Liberty Street Brewing Company is a craft brewery located in Plymouth, Michigan that was founded in 2008. Their brand strategy focuses on conveying their passion for craft beer and local history through their name, logo, tagline, and branding which reference the historic Liberty Street area. Their mission is to share robust, flavorful craft beers while gaining more local brand recognition. To promote their brand, they will focus on increasing social media presence, website visitors, merchandise sales, and brewery membership through targeted campaigns.

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Brand Strategy for Liberty Street Brewing Company
Shannon Chambers
Business Storytelling and Brand Development
Full Sail University Fall 2013

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Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how Liberty Streets brand strategy measures up to
today’s business market. presents tourism and marketing from the craft brewers point of
view; what brand recognition challenges the brewery faces when marketing their
products, as well as the kind brand strategy can be formed in order to keep their
consumers interested. An analysis is presented of the brand components: brand name,
brand identity, business card, and tagline. The brand story, mission statement, and
archetype build the brand message of the company. Using the SWOT Analysis, the
breweries weaknesses are exposed and ready to take advantage of the opportunities
provided. By providing an in depth analysis of the brand strategy, Liberty Street Brewery
hopes to gain the recognition and admiration from craft beer lovers.
Introduction
Brands give potential clients a solid idea of what they are buying before they buy
it, helping speed up their buying decision. Building trust with customers, employees, and
stakeholders will help strengthen and manage the perceptions of your business. Creating
a brand means picking a name, a logo, color scheme, font type, and incorporating your
values that make up your business. Author Marty Neumeier presents three important
branding questions in his book, The Brand Gap: “Who are you?”; “What do you do?”;
“Why does it matter?” (pg. 31, 2006). Liberty Streets brand helps patrons see the face
under the mask, enticing them with their innovation and individuality.
Liberty Street Brewing Company Brand Elements
Brand Name

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Branding is a very important tool in the marketing industry. The brand name
represents the face behind the company. Neumeier believes that, “The need for good
brand names originates with customers, and customers will always want convenient ways
of identifying, remembering, discussing, and comparing brands,” (pg. 83).
The brand name, Liberty Street Brewing Company was selected based on
Neumier’s 7 criteria’s for a good name: 1. Distinctiveness; 2. Brevity; 3.
Appropriateness; 4. Easy spelling and pronunciation; 5. Liability; 6. Extendibility; 7.
Protectabiltiy. Liberty Streets brand name fits all of major characteristics of the company:
a brewery located on Liberty Street. Liberty Street Brewing Company, named after a
road, is a distinctive yet known name for the patrons of Plymouth Michigan. Liberty
Street is a historic road dating back when settlers Keziah (Benjamin) and William
Starkweather, Farmers from Preston, Connecticut, purchased 240 acres of land from the
United States Government on March 11, 1825 (Land Mark Reality)
Short and easy to spell, owner Joe Walters gave Liberty Street Brewing Company
it’s name based on the historic building it’s resides in and the Old Town Village it’s
located in. The owner/brewer uses cross roads, such as Starkweather Street, to label his
beer. The brand name allows the microbrewery to stand on it’s own two feet, benefiting
by its historic surroundings. The great name of the company extends the opportunities for
brand play. According the Neumiers book, The Brand Gap, “Some of most powerful
names are those that combine well with a visual treatment to create a memorable brand
icon,” (pg. 84). Liberty Street Brewery’s name is memorable but not to be shortened to
Liberty Street and be confused for that of the road itself.

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Brand Identity
Brand identity is the representation of a company's reputation through the
conveyance of qualities, passions, innovation, strengths, and it’s purpose. People will first
recognize the name and logo-- the face of the company. The brand logo’s color, shape,
and tagline speaks for the company and needs to be able to sell its charming
characteristics to its consumers.
Liberty Street Brewery’s logo is all American colors; red, white, and blue call out
to local patrons and visitors supporting the history of the Old Town Plymouth. Below
figure 1 is the company’s logo.
Figure 1
Below figure 3 and 4 represent the front and back of breweries business card. Keeping it
simple, the brewery uses the same branding elements of their brand logo. By using the
brand logo on the face of the business card, consumers will connect the logo with the
business at first glance.

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Figure 2: Front Figure 3: Back
Brand Tagline
Liberty Street Brewery’s tagline is, “Freedom to choose a better beer,” expresses the
primary purpose of the company. Starting with the word “freedom” Liberty Street
Brewery connects to its brand name and story immediately.
Liberty Street Brewing Company Brand Messaging
It is clear that the creativity that Liberty Street Brewing Company pours into their
businesses is inspired by innovation and passion. They’re not afraid to attempt new ideas
or ingredients; frankly this is how they’re becoming authentic. Liberty Streets archetype
is a creator; “An expert at seeing the big picture and rearranging disparate pieces to craft
something meaningful.”
The results fit perfectly with that of Liberty Street’s brand. They’re constantly
changing their combination of ingredients to craft something meaningful to them and
enjoyable to their consumers. However, their brand is also that of an explorer archetype.
They’re only able to create a masterpiece by experimenting with different ingredients for
their beers. One year their Oktoberfest is bitter but the next year one ingredient is being
Joe Walters
Owner/Brewer
Phone 734-207-9600
Fax734-207-9606
149 W. Liberty St. Plymouth, MI 48170

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substituted for something with a much sweeter quality. It’s one of their best beers yet and
it’s the experimentation that has let them reach their latest success.
Having a brand is a like having a house, it’s used to store the meaning and value
of a company. It’s the way we’re able to identify the essential elements of our brands.
Finding the right visual and verbal archetypes in order to be fluently recognizable is
extremely important. Liberty Street Brewing Company continues to use their innovation
to expand the variety of flavors of craft beers, rather than creating a whole new product
they’re expanding their knowledge of beer to a new level. Instead of creating a new color
by combining blue and red or blue and green, they have combined yeast, hops, water, and
pumpkin spice. Instead of being able to enjoy a warm pumpkin pie on a cool fall day, you
can enjoy a cold pumpkin beer on a warm fall afternoon. It’s not about “Out with the old
and in with the new;” it’s about re-inventing something that already existed. By using an
archetype, Liberty Street Brewery is able to put a personality and face with its brand.
MissionStatement
Liberty Street Brewing Company began with a passion and desire to share craft
beers. With robust flavors and tantalizing aromas each handcrafted beer seeks an
invested drinking partner. Continuing with this passion, Liberty Street aspires to create
more local brand recognition within Southeastern Detroit.
Brand Story
A Pioneerfor beer, Liberty StreetBreweryCompany’s story
beganin 2008 when their doors opened up to the public. If you’re having a rough day,
love the Michigan craft brewery scene, or just want to try something new, try a taste of
history at Liberty Street Brewery located in Plymouth’s Old Town Village. Owner Joe

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Walters has always had the passion to brew and distribute truly amazing beer and he
continues to explore the many possibilities of flavor combinations. Our focus is to deliver
delicious craft beer by concentrating on smaller batches, ensuring that each beer is
carefully crafted. Our commitment to handcrafted beer, excellent hospitality, local
sourcing, and community involvement has been the foundation for our growth and
success.
The roots of Liberty Street have been firmly planted in Old Town. With a dedication to
heritage, the first beer crafted on site, Starkweather Stout, acquired its name from a
nearby cross street. An environmentally responsible business practice has been one of our
core values from the beginning. It inspires us to employ re-use reclaimed building
materials and second-hand furnishings that enhanced the historic features of the building
built in 1895. Still giving an old-English theme, the Brazilian cherry hardwood floors,
beautiful oak trim and wainscoting, six-panel solid oak doors, granite tile bar and
tabletops, and old artwork beautifully displayed throughout the pub was there when
owner, Joe Walters bought the building.
Joe spends long days at the pub, working hard to make his dreams come true,
taking it to the next level. With such a unique location and historic charm, Liberty Street
Brewery continues its efforts to create delicious beer while taking pride in the energy put
into the quality of beer, staff, and overall experience.
Promotion Plan
A promotion plan is built around the companies target audience, product, and
brand identity. Liberty Street wants their marketing campaign to increase their invested

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beer drinkers. The marketing campaign is to increase social media recognition, website
visitors, car sticker sales, and the number of brewery members.
Increasing social media recognition includes prioritizing link building. As tourism
increases within the state of Michigan, it is essential that Liberty Street use this to their
advantage. An important link builder will be connecting Liberty Street’s website to that
of Pure Michigan, a highly used tourism guide for Michigan. Secondly, Michigan
Brewer’s Guild website is an important link builder. A vast majority of current and new
craft beer drinkers need to be quickly and accessibly linked from the Brewer’s Guild
website. With the campaign to increase web visitors it becomes essential to make the
website more customer directed. The website will need to be user-friendly and age
appropriate. As visitors access the link they will find an age verification request to delve
further into becoming an invested beer drinker.
If the website is easy to use, a marketing campaign for online brewery
memberships will be implanted. In order to have a fully functioning and successful
website, Liberty Street Brewing Company needs to make sure that the tags are in place
and the links are not broken. The company needs to submit a sitemap.xml file to Google
in order to make sure the website shows up in Google’s search engines. Google’s website
offers a tool that will inspect the website just incase there are tags missing, giving results
quickly.
In order to ensure that the website is obtaining steady traffic, the company must
market a fresh and regularly updated website. In case there are multiple visits to the site,
it is crucial to keep the website up to date and unique. Adding a good video to the

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homepage will improve conversations and page rankings more so than any other item you
can add to your pages.
Car stickers are cheap to produce and important to the overall marketing
campaign. All members will be provided a car sticker to help display their pride in being
an invested beer drinker. Equally, availability of car stickers will be made for all
consumers regardless of membership status. The car stickers will be identifiable with the
LSB logo and the goal is to create the most amount of visibility outside of the brewery to
the public.
Finally, Liberty Street Brewing Company will introduce their product at beer
festivals all over Michigan. Frankenmuth’s World Beer Expo is just one of the many beer
festivals that brings craft beer together from all of the United States. Word of mouth at
these large venues will be greatly beneficial.
Liberty Street Brewing Company Market Research
Target Market
Unlike traditional beer drinkers, craft beer drinkers hardly ever stay loyal to just
one specific brand of beer. A microbrew customer may sample a new brand of Stout one
week, pick up a favorite pale ale the next week, and eat a meal with a lager the week after
that. This is because microbrew drinkers seek out new and exciting beers. Craft beer
drinkers have come to expect breweries to produce multiple beers rather than one single
products. It’s essential for microbrewers to use a noticeable name, logo and distinctive
flavor to attract attention to potential customers.

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Depending on the product mix, the largest customer segments are men between
the ages 21-55. Though woman are beginning the be a lager percentage of craft beer
drinkers than 10 years ago, searching to get more flavor out of beer.
Product Description
Every beer is fresh, flavorful, perfectly balanced, and true to style while
maintaining a slight individuality. Liberty Street offers hand crafted beers, brewed in
small amounts to ensure top quality. Offering four “regular” beers that stay on the taps at
all times and rotate “seasonal” styles on the remaining taps. This allows the brewers the
freedom to brew specialty and higher gravity beers.
Glutinous Minimums is the newest of the “regular” beers offered on tap and the
breweries first gluten free beer brewed with sorghum, raspberry blossom honey, agave
nectar and cinnamon sticks. The other “regular” beers offered year round are: Liberty
Belle Blonde Ale, lightest colored beer based on an American Blond style; Red Glare
known as the flagship beer with caramel notes that are quickly balanced with a mild hop
bitterness; Starkweather Stout, full of chocolate flavor and aroma coming from grain
only; Steamy Windows, very much like a pale ale, but this California Common is
fermented with a lager yeast to create a crisp taste with fruity notes. Besides the great
beer, Liberty Street Brewery offers four types of wine, as well as hard cider made locally.
Competitive Differentiators
The three main competitors of Liberty Street Brewery are Arbor Brewing
Company, Atwater Brewery, and Detroit Beer Co. Arbor Brewing Company, located in
the heart of Ann Arbor, Michigan is know for committing themselves to tasty handcrafted
beer and good food. They offer happy hour prices through the week. Detroit Brewing

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Company, located downtown Detroit is known for its broad selection of eclectic
American cuisine and award winning ales and lagers. Their location, right down the street
from Comerica Park, keeps this brewery busy throughout spring, summer, and fall.
Atwater Brewery is located in Detroit’s historic Rivertown Distract and was one of the
first breweries founded in 1997 that is still around today. They’re known for using only
the finest malt and hops brought in from Germany to brew their lagers.
Liberty Street Brewery is the only craft brewery that focuses strictly on the beer
they’re brewing, allowing outside food in. Unlike their competitors, they want their
customers to be able to enjoy the many different beers they have created, while having
the option to pair any of the beer with one of the many local restaurants great food. If
your not looking to bring food in, your able to enjoy one of the snacks offered while
sitting down with a board game from the back.
Liberty Street Brewing Company Brand SWOT Analysis
The content within the SWOT analysis, such as the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats will help develop the outline of a marketing strategy. The
owner and management staff has a wide and comprehensive knowledge of the local
manufacturing market and expertise, which will go towards getting into the market of
craft beer. However acknowledging the weakness of a small company without years of
experience, and the threat of new competition, it’s important to analyze the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

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Strengths Weaknesses
 The brand name conveys what the
company represents-American
History.
 The brand logo and design (colors)
portray the identity of the brewery.
 The tagline expresses the primary
purpose of the company.
 Lack of brand recognition.
 Brand story lacks individuality and
distinctiveness.
 Lack of a diverse advertising focus.
Opportunities Threats
 Exposure at communities’ events.
 Working with local restaurants to
promote each other and establish
mutually beneficial relationships.
 Multiple online sources to expand
brand recognition.
 Other local microbreweries in the
area.
 Economic downturn decreases
population spending.
Strengths
The strength of Liberty Street Brewery is showcasing its brand to its consumers.
The brand name represents the concepts that the company stands for, American History.
Fitting perfectly with a strong brand name, the colors chosen for the brand logo quite
accurate. Red, white, and blue represent the breweries brand logo, also representing the
American flag and the freedom of press, speech, and religion. Liberty Street Brewery
combines the freedom of happiness with their tagline, “Freedom to choose better beer.”
Weaknesses
With strengths come weaknesses, every business has them. Weak brand recognition and
a weak brand story are two of the companies’ greatest weaknesses. If the brewery
expands its connection to social media marketing, they have the possibility of the target
market being exposed to their brand. Internet Marketing: A practical Approach

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proclaims, Google’s president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Nikesh Arora,
commented that:
‘ The change in consumer behavior is so fundamental that in the
future one of the dividing lines between firms that succeed and
those that don’t will be the ones that have embraced the Internet. ’
If used correctly, the Internet can help companies enhance distribution, communication,
and transactions.
Opportunities
Liberty Street Brewery takes advantage of two opportunities within its
community. By using its resources, such as community events and brew festivals, the
brewery is putting their name out there getting their brand a little more recognizable
every time. The company also teams up with local restaurants for beer dinners, where
craft beer lovers get to enjoy five amazing beers pairing well with foods prepared by
local chefs. Not only are they again putting their name out their, they’re supporting other
local businesses.
Threats
Within the last 10 years in the state of Michigan micro brewing has grown.
According to Brewers Association (2012), “Growth of the craft brewing industry in 2011
was 13% in volume compare to 12% the year before.” As growth continues within the
state, the time is ripe to make an entrance and join the other proud brewers that are
making an impact towards Michigan’s economy and its people. Even though Liberty
Street Brewery is surrounded by multiple award winning microbreweries, it has the
possibility to still stand out with a an memorable brand name, logo, and story. Even

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though Michigan ranks #5 in the nation and claims it’s fame as “The Great Beer State,”
the brewery still faces a weak economy. With low wages and a slow increase in
employment, consumers do not have a lot of money to spend on the finer things in life
such as craft beer.
Conclusion
As a business owner you want your brand to stand out in the crowd. The target market
needs to see the person behind your brand, wanting to connect with the brand. The
elements of brand recognition include logos, stories, colors, a tagline, and the mission
statement. These elements are important for the brewery to get the main message out.
Nuemier’s book The Brand Gap “Since branding is a process, not an entity, it can be
learned, taught, replicated, and cultivated.” Knowing your strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats is the first step of learning what will increase your brand
recognition.

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