For many craft producers, that surface-level appeal feels like the whole game: get the label right and the rest will follow. But according to Tim Weaver, U.K.-based branding strategist, founder of The Brand Weaver and host of the “Branding for Breweries” podcast, that mindset is the exact trap holding many alcohol companies back.

“The well-known quote that ‘your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room’ is accurate,” Weaver said. “It’s not just your logo or a label. Your brand is how you integrate into someone’s life, how you amplify it and how you reinforce their identity. When you get branding right, grabbing your product at a barbecue or a family dinner becomes second nature. It’s just the piece of the puzzle that fits.”

More than meets the label

In practice, branding means creating a sense of place for your product in a consumer’s life so it feels like the obvious choice in any given moment. While that does include tangible items like your label or packaging, it also extends into every branch of your business: your social media, your messaging, even the way you interact with customers. Your branding shapes how your target audience perceives your company in the first place and reinforces that perception at every turn. Branding is your most powerful differentiator in a competitive market and it’s a strong influencer of customer loyalty.

That’s a lot more than a label, so how do you actually do it? When Weaver works with a producer to define what encompasses the brand, he starts with what he calls a “point of truth.” That truth is the only thing that can hold a brand steady through growth, market shifts and customer churn. “If it’s not true, your company isn’t going to believe in it and neither will your customers. It comes across fake, like the cheesy car salesman approach,” he said. “But when you find that element of truth – what you really stand for – it becomes your North Star. It’s what every message, every visual, every marketing channel should stem from.”

The first pint is sold on awareness. The second is sold on taste. You can’t get to the second without the first.

Tim Weaver

Weaver’s framework for finding that point of truth is deliberately research-heavy. It starts with the company itself: what are the real strengths of the business, and what does the team believe sets them apart? This could be location, ingredients or sheer passion. From there, he looks outward to its customers, determining what keeps them coming back and why they reach for this brand instead of another. The final step is a close study of the competition, examining both the messages they put forward and the missteps best left unreplicated. When those three filters overlap, genuine brand positioning comes into focus.

The benefit is that once you’ve identified your brand purpose, or your North Star, consistency becomes easier. It doesn’t just inform your Instagram captions; it can show up in your taproom culture, your email newsletters, and even the way you speak to restaurant owners and distributors. “Your messaging, values, tone of voice, channels and any elements you use to promote your brand are fed from that one central point of truth,” said Weaver. “It influences everything you do from that point. It should be baked in.”

For example, for U.K.-based Wilful Beer, its “craft, not daft” positioning packs strategy behind clever wordplay. With a small team, old equipment and a commitment to making no-nonsense, great-tasting beer, its entire identity is rooted in the value of doing things by hand. That ethos carries through in how it shows up for customers: tradespeople get discounts as a nod to their own manual craft, coasters double as writable surfaces so drinkers can “leave their mark,” and its visual identity leans on imperfect, handmade fonts and textures rather than anything overly polished.

These deliberate choices all make sense because they are true to the way the brewery operates day to day. What you see in the branding is exactly what’s happening behind the scenes in the brewhouse.

When good brands go bad

Even with the best intentions, many producers stumble when it comes to branding. Weaver sees the same pitfalls repeated across the industry: mistakes that not only dull a brand’s impact, but can also prevent a great product from ever finding its audience. The first and most dangerous trap is assuming that liquid alone is enough.

“Be mindful of the Field of Dreams mentality. ‘Brew it and they will come’ is not a strategy. The best beer in the world doesn’t sell itself if nobody knows about it,” Weaver said. “The first pint is sold on awareness. The second is sold on taste. You can’t get to the second without the first.”

That belief often goes hand-in-hand with another mistake: looking inward instead of outward. Many producers, Weaver says, create for themselves and their friends, not for the broader market. That kind of thinking alienates the vast majority of drinkers who aren’t alcohol nerds chasing the next experimental release.

“Most people just want a great product that fits the moment. Brands need to stop talking to themselves and start talking to their consumers,” said Weaver. That doesn’t mean there isn’t space to play, though, simply that it must be approached strategically. “Understand what your consumer wants, win them over with that and gain the permission to introduce them to something unique that you’re really proud of,” said Weaver.

While Weaver is a proponent of “secret shopping” to see what a brand’s competitors are doing well (or not so well), he cautions that too many producers fall into the trap of looking only sideways within their own category. Studying another brewery’s taproom might show what’s trending, but it won’t necessarily reveal what’s truly distinctive. By contrast, looking outside the industry can spark ideas that feel fresh and unexpected.

“You can learn so much more from walking through a hotel lobby about how to improve your taproom than you can by going to your competitor’s taproom,” he said. The lighting, the flow of people, the way a space creates mood and comfort – these are lessons that apply to alcohol branding just as much as they do to hospitality.

Producers live their brand every day, so they can get tired of it quickly. But your customers might only interact with you once every couple of weeks. To them, you’re not repetitive – you’re finally becoming clear.

Tim Weaver

Finally, Weaver bristles at overused buzzwords like “quality,” “community,” and “authenticity,” that have been drained of meaning. “If you have to say you’re authentic, you probably aren’t,” he said. “Every producer will claim quality. Every brewery will claim community. Those words mean nothing if you can’t show what they actually look like in practice.”

Keep your story straight

Entrepreneurs are an ambitious bunch, always finding inspiration to execute new ideas. While there’s nothing wrong with dreaming big, when it comes to branding, it’s essential to filter every idea through your North Star. Flash can grab attention for a moment, but it’s consistency that keeps customers coming back. “You actually do your customers a disservice by veering off track,” said Weaver. “It can be confusing for them when you do something off kilter to what you typically communicate.”

In that sense, it might behoove you to feel like you’re drilling the message a little too hard. “Producers live their brand every day, so they can get tired of it quickly. But your customers might only interact with you once every couple of weeks. To them, you’re not repetitive – you’re finally becoming clear.” That means weaving your messaging through every channel over and over again, on the assumption that it’s likely only a fraction of your audience saw your social media post, newsletter or poster. “Continue to repeat and reinforce your core message,” said Weaver.

That said, consistency doesn’t mean staying static. It means finding ways to carry your story across every touchpoint, from coasters and bar mats to emails and events. Through any medium, whether it’s print advertising, social media, networking, podcast interviews or anything else, approach all aspects with your brand purpose in mind. Each medium requires its own tactics, but all should feel unmistakably like the same brand.

Shelf esteem

So, you’ve got a strong brand position, you’re crystal clear on your message and what you stand for, and you know what you want your customers to associate with your company. Now, how do you get that onto the shelves? In liquor store aisles, where a split-second decision can make or break a sale, Weaver says disruption is the goal. It’s a matter of bringing your point of truth to life. This is where illustrators and designers earn their keep, finding ways for visuals to carry your brand story. Sometimes disruption is subtle: a different can size, a contrasting top colour or an unusual label texture.

“It’s not always about the design itself,” Weaver said. “Sometimes, it’s the shape or the feel that stops someone’s eye as they’re scanning.” Weaver says that producers often pour budget into striking front-of-bottle artwork, but ignore the rest of the package. “The back of the package is prime real estate to tell your story. Too often it’s wasted on a giant barcode or clunky layout. Design is about storytelling across the whole package, not just the cover art,” said Weaver.

Beyond the shelf, he says that small producers often overlook low-cost opportunities to stand out at the point of sale. Coasters, balloons or even a display box that doubles as a shelf unit can multiply visibility without multiplying spend. Sometimes, it’s as simple as noticing a need in the space itself – like a bar with uncomfortable stools – and offering a solution, whether that’s branded cushions or another thoughtful detail that puts your product at the centre of the experience.

“If you can be the one brewery remembered out of 20 samples at a festival or 100 options on a shelf, you’ve won,” Weaver said. However, the real differentiator isn’t novelty for novelty’s sake – it’s integration. Producers who understand who their drinkers are and how their product fits into customers’ lives will always have the edge. Packaging might earn a second glance, but it can only take a brand so far. The ones that have longevity are the producers who carry their truth through every touchpoint, until it stops feeling like marketing and starts feeling like identity.

“Great branding informs how a product fits into your customer’s ritual, their moment, their identity,” Weaver said. “That’s when branding moves beyond packaging. That’s when it becomes part of people’s lives.”

The debut event, Whisky 101, took place June 30. Guests explored a curated whisky flight and learned the basics of how to taste, talk about and enjoy whisky without pretension, pressure or gatekeeping. The club launched during Pride Month, sending a clear message: Whisky is for everyone.

That’s because in 2011, the winery’s previous owners decided to move a century-old, deconsecrated church to their land to repurpose it as a tasting room. However, there was a slight problem: the beautiful old building was too wide to drive through the narrow streets of the nearby town of Walton, N.S.

Instead, they floated the 30-tonne building 42 kilometres down the Bay of Fundy and the Avon River before transporting it up a hill and plopping it at the winery just outside of Newport, N.S. More than a decade later, the church is an integral part of the winery’s history that spans a couple of decades, different owners, multiple awards and, of course, wine.

Avondale Sky’s history as a winery dates back to the mid-1980s, when Andrew and Mary Bennett planted vineyards on land that had formerly been a dairy farm. Stewart Creaser and Lorraine Vassalo took over the property in 2009, and created the winery, floating in the church a couple of years later.

In 2019, the Coutinho family bought Avondale Sky Winery, closing the real estate deal on the 110-acre property that November. Karl Coutinho, the winery’s president and operations manager, was working for TD Bank Financial Group at the time. When a friend and business broker had emailed him about a listing for a winery, he was intrigued.

“I knew it was a big venture to undertake. I couldn’t do it by myself,” he said. He asked his family if they’d be interested in joining him. “It took some convincing,” he said. “None of us had any wine background outside of drinking it.” In the end, they agreed to invest, drawn by the fact that they could all work together in a beautiful place in a beautiful part of Canada. Ownership is split between Karl and his parents (mom Avila and dad Louis), his wife (Jaime) and his brother (Sean).

“It’s an opportunity for us to all work together, to keep learning and to keep us all in Nova Scotia, where we’re from,” said Karl. “And we’re still learning, every day.” Each family member plays a distinct role. Karl handles most of the marketing and external negotiations with liquor stores, restaurants and so on. He also creates the Avondale Sky Podcast, which tells the family’s history, stories of the region and some of the realities of running a winery.

Wine Growers Canada members and the wine industry in Canada as a whole are very collaborative and very supportive. It’s not a dog-eat-dog world, which I think is fabulous. We may be competitors in the liquor store, but we all want to see all-Canadian wine succeed, everywhere.

Karl Coutinho, Avondale Sky Winery

“I could see the trend a couple of years ago toward podcasts and no one was really doing one locally,” Karl said. “I figured what a cool thing to say that we did, to get our story on record, even if no one was listening to it.” However, it turned out that people did listen. “And now we’re partnering with local tourism groups to share their stories, too.”

Jaime, a dental hygienist by day, handles the winery’s social media and helps with some of the business and product management. Louis is the property manager, in charge of landscaping, which includes 23 acres of vines. “He works in the vineyard with the vineyard crew as a hobby,” Karl said. “He really enjoys that side of the business.” Avila handles the bookkeeping, but can often be found greeting people when they stop by the winery, while Sean is a sommelier and Avondale’s general manager, dealing with much of the on-site demands, including the wine shop.

It sounds like the makings of a reality TV show, but they do their best to keep business and family separate. “I think we’re doing quite well, managing it together,” Karl said. “We don’t always see eye to eye, but we have respectful conversations, plus everybody has their own area of expertise, so we’re not tripping over each other every day. And family dinner is a family dinner. It’s not a place to talk business.”

It helps, too, that there are people involved who aren’t family. They employ a full-time year-round winemaker, Ben Swetnam, and vineyard manager Pete Smits. During high season, they have an additional 15 to 20 staff who help in the vineyard, the tasting room and the winery restaurant, which features cuisine from wine regions around the world, made with local ingredients.

As for the Avondale Sky wines, they are primarily sold at the winery, the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission, at restaurants in Nova Scotia and a handful of wine shops in the province. Two Newfoundland wine shops have recently picked up listings and, of course, the team sells direct to consumers across Canada to provinces where it is legal to ship. They grow 13 to 15 varietals, which they use to make a range of red, white, rosé and sparkling wines; roughly 50,000 to 60,000 bottles per year.

They have won Lieutenant Governor’s Awards for their bubbles, including the 2013 Blanc de Noir and the 2015 sparkling L’Acadie. “Nova Scotia makes world-class sparkling wines that compete with some of the best Champagnes in the world,” Karl said. Perhaps the most important in this category are the Tidal Bay wines, an appellation created in Nova Scotia in 2012. To be labelled Tidal Bay, each wine must be a white wine made of at least 51 per cent L’Acadie Blanc, Seyval Blanc, Vidal or Geisenheim grapes grown in Nova Scotia, with a maximum permitted alcohol content of 11 per cent.

“There are 14 wineries in Nova Scotia that make a Tidal Bay appellation wine every year, and we are one of them,” Karl said. “We are a cool climate region, and what we do best are white wines and sparkling wines.” Most of the grapes grown on the estate and nearby land are hybrids; grapes that can handle the region’s tough winters and capricious climate. “And many of the wines we make have a slightly sweeter profile,” said Karl. “That’s what our winemaker specializes in.”

Ferry Road – a table wine made from Marechal Foch and Lucie Kuhlmann – is the winery’s most popular red wine, year after year. Bliss, a popular white wine, is made of 100 per cent Geisenheim grapes. “It’s great on its own, but also pairs well with spicy food,” Karl said. “It’s a wine that even a non-wine-drinker will like. If someone says they’re a beer drinker or a rum drinker, we suggest this one, and 99 per cent of the time, they like it. It has a real cult following.”

Then there’s Lady Slipper Rosé, a nod to the three types of wild lady slipper flowers that grow on the land. “It’s an off-dry rosé, a good holiday wine with turkey dinner, that sort of thing,” Karl said. “It’s perfect for charcuterie and cheese.”

He has a soft spot for the Notorious RED, named in homage to one of his favourite musicians, the late American rapper Notorious BIG. “I’m a Notorious BIG fan, big time,” he said. “And this is a red blend that varies from year to year: Marechal Foch, Lucie Kuhlmann, Castel, all non-vinifera hybrid grapes.” They also grow some vinifera grapes, including Pinot Noir, but the vines are still recovering after a brutal cold snap in February 2023. When possible, they also buy Riesling and Chardonnay from other growers in the province.

It’s a really cool thing, that I get to work with my wife, my parents and my brother, and I’m just a few years away from working shoulder to shoulder with my kids.

Karl Coutinho, Avondale Sky Winery

The winery is about 20 minutes from Wolfville and Gaspereau, but isn’t located particularly close to other wineries. To compensate, they’ve had to innovate to find fans. This year, they partnered with Church Brewing, located in Wolfville. The brewery, which also has an old church on its property, fermented the winery’s leftover grape skins to create beer. Named Life after Death, it’s a nod to the fact that the grapes have a second life after making wine (and another homage to the late rapper, Notorious BIG, as Life After Death was one of his most popular albums).

The Avondale Sky team also works closely with tour operators who bring visitors from throughout the province. “One has a standing appointment every afternoon, every weekend,” Karl said. “Sometimes they’ll do just a tasting. Sometimes they’ll do a tasting and lunch.” In the summer, the family invites local vendors to sell at a weekend market. “We don’t charge anyone to come and sell,” Karl said. “We hope it will encourage people to think of it as a destination, and it’s a nice place for commerce in what would otherwise be quite a rural area.”

Karl says Avondale’s Wine Growers Canada membership has aided their success. “It’s really important to know what’s going on around the country,” he said. “There are some issues that affect just Nova Scotia, but there are other things that affect all of us winemakers and winery owners across the country.” If it isn’t an issue that’s currently facing every region, it may be something that another region has dealt with in the past, he says.

“Sometimes we’re dealing with something that maybe happened in Niagara 10 years ago,” he said. “It’s really nice to have that sounding board and to find out how they handled it.” He also says it’s simply nice to have the support and a sense of community. “Wine Growers Canada members and the wine industry in Canada as a whole are very collaborative and very supportive,” he said. “It’s not a dog-eat-dog world, which I think is fabulous. We may be competitors in the liquor store, but we all want to see all-Canadian wine succeed, everywhere.”

Indeed, advocacy and giving back to the community are hardwired into the Coutinho family. Karl is board chair of Wine Growers Nova Scotia, a group that formed in 2002 to serve as a voice for Nova Scotia wineries. Avila sits on the FarmWorks Investment Co-op Board, which promotes food-related businesses in the province, while Sean is on the board of the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers in Nova Scotia. Last but not least, Louis is on the board at Grape Growers Association of Nova Scotia. The family donates time and product to various fundraisers for people with special needs, especially those connected with the Canadian Progress Club, of which Karl is a member.

Everyone is busy, but they’re together. Karl has never regretted leaving his banking job to be closer to his family. “My twin boys are eight years old, my daughter is seven and my littlest boy is now four, and I get to see them all the time,” he said. “And they love going to the winery, even if it’s just to play on the tractor and see their grandfather and grandmother, or their uncle and auntie.

“It’s a really cool thing, that I get to work with my wife, my parents and my brother, and I’m just a few years away from working shoulder to shoulder with my kids. Maybe they’ll work with us at the winery. Maybe they won’t. But if they want to, there will be lots of opportunities.”