York- based Design consultants LazenbyBrown have been named as a winner in the Design Business Association’s prestigious Design Effectiveness Awards for the rebrand project it developed for independent craft brewery Rudgate. The Design Effectiveness Awards are the only award scheme to use commercial data as key judging criteria and the only one to recognise and reward the bottom line benefits of design. It sees the York agency going head to head with the cream of UK design talent.
Boosting bottled sales by 200%
The rebranding project undertaken by LazenbyBrown has had a hugely positive effect on Rudgate, boosting its turnover by 22% and increasing sales of its bottled beer range by over 200%. The project comprised a complete redesign of the Rudgate brewery brand and family of cask and bottled beers, which includes Jorvik Blonde, Battle Axe, the ‘champion beer of Britain’ Ruby Mild and York Chocolate Stout – an innovative joint venture with LazenbyBrown.
Award winning quality of the beers
Retaining the brewery’s links to a Viking heritage, the new branding needed to move away from its overtly macho image and reflect and re-affirm the award winning quality of the beers it produces. It also needed to provide a powerful and consistent image across its full product portfolio and act as a catalyst for the growth and development of the company.
In addition to this, the project had a number of practical issues to address too, including ensuring the ABV information was clearly displayed and improving the quality of the neck sleeves on its bottled range, as 50% of them were being damaged in transit.
Resounding success
The resulting design has been a resounding success, and as well as the 22% increase in turnover has also resulted in the brand being stocked in 104 additional independent stores, major supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s adding them to their shelves, the launch of a new mini-keg product which has contributed an extra £57,000 to turnover, the recruitment of two extra employees and the launch of two new beers.
Craig Lee, Managing Director, Rudgate said: “Working with LazenbyBrown has been brilliant for Rudgate. The new branding has not only had a direct impact on our bottom line but has given us an honest reflection of the quality of our product. In the past we had amazing, award winning products but the design did not do them justice – we now have that and it has given us a real confidence boost to go out and spread the word about Rudgate.”
About LazenbyBrown
LazenbyBrown was established in 2005 by Mat Lazenby and Gary Brown and is now based on TheShambles, York. They have built up an impressive list of clients including Bentley, The Higher Education Academy, Humberside Police, Your Move, the University of York and York St John University. Alongside larger clients across the UK they have also worked on brand development for a host of York’s most successful SME’s including York Cocoa House, Pilot Theatre, Middletons, Intandem Communications and Andrea Ubhi, Cosmetic Dentist.
For more information about LazenbyBrown click here
For details about Rudgate click here