The brewery brand audit: what your drinkers already remember
A rebrand that throws away what drinkers recognise is money spent twice. This guide walks a brewery team through the audit that comes first: every asset on one table, the colours and trade marks written down and a taproom drawing exercise that shows what has stuck.
Find out what you already own before you change anything
Stage four of a rebrand is about weighing brand equity, which is a grand phrase for a simple question: what do people already recognise about you without trying? A faded logo can still be the thing a regular spots across a crowded bar. Lose it by accident and you pay to build that recognition again.
The stakes are real. Budget 5 to 15% of a year's revenue for a full rebrand, less for a refresh. On a ₹3 crore turnover that is ₹15 lakh to ₹45 lakh. Spend that much and you want to know which pieces were worth keeping. Our rebrand guide shows where the audit sits among the seven stages.
Every asset goes on one table, including the embarrassing ones
Collect everything the brewery has ever used to talk to a drinker. Logo files in every version. Every label and can wrap, so the 330 ml and 500 ml cans as well as the 650 ml bottle. Keg collars, tap badges, coasters, table tents and menus. T-shirts and caps. Website copy, the Instagram grid, the WhatsApp catalogue and the sales deck your team shows on-trade accounts. Press clippings, the kind ones and the unkind ones. Founding documents and the old business plan belong here too, because they show what the brand was meant to be.
Put the physical pieces in one room and photograph each one. Put the files in one shared folder with a clear name. Give one person two weeks to own it, or it will drift for two months.
Write your colours down as numbers, not adjectives
"Our orange" is not a colour specification. List the main brand colours and then the secondary colours each beer uses. Next to each, record whatever codes you have: Pantone reference, CMYK for the label printer and hex for the website. Missing codes are a finding in themselves.
Lay the 330 ml can, the menu card and a T-shirt side by side under daylight. If you count three different oranges, you have learned that the colour lives in drinkers' memory more loosely than in your files. That matters when a designer asks which shade to keep.
Know what you own legally before a designer touches it
Make an inventory of intellectual property. Include the company name, every beer name, logos, distinctive packaging and the domain names and social handles. Mark each item as registered, applied for or unprotected. In India, beer falls in class 32 of the trade mark classes and a registration runs for 10 years before renewal. A trade mark attorney can confirm what you hold and what a new name might clash with.
In India add one more column: which labels carry state excise approval. Note the date each approval was granted. A changed label usually goes back through approval in each state where you sell, alongside the FSSAI labelling rules. Rules vary by state and change, so check the current notification or ask a licensing consultant. Our guide to beer label rules in India covers the process.
Ask your fans to draw your logo from memory
This is the most useful part of the audit and the most fun. Print simple outlines (a blank 330 ml can, a 650 ml bottle, a coaster, a T-shirt) and leave them on taproom tables with markers. Keep them out until you have 30 to 40 drawings, which takes most taprooms three or four weeks.
Tell staff not to coach anyone. A guest who hesitates and then draws a green circle with a bird in it is telling you something true. Scan every sheet into the shared folder. Then count: how many got the colour right, the shape, the name, the symbol? What survives in most drawings is equity. What nobody draws is decoration.
Sort what you found into keep, fix and drop
This stage ends with a choice between evolution and revolution. Make it concrete with a three column sheet. Keep holds what drinkers remember and you own outright. Fix holds what they remember but you cannot protect or print consistently. Drop holds what nobody noticed. Our own rough test: anything that turns up in more than half the drawings goes in Keep unless there is a legal problem.
Owners are often too close to their own logo to judge it, so a second, outside eye on the sorted sheet helps. That sheet then tells you whether you need a refresh or a full rebrand.
This week, name the audit owner and clear one shelf for the collection. Print the drawing sheets on Friday.
About the authors
Ankur Napa is a Master Brewer who also works in data and AI. Chatty Girija spent more than 30 years in advertising, hosts the Cheers Chatty Beer Podcast and teaches at Craft Beer School.
Common questions
How long does a brewery brand audit take?
Gathering assets takes about two weeks if one person owns it. The fan drawing exercise needs three or four weeks of taproom traffic to collect a few dozen sheets.
Do I need a lawyer for the trade mark inventory?
You can list what you think you own yourself. A trade mark attorney should confirm registrations and check new names for clashes before you spend money on design.
Will changing my label need fresh excise approval?
Usually yes, in each state where you sell. Rules vary by state and change, so check the current notification or ask a licensing consultant before you print.
