Building a premium brand starts with a solid understanding of your beverage market. It means taking a quality beverage from the production line to the market with a strong marketing and distribution strategy in place. The brand should be developed on the backbone of a distribution strategy that plays to the strengths of your beverage and your target market.

Start with Quality Production.

Develop your beverages paying attention to the tastes of your target consumer. Understand what trends are developing and get well known brew masters and wine makers to develop your methods and make your beverages - using established names will lend your brand the weight necessary to break into the market. Do not go to market with a product you are not proud of.

Develop Strong Marketing.

You also want to have your marketing already planned. Take the time to develop your marketing strategy for each specific market you plan to enter. Use your market research, look at what your competition is doing and find unique entry strategies to ensure your product will have the marketing support necessary to succeed.
 

Developing a Premium Brand is a delicate balance between elitism and availability. Each aspect of the company image needs to be considered with the ultimate goal of premiumization in mind. We asked Steve Bird, of Steve Bird Wines, New Zealand, to tell us a bit about what it means to develop a premium brand from the ground up.

Steve Bird gives insight into what it means to develop, produce and market a Premium Brand for Export. (Article also includes a full interview of Steve with BTN).