson, and I’ve been involved in the creation and production of pretty much every visual communication piece of the past six years since we opened our doors, from product packaging to ad campaigns, print collateral, POS displays, online content, promotional goods and apparel. I’ve also been responsible for a good deal of copywriting.

CODO: So, on the topic of the brand refresh. We worked with you guys to polish and optimize the Henderson brand identity in some pretty subtle ways. What kind of problems were you running into before the refresh? What were you guys hoping to solve?

Tony: When we launched our first beers six years ago, we wanted to distinguish ourselves from the trend-chasing pack by communicating to customers our more classic approach to brewing beers. We opted for a buttoned-down, old-school look and feel, one that we hoped felt like we’d been around a while. The strategy worked and we landed the loyal drinkers we were looking for, but after five years, the craft beer scene in Ontario had evolved and we agreed that the time had come to signal to our customers that we had evolved, too. We were maybe more relaxed, friendlier, more comfortable in our own shoes and less concerned with defining ourselves in opposition to others.

Henderson’s brand identity before (left) and after the refresh.

CODO: We also got to put our touch on what I consider to be an iconic Toronto beer, Henderson’s Best. This is another case where the visual updates were subtle, but very intentional. What has been the reaction to the updated cans?

Tony: Our flagship, Henderson’s Best is definitely in a category of its own and, in particular, was successful in attracting a loyal drinker. But, as with our other core brands, it was important for us to come across as reliable, but not staid or stuck in our ways.

CODO: I want to shift back to our work together, and touch on one of my favorite pieces of your brand iconography. While generating merch ideas we keyed in on a specific tagline that you guys have used for a while. “Henderson Delivers.” We love this message for multiple reasons, but I want to ask you: What does the promise of “Henderson Delivers” mean to you, and what do you think it means to your customers?

Tony: Reliability is definitely one of our most important brand values. Where our core beers are concerned, that reliability means never stocking out of the beers and delivering consistent quality. When COVID restrictions were put in place, our online sales surged and we began a home delivery service. I figured the service ought to have a name and Henderson Delivers seemed like an obvious choice to me because of the double entendre in which we literally deliver beer but also allude to the idiomatic usage of “delivers,” as in “come up with the goods.” I hope that’s what it means to our customers, too. 2020-2021 was a challenging time to reach new customers but an excellent opportunity to foster loyalty.

Read the rest of this post over on CODO’s site: https://cododesign.com/refreshing-henderson-brewings-brand/

Join CODO’s Beer Branding Trends newsletter for monthly field notes covering trends, currents and actionable advice from the front lines of beer branding.

Introducing Sub Brand summer
Let’s explore sub brands as long-term, brand-building pillars via CODO’s refresh of Fernson Brewing
Is Hop Water the next big Beyond Beer trend? Let’s talk branding and positioning
So you bought a brewery … to rebrand or not to rebrand?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Frans van Staden says

    January 24, 2022 at 6:19 pm

    Hey Henderson Brewing Co making some headlines🍻

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