Highland also set up an informal poll through its social media platforms, including Facebook, where the brewery has nearly 44,000 followers, 55 percent of whom are male, and 45 percent female. residents 21 and over who self-identified as their household’s primary alcoholic beverage decision maker and who had made a craft beer purchase within the previous three months. To decide on the direction for the rebranding, Highland went through several steps, first making use of a Nielsen survey to test 400 U.S. “This is going to get people to take a second look at our beer, because we’ve been surprising people with what we’ve been creating the last few years-and this will surprise them more.” Positioning the Building Blocks “I think we’ve been automatically deselected by certain consumers because they think they already know our beer and what’s inside,” says Molly McQuillan, Highland’s marketing coordinator. In all, the cost of the transformation of the brewery’s identity landed somewhere in the six figures. The new packaging features the colorful, rolling hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains on bottles and cans, with the visual centerpiece of a pioneer’s compass-a nod toward the brewery’s connection to Asheville and its history as the city’s first brewery after 1933. A logo that once required up to 11 colors now has a maximum of four. Throughout the process, Ashburn and her team relied on employee and customer feedback to guide choices that mark a stark departure from the brewery’s 1990s look, which relied heavily on “Scotty,” a Scottish character who adorned packaging, tap handles, and promotional materials. When Highland’s new look is unveiled this week, it will have been just over a year since the idea for a redesign was first broached. What came of those initial discussions led to six months of research and development, including the distribution and analysis of a collection of surveys, a search for a design company to lead the project, and intricate planning for rolling out new looks and branding. Ashburn points out: “Our brand and beer were saying two different things.” In April, the project moved forward.
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What didn’t come up one time was ‘Scottish.’”Īfter more than two decades, it was decided in January 2017 that to better showcase how Highland had evolved, a new look and feel would be necessary, as would a full refreshing of the brewery and its marketing strategy. “When I asked for words that described us, there was a pattern of ‘pioneering’ and ‘super consistent,’ and areas of authenticity, leadership, sustainability, and community. Today, the company is led by Wong’s daughter, Leah Wong Ashburn, and has 50 full-time employees.“We were getting input from the people that know and love us the most that was very revealing,” says Leah Wong Ashburn, the family owner and president of Highland. In addition, the event center and rooftop can be reserved for private events. The Asheville brewery is in a rehabilitated manufacturing facility on a hilltop, affording space for thousands of visitors to enjoy limited release beers, tours, and live music. An annual production of around 46,000 barrels makes Highland the largest independent family-owned brewery born in the Southeast and it has the third largest solar array in an American craft brewery. Proudly regional, Highland is distributed in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and Kentucky.
With a portfolio that is equal parts established and inventive, Highland is known for its consistently excellent beer. Highland Brewing Company was founded in 1994 by retired engineer and entrepreneur Oscar Wong, establishing it as the pioneer of Asheville, NC’s now booming craft beer industry.
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