Branding & Marketing Tips

UPDATED: 2/22/24

Bar games conjure a variety of mental images. Visions of darts and billiards evoke the dive bar aesthetic, reminding us of a time the beer-and-skeeball combo was exclusive to reluctant parents at Chuck E. Cheese. But as Bob Dylan once said, “these times, they are a’changing!” And in 2024, offering the right game at your bar and brewery can have a huge impact on cultivating clientele.

The concept of bar and brewery games dates back to the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. when Ancient Greeks could be found playing Kottabos, a game that involved flinging wine sediment at targets in exchange for prizes.

Today, more than ever, people are looking for that ‘x’ factor when it comes to visiting a brewery, bar, or taproom. It’s no longer enough to just make or serve great beer, unfortunately. Don’t get us wrong. That certainly helps. But when people go out to spend their hard-earned money, they’re looking for more from the hospitality industry.

“I think that taprooms are going to have to innovate more than ever as consumers migrate back from taprooms to traditional bars,” predicts West Sixth Brewing Co-Founder Brady Barlow. “Events are key. Increased community engagement is key. Food helps, for sure.”

Games continue to attract patrons and keep them coming back for more. And while the concept of pairing games and alcohol is ancient, bar and brewery owners are concocting new ideas for what the pairing can look like in modern taprooms.

Keeping games on hand gives guests a reason to stay longer (and thus spend more) while elevating the customer experience, making your taproom a destination. Having theme nights and group games as a recurring event increases engagement, and can be used to create a regular crowd on what would otherwise be a slower night.

Depending on your free space, clientele, and overall vibe, your choice of games may change. One thing is sure: introducing games adds something unique for patrons to enjoy and creates a deeper sense of community as guests interact in ways that get them talking, laughing, and connecting not just to one another but to your establishment and brand.

While most bars and breweries provide games free of charge, others choose a paid system with a per-game or day-pass fee. These fees are nominal (between $1.50-$5.00) but can add up and require minimal investment. Others, like Cleveland, Ohio’s Tabletop Board Game Cafe, off year-long memberships for around $25, giving patrons a reason to return on a regular basis.

If you’re looking to make your bar, brewery, or taproom a bit more fun and up your food and beverage sales, try bringing some of these games on board.

UPDATED: 2/14/24

Over 2023, challenges in the American economy with inflation directly affected the price of many goods, including beer.

Indeed, the data seems to support that prices for craft beer have increased across major styles and formats.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index for beer at home rose +2.4% year-over-year (YoY), higher than the +1.9% YoY increase reported in 2023. However, the report did show that the increase has slowed since January 2023, which recorded a +9% YoY increase.

Last year, Untappd reported that across all U.S. retailers from March 2022 to December 2022, the average price of American light lager (per 16oz draft) increased +3.3%, to $4.94, while this style in 12oz bottles, also increased +3.4%, to $3.91.

And if you thought this might just be unique to lagers, Untappd also analyzed price data for American IPAs. On draft, this style’s price increased +1.9%, to $6.88 in 16oz cans. And increased +3.7% in 12oz bottles to $3.97 over that ten-month period in 2022.

“Brewery taprooms have seen solid price increases across three styles we examined,” Smith wrote in the report. “Across all venue types, however, the lower priced American light lager saw the largest price increase on a percentage basis.”

He continues, “I’ve spoken with a number of independent brewers that were unsure about taking price increases in 2022 (some macro producers took two price increases). It appears, based on the pricing data we see from beers coming out of A-B InBev’s craft unit, that there is ample headroom for smaller producers to take more price in 2023.”

Alcohol Delivered gathered data on average case prices for a 24-pack of Bud Light and Miller Lite across the country in 2024. Their data showed the cheapest price at $16.43 in Illinois all the way to the highest at $33.62 in Alaska.

Overall, considering how to price your products this year is going to be one of the most important business decisions you make.

And it’s a tough thing to nail.

If you price too low, you leave money on the table. But if your product is too expensive, it won’t sell.

When it comes to pricing beer or cider, there are several things to consider. But first and foremost, you need to answer one important question: What type of business do you have?

Do you run a bar or restaurant offering on-site consumption? Are you a bottle shop that only offers to-go products? Do you provide on-site consumption and a selection of products to-go? Something else?

Before you can start to understand pricing, you need to think about what you sell. For instance, pouring beer on draft versus serving it in a can or bottle carries a different cost. With the average cost to serve a bottled beer at twenty-five percent and draft beer closer to twenty percent, draft beer might be your highest margin item, but might also come with added expenses for refrigeration and pouring equipment.

It can seem like a lot, but getting the price of your products right can mean more profitability for your establishment and a better bottom line.

And we’re here to help.

UPDATED: 2/2/24

You can brew the best milkshake IPA on the planet. But, if your beer label doesn’t catch the eye of the consumer and meet all the requirements mandated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), your beer won’t stand out on the shelf. Or even make it to the shelf.

“A beer label is the number one way consumers will interact with your brand,” says Matt Tanaka, Founder of Stout Collective, a design-driven creative studio rooted in beer that designed over 500 beer labels last year alone. “In a world with 9,000+ craft breweries in the United States alone, you have a fraction of a second to catch a consumer’s eye on the beer shelf. It’s a really competitive space. The way to compete is with label design.”

To say it simply: Your beer label will determine if someone buys your beer.

“You really can’t overstate how important your brand is,” says Tim Corcoran, co-founder of Massachusetts-based Coastal Mass Brewing (nee Channel Marker Brewing), whose distinctive labels have set the tone for the brewery and consistently impress a loyal following. “Your can label designs are the first thing you should think of when it comes to a brewery’s branding, in addition to your logo.”

When considering something as important as designing the perfect beer label, there are several things that need your consideration, starting with legal compliance. From the visual design to why you can’t use the abbreviation IPA to pressure sensitive versus shrink sleeves, we’ll show you how to create the perfect beer label.

When was the last time you went to a restaurant, bar, taproom, or brewery tasting room and didn’t have a menu? That’s probably never happened. Menus are an integral part of the customer experience, telling you what’s available to order. But more than an ordering tool, menus—both digital and print—give an establishment the opportunity to showcase its brand.

An all-encompassing digital beverage platform, Untappd for Business feeds into the over 3,000,000-beer Untappd database, allowing any Verified Venue food/beverage facility to swiftly build a print, digital, or QR code menu to share with craft beer enthusiasts.

Additionally, the robust Untappd for Business tool provides easy access to data on the most popular beers in your region and recent industry trends, guiding decisions on which beer to stock or brew for your customers.

With Untappd for Business, you can access a world-class beer database, receive top-notch analytics, and create digital and print menus that will set your brand up for success.

UPDATED: 1/26/24

In the last five years or so, the way we’ve tipped has changed. Today, many contactless and digital payment apps make it easy to add anywhere from a ten percent to even twenty-five percent tip to an order.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that more Americans are tipping. Even as business has returned to a new normal.

While tipping at standard American sit-down restaurants has remained around 19.4 percent, Toast reports that an average tip for quick-service restaurants (and places like breweries) on their platform now only reaches 16.1 percent, down from seventeen percent in 2022.

Overall, Toast reports that tipping remained steady over the course of 2023.

According to a Pew Research survey, Americans report leaving a tip on average the most at sit-down restaurants (92%), when ordering food delivery (76%), and when buying a drink at a bar (70%). On the other hand, only 12% of Americans leave a tip at a fast-casual restaurant.

While most people are inclined to tip, others may need a little nod in the right direction. And while the aforementioned payment platforms, such as Toast, offer easy tipping options (66.6 percent of people using that platform will include a tip in their transactions), nothing replaces a good ole’ tip jar on the counter.

Whether you’re starting up a friendly competition, roping them in with cultural references and puns, or incentivizing with freebies, remind your customers to tip their bartenders by making it fun and engaging.

A good tactic to get tips going is to start the shift off with a few bills in the jar to remind guests this is a real need, kind of like an “everybody is doing it” subtle peer pressure. If you’re stuck on how to get the tips rolling in, check out thirty of the best tip jar ideas we came across for an emotional appeal, a little bit of humor, and clearing up local rivalries.

UPDATED: 1/19/24

Brewing great beer is important but if you can’t represent the soul of your brewery through your branding, no one will understand who you are. With over 9,700 breweries operating in the United States, your beer will only set you apart so much from the pack.

“How much better can your Hazy IPA be than the next guy?” says Ben Butler, former co-founder of the now-closed Necromancer Brewing and Top Hat, an award-winning design and marketing agency in Pittsburgh. “If two brands are sitting on a shelf right next to each other, you’re probably going to grab the one you’re more interested in. Branding now has the final say.”

For better or for worse, gone are the days of succeeding based on beer merit alone. In 2024, people want to hear the unique story that brought your company into the business. They want to connect with who you are as a brewery, learn about nuances that make you different, and understand your beliefs and values as a business.

But it can be challenging to answer the questions: Who are you? Who is your brand? And how can you visually represent your brewery in a few short words, colors, and illustrations?

We asked the experts at some of the top beer-focused design agencies around the country to share how they attempt to answer these questions, how to design a brewery logo and what makes the best ones work.

Updated: 3/16/23

Three years ago a global pandemic forced establishments in the hospitality industry to completely rethink, recreate, and reinvent strategies to maintain a revenue stream. And while in 2021 many bars began to return to “business as usual,” the lockdowns from COVID-19 started new bar trends that will keep developing throughout 2023 and beyond.

Above all, keep an eye on these six bar trends, which reflect the inventive ways bar owners have adapted and persevered to keep their businesses alive and their patrons happy.

Untappd is the world’s largest community of beer enthusiasts with over 1o million registered users. At its core, Untappd is an app that invites people to socially share the beers they’re currently enjoying by “checking them in.” Curious about what your friends are drinking or where they’re hanging out? Just check out their Untappd profile.

In April 2021, Untappd hit over 1 billion check-ins worldwide, making it the premier social platform to engage with a community of dedicated craft beer drinkers.

And in 2022, the community registered its one billionth badge earned. What is a badge you ask? Well, for a brewery, beer business, taproom, or bar, one of the best ways to tap into this hyper-engaged community is through Untappd badges.

UPDATED 2/16/23

When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit in the early months of 2020 the most requested feature on the Untappd for Business platform was a way to allow customers to see food, wine, and cocktails by scanning a QR code.

According to an eMarketer report from Insider Intelligence, during the height of the pandemic (2020) smartphone users who scanned a QR code at least once during the calendar year surged to 65.7 million people. And while the rush to implement this technology has certainly slowed, businesses are continuing to turn to QR codes as a viable part of their business model.

Even three years later, touchless web and app-based menus remain extremely important, giving your customers quick and easy access to your menus.

These QR codes give a full contactless experience for your patrons. Whether through printed materials or digital menus, customers can safely scan a code and view any type of menu—beer, food, wine, or cocktail.

From a business perspective, QR codes and digital menus can help you save on printing and labor costs and even potentially drive your bottom line.

With the popularity of QR codes on the rise, it’s crucial to use this tactic to save money and better serve your customers.

Thanks to some creative thinking, there are a variety of ways to display QR codes throughout your establishment. From creative posters to simple table tents, here are the top nine ways to display your QR codes in your restaurant or bar.