Wacky font – must be craft

 
There have been murmurings for a while that Greene King were preparing to relaunch the beers of its Scottish subsidiary Belhaven in a “craft beer” direction. And here they are, turning up unannounced in Tesco. On an end-of-aisle display underneath some alcopops. Not the presentation I would have chosen, but what do I know about marketing?

What strikes me is that similarity of the labels to the newly repackaged Greene King-branded “craft” offerings like St Edmunds and Craft English Lager or whatever it’s called.

What also strikes me is how cheap and tacky the labels look. The old ones might have been a bit dated, but they had a bit of dignity. The new bottles have none.

Still, at least the beers are in brown glass now. I’d rather have a drinkable beer with an ugly label than a lightstruck one.

I’ve thought for quite a while that it’s only a matter of time until Belhaven brewery closes, and this convergence of the packaging design has the alarm bells ringing just a bit louder.

It looks very much like all the Greene King speciality beers are getting this treatment, including the venerable Strong Suffolk, which deserves better. Seeing it packaged with this childish typography, which for some reason I find reminiscent of a blackcurrant smoothie, is vaguely distasteful.

Comments

  1. I was recently at the Greene King brewery, which I must get round the writing up. The Suffolk Strong has indeed been be-done and has a cartoon bull on the label if I remember rightly. Someone there remarked how awful it looked and I couldn't disagree. The beer was still great though.

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  2. The stuff they want to sell is at eye level, they stick the stuff the less profitable stuff at floor level. Like the value beans.

    Still it looks like craft to me will that label. It's where all the kids are at.

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  3. Interesting - I think it was only Twisted Thistle that was included in the new GK crafty range at launch, alongside Strong Suffolk,Noble Lager, etc. http://blog.beerviking.net/2014/01/greene-kings-crafty-rebrand.html

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