Greene King Beer & Meat

BRIEF

Pub and brewing giants, Greene King, asked us to answer the call of branding the traditional or high street segment of their pub portfolio – a project which required us to go through the hardship of visiting a number of pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the country. Well, seeing as they twisted our arms…

THEORY

As well as our oh-so-strenuous field-testing of a number of independent and chain pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the UK, we also carried out a series of customer surveys to properly understand the kinds of customers that go to pubs, bars and restaurants at specific ends of the market, as well as to compare against Greene King’s own research.

This allowed us to differentiate between pubs in different segments and areas by their individual levels of brandedness, which, combined with our own expertise, equipped us to make recommendations about the direction to take within the segment. The overall brand direction that we proposed was one that gave customers and patrons the impression of visiting an independent pub, despite that pub continuing to sit under the Greene King umbrella.

PROCESS

Overhauling menus, specials boards, promotions and redesigning the online presence of pubs within this segment was but one part of our work for Greene King. Perhaps the largest element of the project was one of deciding upon and describing the experience that the pubs should provide, as well as what they should aspire to.

This was laid out in two separate documents, one breaking down the ways in which customers will be able to experience the brand and respond to its touchpoints, and another with a series of comprehensive customer profiles that explained the types of person that the pubs will attract, the situations that would bring them to the pub, as well as what they can expect to get out of coming to the pub.

Topped off with a rousing mission statement and a tone of voice document helping pub owners to stay on-brand across social media and so on, our print design and brand strategy has already been rolled out to The Grain & Hop Store in Cambridge, and will be rolled out to other traditional or high street pubs within Greene King’s portfolio in the months to come.