In many countries, consumers are still getting to know the newly available no-low brands and variants. For those that are noticing, they’re trying to work out where the segment fits in their life: if it’s relevant, offers value, the best occasions to drink it and which brands are most appealing. At this early stage, leveraging strong parent brand equity with an alcohol-free variant is an efficient way to tap into the opportunity. But functional propositions based on the absence of alcohol alone can pose a real challenge because they won’t be sufficiently differentiated from the increasing number of competitors flooding the market with similar no-low offers. No-low brands and line extensions need very clear brand positioning, implementation guidelines and experience guardrails.

Brand Positioning Territories

Smaller drinks businesses and startups may not have given much thought about which part of the drinks category to operate within. There are different ways to segment the total category but approaches generally involve a matrix of functional and emotional attributes. For example, the space could be social, bonding, fun, indulgent, knowledgeable or thirst quenching. Identifying this territory helps uncover the relevant insights and human truths upon which to base your positioning and brand execution guardrails. Each ‘territory’ comes with it’s own codes, language, look & feel, claims, functions, flavour expectations and executional ‘sweet-spots’.

Brand Positioning & Core Creative Idea

The starting point for a successful brand is total clarity on what it stands for in consumers’ minds and how it adds value to their life. For a line extension this may involve understanding the different no-low insights that drive interest, which functional benefits you’ll leverage and which parts of your brand ladder to flex. For standalone brands, you’ll need a brand purpose and the positioning around it which must add much more value than just being free of alcohol. TFC can help you create compelling brand positioning and how to express the brand purpose through a simple yet powerful core creative idea that everyone ‘gets’ and which drives brand activity across every touch point.

Brand Architecture

Extending functional or emotional brand benefits or expanding the relevance to a broader group of consumers has implications for your brand
architecture. We can help you define the role of line-extensions and variants, sub-brands and standalone brands within a clearly defined brand
architecture, coherently expressed through every design touchpoint.

Brand Guard Rails & Implementation Toolkits

The fastest way to fail in the no-low brand segment is to be inconsistent or lack cut-through. Meaning can easily be lost-in-translation between a brand manager’s desk and channel execution. Creating a simple framework to explain the brand positioning, the core creative idea behind the support material, how to represent the brand (and how not to) and how to activate it is critical. Defining how your brand should be activated across the most important touchpoints reduces the potential for inconsistency, maximizes the power of brand experience and makes implementation so much easier and fun for
your commercial team. We can support brand development and define exciting experience guidelines with world-class thinking proven in dozens of countries.

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