January 21, 2025 • 44 mins
There's some exciting news afoot at MHW - the program formerly known as Concept-to-Commercialization has undergone a complete rebrand, and program Head Ian Perez, along with Project Manager Michelle Johnson aka MJ join host Jimmy Moreland to dive into the creative and logistical processes of creating BrandArc.
Returning guests Laura Baddish, founder of The Baddish Group, and Chris Edmunds of United Creatives chat about their roles in the rebrand, and how individual alcohol brands can apply the same thinking and strategies to their own brands.
Want to see the new BrandArc logo before the big marketing push? Pay a visit to Ian's LinkedIn and check out that banner!
See the BrandArc services page: Website
Find out more about The Baddish Group: Website
More info about United Creatives: Website | Instagram
More info about MHW at https://www.mhwltd.com/
Follow us! LinkedIn | Instagram
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast, where we take deep
dives into various aspects ofthe alcohol industry.
My name is Jimmy Moreland.
Mhw is a US and EU beveragealcohol importer, distributor
and service provider.
Co-hosting with me today, forthe first time in quite a while,
is MHW's Ian Perez.
How have you been, ian?
It's been a while, I know Goodto see you, Ian.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's been a while, I know.
Good to see you.
Jimmy.
Happy New Year.
I don't know if we're stilldoing Happy New Years on the
17th of January, but it'sJanuary.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
As listeners are hearing this, this one's going
out pretty quickly.
So Happy New Year to you.
It's good to be into 2025.
And we also are happy towelcome a new co-host, a new
face to us anyway, mhw's MJ.
How's it going, mj?
Welcome?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Hello, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Good to have you on here Now can you give us a brief
rundown of how we got you onhere?
I like to always joke aboutCassidy roaming the halls of MHW
with like a blow dart guntrying to bag our next co-host.
So how are we so lucky to haveyou on the show here?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Well, it all started a couple of years ago, because I
am actually a career switchperson.
I worked for nine years as anelementary school teacher Wow
and I actually had the privilegeof teaching Ian's girlfriend's
daughter for two years Wow.
And so I got to know Ian.
And then Ian let me know thathe was looking to hire for this
new project manager role, whichI applied for and got.
(01:37):
So I've been at MHW for sixmonths now and shortly after
starting, Cassidy let me knowthat she's always looking for
people to be on this podcast,and so it finally happened.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Here you are.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
But I'm excited to get to talk about Brandar.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Now in which job this one or elementary school
teacher, would you say?
You deal with?
More crying, more tantrums,more Honestly?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
it's mostly me.
Not necessarily tantrums, but alot of tears.
A lot of blood, sweat and tearsare involved in making this
stuff happen.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And still nine years of elementary school teaching,
definitely saw more tears fromme than this position has.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Well, thank you for your service.
So we've got a greatconversation today with a couple
of people who helped the MHWteam out quite a bit on
something of an internal project.
On this podcast we typicallytalk about things that are very,
very brand-facing Advice andyou know stories and anecdotes,
(02:36):
things for the individualalcohol brands, but on today's
episode this is a little bit apeek behind the curtain at
what's going on at MHW andspecifically one of the I guess
you might call them thesemi-autonomous enclaves within
MHW.
That was known as the Conceptto Commercialization program,
(02:57):
which we've talked about manytimes on this podcast and maybe
some of our listeners theirbrands have taken advantage of
it.
But we're going to talk aboutthe rebrand of that and to do
that, let's go ahead and jumpright into it, get into this
conversation with our guests.
We have welcoming back thefounder of the Baddish Group,
laura Baddish, and UnitedCreatives designer, chris
Edmonds.
(03:17):
Welcome back both of you to theshow.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Thank you, Jimmy.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Nice to be back.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Thank you, it's great to have you back.
Ian, can you get us to workhere?
What do you got for us?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, so the goal of this episode is to kind of talk
through the new name that we'vecome up with for this division
or program within MHW and we'resuper excited to unveil.
Brandarc is the name that welanded on to essentially explain
the full suite of services thatwe offer under that umbrella,
(03:50):
and suppose the reason why wedecided to do that it's probably
a long answer to go back to thebeginning is when we first
started working in this projectmanagement style base.
We were working with a prettylarge brand agency and they had
asked us if we could help withsome brand development for a new
New to World whiskey and as anew kind of division, a new kind
of service or company orwhatever way you want to
(04:11):
describe it.
Over time, that service evolvesand we felt, after four years
of doing this, now was theperfect time to kind of put a
fully official name on it,because we kind of used terms
like brand execution, concept,commercialization, end-to-end
procurement, and we found thatthose were either difficult to
say or didn't quite sum upexactly what we were doing.
So we kind of wanted to create aset of graphics, a full name
(04:34):
and an extended piece on thewebsite so that people can see
this as its own kind of serviceor entity or almost company or
division and then know exactlywhat we do and then hopefully
reach out to us directly forsome services.
Because, while it's greatobviously being part of mhw, but
mhw is specifically known inthe industry regarding
importation and uh anddistribution in the united
(04:56):
states, but now a lot of peopleare learning about the new
services that we can provide toyou.
So I thought to stand out alittle bit from mhw was good to
to come up with a new name and anew kind of set of graphics for
our trade events.
That's a great example.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I'll tell listeners that Ian is not lying about the
branding.
If you're lucky enough to getan email from Ian, he's got a
brand new Spiffy signature linewith the new branding in there
and it looks very, very nice.
Laura, I guess let's talk aboutthe name brandArc, if that's
where we're going here.
Were there any other names thatwe considered?
Like, how does that process go?
(05:29):
I know we're talking a littlebit bigger picture than we
usually talk on this podcast,being super focused on the.
You know more on the clientside, but this is the MHW Mark
podcast.
Let's talk MHW business.
How does all of this cometogether?
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Well, you know this has been ongoing and the right
name was very important and youknow they landed on a few key
names, narrowed it down.
But BrandArc reallyencapsulates for me and the one
that goes out with, you know,messaging to support BrandArc
everything that BrandArc iscapable of from the beginning of
the communications process andthat could start with the paper
on a label or the color or thefont type to what's in the
(06:12):
bottle, like bringing the arcaround and then going full
circle with positioning andmarketing and strategy until
finally there is a place whereeveryone is comfortable and the
bottle gets on the shelf, itgets its visibility, it gets its
presence.
So ARC goes full circle and ARCis also a very powerful word to
(06:37):
me personally and I think whatIan and MJ and the team are
doing they're creating apowerful, not only visual but
package for new to market brandsor brands that want to refresh
and then giving them like this,like speedy shot into the retail
(06:59):
universe per se.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I feel like just the word arc evokes the idea of
storytelling, and on thispodcast, we are constantly
talking about how brands need toincorporate telling their story
in order to be successful inmarket.
So I'm tracking, I like it, Ithink it's, I think it's a great
idea.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Yeah, I mean, there's no hidden agenda with the brand
arc.
It's kind of like you know, gotto come up with all sorts of
agencies or you know sort ofintercompany names that are
weird and wonderful, but I thinkit's pretty important that it's
straightforward to understand.
People are going to know thatit's about brand and brand
architecture, you know, and it'sit's not just a logo on a label
(07:39):
of a drinks brand, it's also,you know, kind of through the
line offering and that's whatthe arc is about.
You know it's also, you know,kind of through the line
offering and that's what the arcis about.
You know it's kind of you knowyou can start a business but you
know you've got to move itaround and you've got to make it
and grow it sustainably and youknow, and then you've got to
get a label on there and youknow it's all of the logistics
that go for that, that MHW kindof involved with.
(07:59):
So yeah, I think it's kind ofyou know it's a little bit about
calling a spade a spade andbeing honest and saying, well,
it's brand architecture, it's astart to finish process and
we've sort of got this made up.
Single word of brand art it'skind of like a composite of
familiar, composite of two wordsbrand and architecture, but
just dark as well.
(08:20):
And you know that's given usthe formation of a, of a word
mark.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
We did a little bit of design for that um to give it
its own identity within thesort of mhw umbrella and when we
first started trying to come upwith the name, ian and I
literally just had this wholedocument where we would put down
any name we could possiblythink of that could work, and
some were just fun and silly.
Like I remember, I put downbrand buddies at one point and
(08:49):
then we had a bunch of littlemeetings, like with Laura and
other members of the team, andeven Chris came up with a name
that we really were thinkingabout called Drinkify.
So yeah, it was just a wholeprocess of elimination and
discussing what name bestrepresents what we want to
showcase to people.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And it's really hard.
I don't know, Jimmy, maybe youhave a similar kind of
background, obviously as amusician, probably in bands and
groups, and trying to come upwith a name that fits all the
characters in the band and themusic you're trying to play and
the stories you're trying totell.
It's just really hard to findthat name that everyone likes.
It resonates with what you'retrying to do as well.
I'm sure you have a lot ofstories around that.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I mean, that's probably the least mature kind
of ideation session you canimagine, but there's parallels
for sure.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
After a while you actually stop thinking about the
meaning of the word and thenyou start thinking about the
brand or the company.
And then you start thinkingabout the brand or the company
if you're lucky and successful.
It's like if you think of applecomputers, no one really thinks
of the fruit when you hearabout the company apple anymore.
You know you think of theirproducts, you think of their
methodology, you think about,think different and all the
different slogans and campaignsthat they've ran.
(10:00):
So I think you know it'll bethe same with the same with
brand arc.
You know I always think of thatcocktail bar milk.
Think you know it'll be the samewith the same with Brandark.
You know I always think of thatcocktail bar Milk and Honey.
You know one best bar in theworld.
It's like you wouldn't reallythink of those two ingredients
when you're in that cocktail barbut it kind of fit and it felt
right and it evoked a certainsense of they were taking care
of the ingredients in the drinksand things like that.
(10:21):
So I think with Brandark it'llsort of mature into itself over
a while as we start to get newprojects under our belt.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Can I ask just how long does a process like this
take, and was it sort of similar, I guess, laura, to other
clients that you've had andChris to other clients that
you've had, as far as doing arebranding for something that is
kind of a subset of a largercompany?
Speaker 5 (10:47):
You know, a lot of the time for us it's, you know,
1% inspiration and then 99%perspiration.
You know, sometimes the ideaswill come to us quite quickly
and then like kind of makingthem happen over the various
touch points and doing all thedue diligence on the different
creating the different pieces ofdesign and collateral that can
take, you know, quite a while.
So yeah, I mean as a companywe're an ideas wheelhouse and
(11:13):
it's just kind of like makingsure everything's aligned.
And you know there was somesort of fitment here with MHW,
you know, to make sure that itdovetailed and sat nicely with
that.
But yeah, for us the ideas comequickly and then it's like the
execution and making.
You know that always takeslonger.
It's the same with our drinksbranding projects as well.
They come quick and then youknow we'll spend months making
(11:34):
them happen.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
So yeah, I also thought that the team smartly
brought in other industryprofessionals just, you know,
just on calls and very casually,to talk about perception, what
people perceived MHW to be, andthen what's needed in the
(11:57):
marketplace and how tocommunicate.
What Ian and MJ do every dayand a lot of the brands that I
work with don't do that.
They sit in a bubble and eventhough they're an expert in a
category, they don't lookoutside that category.
What MHW did is brought inother industry professionals
(12:19):
writers, people who didpositioning, people who were
social media specialists.
So it was best practices fromthe very start.
They did not, even though it'stheir name, their product.
Ian has been doing it for years.
They still took into adviceeverything that was feedback
(12:44):
through all these sessions sothat it wasn't oh, this is what
we do, this is Ian's idea andhere's the name.
It was a continuing dialogueand I think for me, we started
talking about this, ian, in thesummer of yeah 24.
This in in the summer of yeah24, so not really that long.
(13:11):
To come up with something sopowerful is this?
Because I do think this is apowerful tool in the mhw toolbox
.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Yeah, whatever you do , you've got to stress test it.
You know you can't just dosomething at an ivory tower and
expect it to work right.
It's kind of like, you know,even if you've got like a team
of people and you're confident,you still want to share it and
see what people think before yougive it to the world.
So, yeah, I mean, definitelythis brand and the name was
stress tested and you know, fromfrom a design point of view, I
(13:39):
would like to think that whenpeople see it it's not overdone,
because brand arc is in thebusiness of creating brands, you
know, namely drinks brands andmaking them happen.
But a lot, a lot of drinksbrands today are actually
segueing into other things.
So, like you know, you've got adrinks brand and it meets with
some success and then thatdrinks brand becomes a fashion
line and they do wearables andthey start doing leather jackets
(14:01):
and motorbikes and all the restof it and it's the same name
you know.
So I think with brand arc it'slike it isn't overt styling,
it's not over the top likedripping in gold.
We've actually tried to just bereally default and there's like
a little kind of stamp ofapproval with the kind of sub
brand which is just to sort of,you know, it's like quality
check and that's kind of likewhat Ian and the team do and
(14:23):
that's what we do on a kind oflike design sense as well.
So we're not trying to likeload in all of these like fancy
luxury aesthetics.
It's very much a kind of likedefault bouts and braces.
You know where.
If you like MHW is is the armyand, uh, you know brand dark is
like, is like the specialMarines, it's like it's like the
(14:44):
crack team brand arc is like islike the special Marines, it's
like, it's like the crack team.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Chris, you bring up a good point, because I just read
this morning that a founder ofan ice cream company is very
much a believer in protein,protein, protein and just
launched a protein bar thatdoesn't have any identity to the
ice cream.
She's just positioned as thefounder of both brands and I
wonder if you really lose theassociation that you've brought
(15:16):
up as the best, the mostcreative, the most wonderful
product and then just totally gooff and not put your name on
the second product that you'relaunching.
I think Brand Arc as theimprador of MHW really makes
sense.
And I think the other thing isI was on email with the writer
(15:40):
this morning and I had no ideathat he knew about MHW and he
pulled interviews for me that hedid with one of the executives
from years ago, and MHW is sucha known entity that it may
really make sense to go this wayand associate the two.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Yeah, sure, I mean I don't think like there's going
to be an exit plan for Brandarkleaving MHW.
You know I can understand, likewith with the ice cream and the
kind of energy bar.
It's like they may want them tohave very separate identities
because you know, who knows whatthe business plans are in the
future.
But I think with Brandarkhaving the same styling and
(16:23):
colors and kind of like syncingup with the mhw kind of brand
world, you know that's mhwnailing its flag to the mask and
saying you know this is ours,you know this is our new kind of
like business within a business, if you like so yeah, I think,
I think it was important thatthey were aligned.
I mean, the earlier work we did,we drinkify, there was a lot of
lime green going on and it waspretty wild and it did feel like
(16:47):
a kind of californian startup,you know.
But yeah, you know that's whatcollaboration is about and, um,
you know, we sort of got theresult.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Uh, in the end, yeah, Now, ian and MJ, I promise with
this question I'm not trying tostart a fight, but is there
anything with this rebrand?
Is there anything that haschanged with your services
compared to what was offeredwith the concept of
commercialization, or is thisjust a new name and a new coat
of paint?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And like.
The best way to think ofBrandArc now is that it was kind
of like a startup within a verybig company, which is nice,
because most startups have a lotof issues with security with
regard to like is it going toexist in three months time?
So it was a really great kindof playground for us to be able
to do some things with havingless risk if such and such
offering or service failed.
So that's a big part of thereasons why we went to do a
rebrand is that we've completelychanged.
(17:44):
So originally it was just alittle bit of project management
, but now we've gone pretty muchfull suite of services regard
to supply chain, consulting,bits of marketing here and there
and just general consultingadvisory, and it's something
that MJ and I talk about a loton calls with new business, as
in.
We definitely like to use theterm consultancy with regard to
like being people in the know,industry experts as an example.
(18:07):
But we'd like to also use theterm project management because
I think sometimes consultantscan get a bit of a stigma of
expensive.
You get information and thenyou still have to do everything
yourself, whereas we're doingall that Plus we're actually
implementing all of theobservations and all of the
pieces of information that we'reidentifying, we're helping
implement those too.
So, yeah, the services havechanged a lot and that's the big
(18:28):
reason why and we wanted to dothis and just to go back to the
kind of initial question withwhy we did this originally was
that mhlb has a great set ofgraphics already, great assets,
um, but when we went to a tradeshow in the summer time, a lot
of those assets are dedicatedmore towards importation,
customs clearance, logistics,that kind of stuff where that's
(18:48):
part of BrandArc for sure.
But we definitely wanted tohammer home the more
storytelling, brand building,sourcing and those other pieces
required for us to bring aproject together.
And that's why it was a reallyimportant goal of Chris was to
make something new, but alsothat it can stand beside MHW and
not look too far out of place.
So the graphics are, I think, abit of a more of a kind of, I
(19:08):
would say, contemporary.
Take on the MHW logo and assets.
So it's a little bit more artsybecause, again, we're
storytellers, we're a little bitmore on the artistic side
versus logistics and complianceand importation, which kind of
tends to stay away from the kindof creative aspect of it.
It's a bit more formal, a bitmore procedural, as an example
too.
So, yeah, the services havechanged dramatically and
(19:29):
probably will continue to changebecause, again, as a still a
relatively new business within abusiness, we're always getting
new and weird and wonderfulqueries and probably the best
part about my job is that I canbring it to our senior
leadership team and they'rebasically like if you think you
can do it, let's try and see howand see how it work and
obviously letting clients know.
So we're kind of constantlyevolving, which is like,
(19:50):
especially from mj's, maybe,standpoint as a newer person.
Every job, every day isdifferent within this role and
every project.
There's no two projects everreally similar we're're also
always.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
We want to convey the fact that the story we're
telling is the client's storyand they still have ownership of
that.
We are just facilitators oftheir story, of their dream.
We're not trying to take itfrom them.
We're trying to help them bringto reality what they want.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Yeah, and bring it into sharper focus as well.
And I think, you know, whenclients come to us and they will
have that dream and they'llhave that story and it's very
important to preserve that andhelp people build on that.
But sometimes it needs to beput into sharper focus.
You know, like it's like yourbrand name might have a double
(20:38):
meaning, which is negative, andit's like let's discuss that.
Or one of your product namesmight have a double meaning.
So it's kind of like just beingable to see like the growth
pattern of a company or a drinksbrand or a brand, and sort of
stress testing that before youinvest in new design and making
it bigger, you know.
So it's just like clearing thepath and making sure that the
(21:00):
future is good for something,and that is sort of just about
having an ability to seesomething through the eyes of a
consumer.
It's that simple and that'swhat I say to my design team
here all the time.
You know we might spend timecreating a new brand or creating
a new drinks packaging and I'llbe like imagine you're looking
(21:21):
at it for the first time.
Does it make sense, you know?
is there anything in here whereit's going to upset people?
You know it's just making sure,making sure things are good.
You know that's what we do.
Basically call it stresstesting.
Actually, I don't use the wordstress, it is another word that
begins with S, it's four letters.
But that's what we do we stresstest.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Is that the kind of stuff that's like, oh, what does
your logo look like upside down?
Or you know how does ittranslate to a myriad of
languages?
Speaker 5 (21:49):
and those kinds of things Exactly, and it's just
like the Nike Airs when they hadflames on them and it said
something offensive in Arabic.
You know, it's just making surethat things are seen by
different people and they'reokay.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I think one one, I don't know.
Maybe, jimmy, we might need toedit this one out, but we have
one really good one.
I don't know, chris, if youremember back to cascade moon
edition 2, the george dickle umanniversary product, but I
remember one of the things theywanted was his signature to like
be very visible on the bottleand uh, this is definitely well,
this is for 21 plus peopleanyway.
But the signature went acrossthe brand name and obviously
george dickle, but the d andgeorge dickle um was like a very
(22:29):
fancy big calligraphy style dand it just looked like it
circles the name dickle or dickpart of dickle.
It was just like.
That was one thing we needed tospot and get rid of straight
away because, again, as a brand,like, looking at it from a
distance, like oh, it looksgreat.
But actually if you zoom in andscrutinize labels like so
that's a big part of like whatwe do to help make sure that
those things don't go out.
And, like to Chris's point aswell, and it happened to
(22:50):
everyone Like you can Google,like Nike, kfc, all these huge
companies all have these fauxpas as they look to go global
too.
So it's good to have morepeople on the team.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Essentially, and if they're really smart, they trade
on them.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Well, I've been looking at your logo and I
haven't noticed yet anythinghidden or subversive, so I'll
follow up if I do find somethingfor you.
It's there, though.
We call those Easter eggs.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Yeah, that's it, the best ones.
Talking of visual Easter eggs,look at all the work done for
disney by the animators who, bythe way, went unpaid for many
months and the easter eggs thatthe disney artists started
hiding in some of the mickeymouse are are unbelievable.
Have a dig on the internet andum, they're some of the best
(23:39):
easter eggs you can find allright, well, listeners, we will
not put those links in the show.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You can do that work yourself yeah let's, let's get
back on track here.
Let's talk about so we've donethe rebrand and so we're, we've
got the identity and sort of thepublic facing thing.
What about?
How is brand arc different fromwhat other companies that offer
brand development do?
How is BrandArc different?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I'd say the biggest thing that is different from
BrandArc to other companies isthat it's something that I've
noticed at trade events thatI've been to is that when you're
looking at building a brand atthese shows, you're going to see
a number of boots.
You're going to see the personthat will find you a liquid, so
a broker.
You're going to find aco-packer who's going to
actually bottle the liquid foryou.
(24:24):
You're going to find, maybe animporter who might help you
bring the product into theUnited States if it's not a
domestically produced product.
You're going to find someonelike a Chris.
There's going to be a designerthere that can help make your
labels look wonderful and yourpackaging look wonderful.
You're going to find a glasssupplier.
You're going to find a capsuleor cork supplier.
So those are the six people thatI've already mentioned that are
(24:45):
part of building a brand,whereas I feel like our
differentiation is we do all ofit in house.
So we have a crack design teama la United Creatives.
We have a wonderful PR groupthat can help with
communications on brands, as inthe Baddish Group, plus MJ and I
are the sourcing componentryand kind of marketing brand
development agency all in one.
So from a brand owner'sperspective, what I'd rather do
(25:07):
with one person that gives usall this information in one nice
, very sharp email and weeklycall, or do I want to have six
vendors and suppliers all aspart of this?
Either one of them could letyou down at any one stage for
whatever reason, and thensuddenly you're delayed, um.
So not only do we do it allin-house, but we also help you
like manage the entire project.
(25:28):
So not just hey, here's apretty bottle, here's a pretty
label.
It's coordinating all of thatgetting it penciled onto a
production um, onto onto theirschedule and actually physically
having a bottle to show for it.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
So that's the biggest , I'd say, differentiator
between us call it what it is,and it's a one-stop shop.
You know it's, and that isactually also a luxury that's
what.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
That's what I was about to say.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
It's nothing more one-stop shop.
It's a brand in a box, buteverything the architects are
all people who are familiar andwork day in, day out in the
industry.
Like Ian said, you might go toa designer who's a designer for
soap.
They don't know about theliquor industry, so they're
(26:13):
first going to have to startresearching and that takes up
time and when you're paying adesigner, time is money.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, very true, and that's our big value proposition
.
Is that, saving you time?
So, again, if you're aninvestor and you come across
someone who has a reallyinteresting idea and you want to
give them a reasonable amountof money, you can guarantee with
those there's a quicker returnon investment because we will
actually deliver a product toyou within a couple of months,
depending on how much time wehave for this project versus
(26:40):
someone.
A lot of the brand builders inthis industry are coming from
different industries.
They've made money in financeor in real estate, or they've
got a great family and friendsthat want to do this and
learning.
It could take you at least ayear just to understand the lay
of the land in terms of how thethree-tier system works in the
US, never mind having anythingto show for it.
So, like I said, we can workwith Chris, we can work with
(27:01):
Laura, we can work with all ofour other vendors to deliver a
product in rapid time.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
We're also very transparent when we do calls
with people on what we can do,can't do, will do, won't do, how
.
We're not trying to nickel anddime.
We want to help you get thebest bang for your buck and also
care about your project too.
So we're very open andtransparent about everything.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
And everyone's experience adds value to the
project, whereas you know you'renot going to always find
someone who is passionate orputs their heart and soul into
it.
Yeah, definitely passionate, or?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
puts their heart and soul into it.
Yeah, definitely.
Can we talk about next steps?
Is it just okay?
We've got everything in place,let's just get to work.
Is there more that you need todo to?
If you will, I guess, throwsome elbows and establish the
brand and make it known thatthis is who we are.
This is BrandArc.
What does that work?
Look like.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
So yeah, so it's a big push and and maybe Laura,
you can jump in on this one tooso there's a big push regarding
messaging, because thetraditional MHW client is
definitely a little bitdifferent from a brand arc
perfect client.
As an importer and distributor,you tend to work with finished
products, so you kind of missthat whole year to three years
of establishing the product,building it and getting it ready
(28:13):
for commercial use.
So obviously that's important.
And then what we're doing alsois that we're very fortunate we
got a pretty good budget forthis year regarding trade shows.
So getting out into theindustry and kind of like not
necessarily stepping away frommhw, but showing people that mhw
has more services than the kindof traditional services that
mhw is more known for.
So we're going to be workingwith a lot of chris with our new
(28:34):
booth setup.
So we're going to be workingwith a lot of Chris with our new
booth setup.
So we're going to be attendingthe American Craft Spirits
Association in March.
We're super excited about that.
That's in Arizona.
In the next couple of months.
We're going to be at theInternational Bulk Show in San
Francisco in July.
We'll also be at the AmericanDistilling Institute Conference,
adi in August and hoping to getto Amsterdam also.
(28:55):
So a European show for theWorld Bulk Wine and Spirits show
in November.
So yeah, big piece is justactually we have all these great
graphics, we have all thesegreat case studies, we have all
these great products and activeprojects.
We want to be able to showpeople what we're doing and
hopefully, in terms of sales,people are coming to us and
saying, okay, you worked on this, like I want to work with you,
versus what do you do?
(29:16):
Tell me about it and maybe I'mof interest.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
It's underrepresented really, like design and sort of
brand management and whathappens under the hood to build
brands.
You go around the train showsand it isn't really represented
at all Like the physical things,like the glass foundries, who
makes the stoppers, who printsthe labels, that's there.
But the actual business ofrunning and growing brands I
(29:42):
mean I just come back fromBerlin bar convent like a month
or two ago and it was likethere's nothing there on this
front, you know, and it's likeit's like the thing no one talks
about or wants to let anyoneknow how it's done.
So yeah, I think, I think theindustry needs it.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And that's what we're trying to do as well, because
definitely it's something thatwe see a lot when we're out and
about, when we're talking to,maybe, people who haven't
reached out to us directlyregarding BrandArc, but it's
just a conversation that's comeup in passing and it's always
like where were you 18 monthsago when I started this journey?
(30:21):
Because there's so manychallenges and pitfalls that
people have felt fallen into andthey decided to hit certain
launch windows and miss them andspent money and lost money and
lost momentum and whatnot.
So that's the whole idea is toget out there so that when
people are Googling, like maybethey're at their job right now,
thinking like you know, it wasmy dream.
I love tequila so much I reallywanted my own one.
I think I have enough moneysaved or I have some friends or
family or associates who cankind of jump in on this with me,
(30:41):
but like, where do I start?
So that's the kind of personthat we're looking to try and
find, especially this year, andmaybe Laura, if you want to talk
to a little bit about thatregarding messaging, yeah, I
think.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
for me it's getting Ian and the team and their work
front and center where wenormally wouldn't have an
opportunity to showcase.
So for me it's going topublications like Brand Week and
outside of the normal beveragetrade, getting the team
showcased as a branding agencyversus just a division of MHW.
(31:18):
So I see speaking engagementsahead and now that we're trying
to bring more brands on boardand happily ready to tell
stories of past success, thatgives me a whole lot of
ammunition to go back out thereand position this as a fresh
company within a company.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
And you mentioned it briefly there.
So we're doing trade shows.
Are you specifically showcasingBrandark?
Are you going to have a boothor what's that look like?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yeah, so all of those three shows.
We will have a booth.
So we'll be working with Chrison getting all of those
materials ready and graphics sothat when people are walking by
and squinting they can see branddark bowls and big and looking
great so that maybe some peoplewho maybe just see the name are
intrigued want to come over andfind out.
And then for the folks who arewalking past the booth, we're
going to have a lot of ourbottles on display as well, so
(32:10):
they always kind of the hardpart is keeping them all like
kind of clean, so obviouslypeople are coming up, picking
them up and they're kind of.
The hard part is keeping themall like kind of clean.
So obviously people are comingup, picking them up and they're
like kind of handling them.
It's like, oh, that's a 600bottle, can we please be careful
with that one?
Um, and a lot of these samplesare not actual samples.
They've been gifted to us aspart of production, so like
we're not pouring anything.
So we're always sad to say whensomeone sees like an 18 year
old whiskey, like, oh, can I tryit?
Like no, when we don't have alicense to pour it right now too
(32:32):
, this is like my only bottle,so this is mine uh kind of thing
too.
So that's going to be fun.
But also at um, theinternational bulk show in san
francisco, I'll be doing akeynote speech, which I'm
excited, slash, terrified, andthat's going to be, to chris's
point, about brand building.
So it's going to be like a ballabout private label or white
label, whichever way you want tocall it.
And kind of for aspiring brandowners who are maybe coming to
(32:54):
these shows looking to sourceliquid, it's again how do I
actually, when I have my liquididentified, how do I get it into
a bottle and what bottle shouldI use and which co-packer
should I use?
How much should I make, whatbudget should I put together and
when can I realistically havethis on shelf?
Because I've been given Xnumber of dollars to turn this
around by the end of the year.
Is that realistic?
Is it feasible?
(33:19):
And that's where we kind ofjump in Cause.
After talking to someone for 10minutes, we have a great idea
of like this is happening orthis is not happening, and if
for it to happen we need X, yand Z to happen, and then
usually they're like okay, howmuch does it cost?
Speaker 3 (33:26):
And one thing I'm very passionate about including
in any booth that we have issome kind of little snack, so
that people want to come to ourbooth and have like, oh, a
little snack.
So that people want to come toour booths and have like, oh, a
bag of pretzels, or, and thenwait.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
But if you want pretzels, do you also want to
talk about our business?
So to that point, that is agreat point, because for folks,
a lot of the industry, likebeveragecom, industry events are
industry events, so they're notreally open to the general
general public.
So when you explain them tolike friends or family or
whomever ever, they always soundgreat.
There's wine, there's spirits.
You don't have to pay foranything.
You can sample as much as yourbody will allow you to.
(34:03):
But people get dehydrated andafter a couple of hours or a
couple of days will eventuallystart getting sick of things and
just having a coffee or likepopcorn, handy, uh, or mints or
something like that.
Like it's a really good way toget traffic to the booth and
then suddenly some of thosepeople that might have just
walked past are like the bestpeople to talk to because, like
they maybe went there for onereason, didn't know that we
(34:24):
existed, came over to pick up alip balm or something like that,
and then suddenly it's justlike, oh, I'm here, like what
are we going to talk about?
And then suddenly that's thebest meeting of the entire show,
kind of thing too.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
Yeah, the MHW stand in Berlin actually had really
good coffee and it was sort ofsat within a sea of whiskey.
So yeah, it was welcome.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
You heard it here folks Stop by the Brandark booth
to get a snack and then putyour greasy mitts all over Ian's
bottles.
And, mj, if you can capture aphoto of Ian with like a sham or
whatever he's using to wipethese bottles down afterwards, I
would love to see that.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Yes, I would be on it .
Speaker 1 (35:00):
That might perhaps lead into my next question here,
which is about social media.
Is there going to be a separatesort of entity for BrandArc, or
is it just going to go?
Hey, we're part of MHW, we'regoing to just exist there.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
So I am hoping to talk with our marketing team and
maybe get into more of like theInstagram side so I can post
some fun projects.
We're working on that.
People can see like the step bysteps.
They can see trade shows,different bottles, different
videos of how the bottlings workand all sorts of things like
that.
So we're in talks about that.
(35:32):
It's in the works.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Watch this space we're in talks about that, it's,
it's in the works.
Watch this space.
Yeah, and on that like, becausewe get involved in a lot of
like kind of definitely thefunner parts of the industry,
it's, it's it's a great way toget like really good content out
there and just to give people aflavor of like products coming
down the line.
And we're super excited to workon a new rtd that just launched
in california last week, maruhigh um.
(35:54):
It's going to be hopefully oneof the next big kind of
competitors to the likes ofWhite Claw and Truly.
And we'll be going to thebrand's office on Tuesday for a
kind of launch happy hour kindof piece.
So it'll be great to get someshots of the cans because the
packaging is wonderful andobviously it's a great way for
us to kind of all to let ourhair down, because it was
definitely.
A lot of.
These projects can be stressfulbecause certain times we do have
(36:17):
really hard deadlines and it'sjust trying to make them happen
is difficult.
The beverage alcohol industryin itself is such a complicated,
convoluted industry sosomething that might take three
weeks in the normal world Iwould say could take six months
in the beverage alcohol spaceand even longer too.
So, um, so yeah, we're excitedto start sharing more about what
we do and if clients will allowus kind of early stages of like
(36:38):
mood boards, that kind of stuffto show you OK, we got here,
but this is the process fromwhere it started.
So I always love showing peopleoff where it started, because
everyone sees the finish goodand you're like, oh, that's
great.
And it's like well, it took alot of design stages, a lot of
back and forth and a lot ofsamples to get from A to Z, as
an example too.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
So, yeah, we're looking forward to sharing some
more of our stuff on socials aswell.
Just maybe not how much massgoes into everything, because
that's the less glamorous partto show on social media is the
mass.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
There's a lot of gallons to liters to miles to
pounds, which is always fun.
So that's yeah, that's anotherfun aspect of our day to day.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
That's a different podcast.
We'll launch the Brand Buddiespodcast.
We'll steal that from.
MJ and we'll make that a mathpodcast To sort of bring this
back around to more of theclients, the end clients of a
brand arc.
I'm hoping that this entireconversation, that we've had all
of this work, all of this timeand effort that's gone into A
(37:39):
rebrand, really establishing agood, identifiable, unique brand
for something that was existingas a business unit, if you will
, within mhw.
I'm hoping that that sort ofdemonstrates to Brands out there
that a quote rebrand is notjust ah, just a new name and a
logo and you just update thewebsite and that's it.
(38:00):
Right, that's a rebrand, that'sall you have to do.
Can we talk about having thatconversation with clients that
perhaps come to you, laura, orto any of you?
Can you talk about what thatconversation is like and how you
have to walk brands throughhaving that potentially
difficult conversation of whatthe reality of a rebrand really
(38:21):
entails?
Speaker 4 (38:21):
For me, I generally work with brands that are ready
to go on the shelf.
But there are some brands thatcome to me and they have no clue
what they're doing.
They have the liquid in thebottle.
So that's basically where I sit.
So from there I'll go on andrecommend or set up a meeting
(38:44):
actually with the MHW team.
I had one case of someone whosaid I have an idea for a brand,
but he had his bottle ideaalready and it's taken him three
years.
He's established the brand inItaly, he's expanding out to
other markets in Europe and he'sstill not ready to come into
(39:08):
the US.
Because the US, as Ian and MJknow, it's not the US, it's like
50 different countries, whichis also part of, you know, the
science and the ease of goingwith somebody like MHW for this,
just because it's MHW, theystill deal with every state,
(39:31):
every city, every logisticalequation, state, every city,
every logistical equation.
And then for the other portionis I do know some entrepreneurs
who want to start brands.
So for them, you know, I justgo to my MHW contact, which is
Bridget, and start aconversation.
Also, recommend other brands,be they people, recommend other
(39:58):
brands, be they people, andwelcome them or try to welcome
them into the MHW fold, becauseyou know, power is knowledge.
The more people, the morebrains we have, we can all get
further.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
I have a silly question.
I encourage folks to check outthis shiny new logo for the
BrandArc brand here.
We'll put links obviously inthe show notes there, but I'm
looking at it there and if youcan imagine, as this is an audio
format BrandArc inside thatcapital A it's sort of a camel
case, brandarc one word In thatcapital A, sort of nestled in
(40:32):
there is the sort of silhouetteof a bottle and the label is
sort of negative against that.
Did y'all have a specificbottle in your head when you
dropped that bottle in the A, orwas it just like, eh, whatever
fits.
Speaker 5 (40:45):
No, we just wanted to do a bottle that looked like a
bottle and work within there.
And yeah, the crossbar of thecapital letter A is the label,
if you like.
So it's a kind of a use of thenegative space as well as the
positive.
But yeah, we just wanted to getin that.
You know, this is aboutarchitecture, it's about
building, construction,architecture of a brand, and it
(41:07):
was about getting that into avery simple, you know, and
effective kind of a word mark.
You know, I think a lot of logosare like that.
They're incredibly simple, butthey'll have a sort of idea
behind them and you know, tomention apple computers, again,
you know, it's an apple with abite out of it, but the story
behind that brand is incredible,you know, and it's it's the
(41:29):
same.
With this, we're really justsort of trying to tell a story
of bottling and labeling, butyou know there's a whole lot
more to.
But if this can stop and makesomeone think, or they see the
bottle there and they're like,oh, I've seen it, even though
it's negative space, then youknow we've done our jobs.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
Or maybe it'll inspire them Like I want to make
something that looks like thatbottle.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
There you go.
That's an opportunity for abrand out there.
All right, now it's time forour fun question that we like to
ask at the end of every episode.
Now, Chris and Laura, you willalready have answered this
question, and that question issimply what is your favorite,
let's say, adult beverage?
(42:10):
Now, if that has changed, it'sbeen a while since either of you
have been on.
If that's changed, then let mehave it.
Chris, what's on your palate.
Speaker 5 (42:18):
these days I'm actually getting over a throat
infection, so I'm drinking a hottoddy.
So that's been the palatepleaser of the week.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
How crazy do you go?
Do you go cloves and the wholething, or you keep it simple?
Speaker 5 (42:31):
Cloves, lemon, honey, brown sugar.
But actually, because I'm inthe drinks industry, I'm using
really, really good whiskey.
You're meant to put cheapwhiskey in a hot toddy, but I'm
putting like $300 whiskey in ahot toddy, but don't tell anyone
.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
The hottest toddy I've ever heard of.
That's amazing, Laura.
How about you?
Speaker 4 (42:56):
I'm drinking more agave spirits these days, but
I'm combining that with a loveof bubbles.
So a French 75 made with amezcal or a bacchanora is it for
me?
I love, love, love bubbles andme, I love, love, love bubbles.
(43:19):
And agave is just differentfrom the darker spirits I
normally enjoy, like a bourbonor a scotch, that's lovely.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
A French 75.
Very, very good.
And, mj, since this is yourfirst time on the podcast, we
will ask you the question whatis your favorite adult beverage?
It can be Desert Island, youknow your forever beverage, or
just whatever you're chillingwith right now.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
I am just a simple girl who loves a glass of red
wine that's very heavy on thedark fruit, chocolate, cocoa
kind of notes.
That's just.
That's my go-to, tried and true.
We'll always hit the spot.
That's my go-to, tried and true, we'll always hit the spot.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
I want to say this has been a lot of fun.
Huge thanks to Laura Baddishand Chris Edmonds for coming by
and chatting with us.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
We've got to have you back again soon.
We'll have links in the shownotes if folks would like to get
more info on the Baddish Groupor United Creatives.
And thank you, listeners, forjoining us on the MHW Mark
podcast, and thanks again to IanPerez and MJ for joining me in
hosting this podcast is producedby me, jimmy Moreland, with
booking and planning support byCassidy Poe and Bridget McCabe.
(44:26):
It's presented by MHW.
Find out more at mhwltdcom orconnect with MHW on LinkedIn.
Lend us a hand by subscribing,rating and reviewing this
podcast wherever you listen.
We'll be back in your feed intwo weeks.
We'll see you then, cheers.
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast, where we take deep
dives into various aspects ofthe alcohol industry.
My name is Jimmy Moreland.
Mhw is a US and EU beveragealcohol importer, distributor
and service provider.
Co-hosting with me today, forthe first time in quite a while,
is MHW's Ian Perez.
How have you been, ian?
It's been a while, I know Goodto see you, Ian.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
It's been a while, I know.
Good to see you.
Jimmy.
Happy New Year.
I don't know if we're stilldoing Happy New Years on the
17th of January, but it'sJanuary.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
As listeners are hearing this, this one's going
out pretty quickly.
So Happy New Year to you.
It's good to be into 2025.
And we also are happy towelcome a new co-host, a new
face to us anyway, mhw's MJ.
How's it going, mj?
Welcome?
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Hello, happy to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Good to have you on here Now can you give us a brief
rundown of how we got you onhere?
I like to always joke aboutCassidy roaming the halls of MHW
with like a blow dart guntrying to bag our next co-host.
So how are we so lucky to haveyou on the show here?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Well, it all started a couple of years ago, because I
am actually a career switchperson.
I worked for nine years as anelementary school teacher Wow
and I actually had the privilegeof teaching Ian's girlfriend's
daughter for two years Wow.
And so I got to know Ian.
And then Ian let me know thathe was looking to hire for this
new project manager role, whichI applied for and got.
(01:37):
So I've been at MHW for sixmonths now and shortly after
starting, Cassidy let me knowthat she's always looking for
people to be on this podcast,and so it finally happened.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Here you are.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
But I'm excited to get to talk about Brandar.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Now in which job this one or elementary school
teacher, would you say?
You deal with?
More crying, more tantrums,more Honestly?
Speaker 2 (02:00):
it's mostly me.
Not necessarily tantrums, but alot of tears.
A lot of blood, sweat and tearsare involved in making this
stuff happen.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And still nine years of elementary school teaching,
definitely saw more tears fromme than this position has.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Well, thank you for your service.
So we've got a greatconversation today with a couple
of people who helped the MHWteam out quite a bit on
something of an internal project.
On this podcast we typicallytalk about things that are very,
very brand-facing Advice andyou know stories and anecdotes,
(02:36):
things for the individualalcohol brands, but on today's
episode this is a little bit apeek behind the curtain at
what's going on at MHW andspecifically one of the I guess
you might call them thesemi-autonomous enclaves within
MHW.
That was known as the Conceptto Commercialization program,
(02:57):
which we've talked about manytimes on this podcast and maybe
some of our listeners theirbrands have taken advantage of
it.
But we're going to talk aboutthe rebrand of that and to do
that, let's go ahead and jumpright into it, get into this
conversation with our guests.
We have welcoming back thefounder of the Baddish Group,
laura Baddish, and UnitedCreatives designer, chris
Edmonds.
(03:17):
Welcome back both of you to theshow.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Thank you, Jimmy.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Nice to be back.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Thank you, it's great to have you back.
Ian, can you get us to workhere?
What do you got for us?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, so the goal of this episode is to kind of talk
through the new name that we'vecome up with for this division
or program within MHW and we'resuper excited to unveil.
Brandarc is the name that welanded on to essentially explain
the full suite of services thatwe offer under that umbrella,
(03:50):
and suppose the reason why wedecided to do that it's probably
a long answer to go back to thebeginning is when we first
started working in this projectmanagement style base.
We were working with a prettylarge brand agency and they had
asked us if we could help withsome brand development for a new
New to World whiskey and as anew kind of division, a new kind
of service or company orwhatever way you want to
(04:11):
describe it.
Over time, that service evolvesand we felt, after four years
of doing this, now was theperfect time to kind of put a
fully official name on it,because we kind of used terms
like brand execution, concept,commercialization, end-to-end
procurement, and we found thatthose were either difficult to
say or didn't quite sum upexactly what we were doing.
So we kind of wanted to create aset of graphics, a full name
(04:34):
and an extended piece on thewebsite so that people can see
this as its own kind of serviceor entity or almost company or
division and then know exactlywhat we do and then hopefully
reach out to us directly forsome services.
Because, while it's greatobviously being part of mhw, but
mhw is specifically known inthe industry regarding
importation and uh anddistribution in the united
(04:56):
states, but now a lot of peopleare learning about the new
services that we can provide toyou.
So I thought to stand out alittle bit from mhw was good to
to come up with a new name and anew kind of set of graphics for
our trade events.
That's a great example.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I'll tell listeners that Ian is not lying about the
branding.
If you're lucky enough to getan email from Ian, he's got a
brand new Spiffy signature linewith the new branding in there
and it looks very, very nice.
Laura, I guess let's talk aboutthe name brandArc, if that's
where we're going here.
Were there any other names thatwe considered?
Like, how does that process go?
(05:29):
I know we're talking a littlebit bigger picture than we
usually talk on this podcast,being super focused on the.
You know more on the clientside, but this is the MHW Mark
podcast.
Let's talk MHW business.
How does all of this cometogether?
Speaker 4 (05:51):
Well, you know this has been ongoing and the right
name was very important and youknow they landed on a few key
names, narrowed it down.
But BrandArc reallyencapsulates for me and the one
that goes out with, you know,messaging to support BrandArc
everything that BrandArc iscapable of from the beginning of
the communications process andthat could start with the paper
on a label or the color or thefont type to what's in the
(06:12):
bottle, like bringing the arcaround and then going full
circle with positioning andmarketing and strategy until
finally there is a place whereeveryone is comfortable and the
bottle gets on the shelf, itgets its visibility, it gets its
presence.
So ARC goes full circle and ARCis also a very powerful word to
(06:37):
me personally and I think whatIan and MJ and the team are
doing they're creating apowerful, not only visual but
package for new to market brandsor brands that want to refresh
and then giving them like this,like speedy shot into the retail
(06:59):
universe per se.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I feel like just the word arc evokes the idea of
storytelling, and on thispodcast, we are constantly
talking about how brands need toincorporate telling their story
in order to be successful inmarket.
So I'm tracking, I like it, Ithink it's, I think it's a great
idea.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Yeah, I mean, there's no hidden agenda with the brand
arc.
It's kind of like you know, gotto come up with all sorts of
agencies or you know sort ofintercompany names that are
weird and wonderful, but I thinkit's pretty important that it's
straightforward to understand.
People are going to know thatit's about brand and brand
architecture, you know, and it'sit's not just a logo on a label
(07:39):
of a drinks brand, it's also,you know, kind of through the
line offering and that's whatthe arc is about.
You know it's also, you know,kind of through the line
offering and that's what the arcis about.
You know it's kind of you knowyou can start a business but you
know you've got to move itaround and you've got to make it
and grow it sustainably and youknow, and then you've got to
get a label on there and youknow it's all of the logistics
that go for that, that MHW kindof involved with.
(07:59):
So yeah, I think it's kind ofyou know it's a little bit about
calling a spade a spade andbeing honest and saying, well,
it's brand architecture, it's astart to finish process and
we've sort of got this made up.
Single word of brand art it'skind of like a composite of
familiar, composite of two wordsbrand and architecture, but
just dark as well.
(08:20):
And you know that's given usthe formation of a, of a word
mark.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
We did a little bit of design for that um to give it
its own identity within thesort of mhw umbrella and when we
first started trying to come upwith the name, ian and I
literally just had this wholedocument where we would put down
any name we could possiblythink of that could work, and
some were just fun and silly.
Like I remember, I put downbrand buddies at one point and
(08:49):
then we had a bunch of littlemeetings, like with Laura and
other members of the team, andeven Chris came up with a name
that we really were thinkingabout called Drinkify.
So yeah, it was just a wholeprocess of elimination and
discussing what name bestrepresents what we want to
showcase to people.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
And it's really hard.
I don't know, Jimmy, maybe youhave a similar kind of
background, obviously as amusician, probably in bands and
groups, and trying to come upwith a name that fits all the
characters in the band and themusic you're trying to play and
the stories you're trying totell.
It's just really hard to findthat name that everyone likes.
It resonates with what you'retrying to do as well.
I'm sure you have a lot ofstories around that.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I mean, that's probably the least mature kind
of ideation session you canimagine, but there's parallels
for sure.
Speaker 5 (09:39):
After a while you actually stop thinking about the
meaning of the word and thenyou start thinking about the
brand or the company.
And then you start thinkingabout the brand or the company
if you're lucky and successful.
It's like if you think of applecomputers, no one really thinks
of the fruit when you hearabout the company apple anymore.
You know you think of theirproducts, you think of their
methodology, you think about,think different and all the
different slogans and campaignsthat they've ran.
(10:00):
So I think you know it'll bethe same with the same with
brand arc.
You know I always think of thatcocktail bar milk.
Think you know it'll be the samewith the same with Brandark.
You know I always think of thatcocktail bar Milk and Honey.
You know one best bar in theworld.
It's like you wouldn't reallythink of those two ingredients
when you're in that cocktail barbut it kind of fit and it felt
right and it evoked a certainsense of they were taking care
of the ingredients in the drinksand things like that.
(10:21):
So I think with Brandark it'llsort of mature into itself over
a while as we start to get newprojects under our belt.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Can I ask just how long does a process like this
take, and was it sort of similar, I guess, laura, to other
clients that you've had andChris to other clients that
you've had, as far as doing arebranding for something that is
kind of a subset of a largercompany?
Speaker 5 (10:47):
You know, a lot of the time for us it's, you know,
1% inspiration and then 99%perspiration.
You know, sometimes the ideaswill come to us quite quickly
and then like kind of makingthem happen over the various
touch points and doing all thedue diligence on the different
creating the different pieces ofdesign and collateral that can
take, you know, quite a while.
So yeah, I mean as a companywe're an ideas wheelhouse and
(11:13):
it's just kind of like makingsure everything's aligned.
And you know there was somesort of fitment here with MHW,
you know, to make sure that itdovetailed and sat nicely with
that.
But yeah, for us the ideas comequickly and then it's like the
execution and making.
You know that always takeslonger.
It's the same with our drinksbranding projects as well.
They come quick and then youknow we'll spend months making
(11:34):
them happen.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
So yeah, I also thought that the team smartly
brought in other industryprofessionals just, you know,
just on calls and very casually,to talk about perception, what
people perceived MHW to be, andthen what's needed in the
(11:57):
marketplace and how tocommunicate.
What Ian and MJ do every dayand a lot of the brands that I
work with don't do that.
They sit in a bubble and eventhough they're an expert in a
category, they don't lookoutside that category.
What MHW did is brought inother industry professionals
(12:19):
writers, people who didpositioning, people who were
social media specialists.
So it was best practices fromthe very start.
They did not, even though it'stheir name, their product.
Ian has been doing it for years.
They still took into adviceeverything that was feedback
(12:44):
through all these sessions sothat it wasn't oh, this is what
we do, this is Ian's idea andhere's the name.
It was a continuing dialogueand I think for me, we started
talking about this, ian, in thesummer of yeah 24.
This in in the summer of yeah24, so not really that long.
(13:11):
To come up with something sopowerful is this?
Because I do think this is apowerful tool in the mhw toolbox
.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
Yeah, whatever you do , you've got to stress test it.
You know you can't just dosomething at an ivory tower and
expect it to work right.
It's kind of like, you know,even if you've got like a team
of people and you're confident,you still want to share it and
see what people think before yougive it to the world.
So, yeah, I mean, definitelythis brand and the name was
stress tested and you know, fromfrom a design point of view, I
(13:39):
would like to think that whenpeople see it it's not overdone,
because brand arc is in thebusiness of creating brands, you
know, namely drinks brands andmaking them happen.
But a lot, a lot of drinksbrands today are actually
segueing into other things.
So, like you know, you've got adrinks brand and it meets with
some success and then thatdrinks brand becomes a fashion
line and they do wearables andthey start doing leather jackets
(14:01):
and motorbikes and all the restof it and it's the same name
you know.
So I think with brand arc it'slike it isn't overt styling,
it's not over the top likedripping in gold.
We've actually tried to just bereally default and there's like
a little kind of stamp ofapproval with the kind of sub
brand which is just to sort of,you know, it's like quality
check and that's kind of likewhat Ian and the team do and
(14:23):
that's what we do on a kind oflike design sense as well.
So we're not trying to likeload in all of these like fancy
luxury aesthetics.
It's very much a kind of likedefault bouts and braces.
You know where.
If you like MHW is is the armyand, uh, you know brand dark is
like, is like the specialMarines, it's like it's like the
(14:44):
crack team brand arc is like islike the special Marines, it's
like, it's like the crack team.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Chris, you bring up a good point, because I just read
this morning that a founder ofan ice cream company is very
much a believer in protein,protein, protein and just
launched a protein bar thatdoesn't have any identity to the
ice cream.
She's just positioned as thefounder of both brands and I
wonder if you really lose theassociation that you've brought
(15:16):
up as the best, the mostcreative, the most wonderful
product and then just totally gooff and not put your name on
the second product that you'relaunching.
I think Brand Arc as theimprador of MHW really makes
sense.
And I think the other thing isI was on email with the writer
(15:40):
this morning and I had no ideathat he knew about MHW and he
pulled interviews for me that hedid with one of the executives
from years ago, and MHW is sucha known entity that it may
really make sense to go this wayand associate the two.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Yeah, sure, I mean I don't think like there's going
to be an exit plan for Brandarkleaving MHW.
You know I can understand, likewith with the ice cream and the
kind of energy bar.
It's like they may want them tohave very separate identities
because you know, who knows whatthe business plans are in the
future.
But I think with Brandarkhaving the same styling and
(16:23):
colors and kind of like syncingup with the mhw kind of brand
world, you know that's mhwnailing its flag to the mask and
saying you know this is ours,you know this is our new kind of
like business within a business, if you like so yeah, I think,
I think it was important thatthey were aligned.
I mean, the earlier work we did,we drinkify, there was a lot of
lime green going on and it waspretty wild and it did feel like
(16:47):
a kind of californian startup,you know.
But yeah, you know that's whatcollaboration is about and, um,
you know, we sort of got theresult.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Uh, in the end, yeah, Now, ian and MJ, I promise with
this question I'm not trying tostart a fight, but is there
anything with this rebrand?
Is there anything that haschanged with your services
compared to what was offeredwith the concept of
commercialization, or is thisjust a new name and a new coat
of paint?
Speaker 2 (17:23):
And like.
The best way to think ofBrandArc now is that it was kind
of like a startup within a verybig company, which is nice,
because most startups have a lotof issues with security with
regard to like is it going toexist in three months time?
So it was a really great kindof playground for us to be able
to do some things with havingless risk if such and such
offering or service failed.
So that's a big part of thereasons why we went to do a
rebrand is that we've completelychanged.
(17:44):
So originally it was just alittle bit of project management
, but now we've gone pretty muchfull suite of services regard
to supply chain, consulting,bits of marketing here and there
and just general consultingadvisory, and it's something
that MJ and I talk about a loton calls with new business, as
in.
We definitely like to use theterm consultancy with regard to
like being people in the know,industry experts as an example.
(18:07):
But we'd like to also use theterm project management because
I think sometimes consultantscan get a bit of a stigma of
expensive.
You get information and thenyou still have to do everything
yourself, whereas we're doingall that Plus we're actually
implementing all of theobservations and all of the
pieces of information that we'reidentifying, we're helping
implement those too.
So, yeah, the services havechanged a lot and that's the big
(18:28):
reason why and we wanted to dothis and just to go back to the
kind of initial question withwhy we did this originally was
that mhlb has a great set ofgraphics already, great assets,
um, but when we went to a tradeshow in the summer time, a lot
of those assets are dedicatedmore towards importation,
customs clearance, logistics,that kind of stuff where that's
(18:48):
part of BrandArc for sure.
But we definitely wanted tohammer home the more
storytelling, brand building,sourcing and those other pieces
required for us to bring aproject together.
And that's why it was a reallyimportant goal of Chris was to
make something new, but alsothat it can stand beside MHW and
not look too far out of place.
So the graphics are, I think, abit of a more of a kind of, I
(19:08):
would say, contemporary.
Take on the MHW logo and assets.
So it's a little bit more artsybecause, again, we're
storytellers, we're a little bitmore on the artistic side
versus logistics and complianceand importation, which kind of
tends to stay away from the kindof creative aspect of it.
It's a bit more formal, a bitmore procedural, as an example
too.
So, yeah, the services havechanged dramatically and
(19:29):
probably will continue to changebecause, again, as a still a
relatively new business within abusiness, we're always getting
new and weird and wonderfulqueries and probably the best
part about my job is that I canbring it to our senior
leadership team and they'rebasically like if you think you
can do it, let's try and see howand see how it work and
obviously letting clients know.
So we're kind of constantlyevolving, which is like,
(19:50):
especially from mj's, maybe,standpoint as a newer person.
Every job, every day isdifferent within this role and
every project.
There's no two projects everreally similar we're're also
always.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
We want to convey the fact that the story we're
telling is the client's storyand they still have ownership of
that.
We are just facilitators oftheir story, of their dream.
We're not trying to take itfrom them.
We're trying to help them bringto reality what they want.
Speaker 5 (20:17):
Yeah, and bring it into sharper focus as well.
And I think, you know, whenclients come to us and they will
have that dream and they'llhave that story and it's very
important to preserve that andhelp people build on that.
But sometimes it needs to beput into sharper focus.
You know, like it's like yourbrand name might have a double
(20:38):
meaning, which is negative, andit's like let's discuss that.
Or one of your product namesmight have a double meaning.
So it's kind of like just beingable to see like the growth
pattern of a company or a drinksbrand or a brand, and sort of
stress testing that before youinvest in new design and making
it bigger, you know.
So it's just like clearing thepath and making sure that the
(21:00):
future is good for something,and that is sort of just about
having an ability to seesomething through the eyes of a
consumer.
It's that simple and that'swhat I say to my design team
here all the time.
You know we might spend timecreating a new brand or creating
a new drinks packaging and I'llbe like imagine you're looking
(21:21):
at it for the first time.
Does it make sense, you know?
is there anything in here whereit's going to upset people?
You know it's just making sure,making sure things are good.
You know that's what we do.
Basically call it stresstesting.
Actually, I don't use the wordstress, it is another word that
begins with S, it's four letters.
But that's what we do we stresstest.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Is that the kind of stuff that's like, oh, what does
your logo look like upside down?
Or you know how does ittranslate to a myriad of
languages?
Speaker 5 (21:49):
and those kinds of things Exactly, and it's just
like the Nike Airs when they hadflames on them and it said
something offensive in Arabic.
You know, it's just making surethat things are seen by
different people and they'reokay.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I think one one, I don't know.
Maybe, jimmy, we might need toedit this one out, but we have
one really good one.
I don't know, chris, if youremember back to cascade moon
edition 2, the george dickle umanniversary product, but I
remember one of the things theywanted was his signature to like
be very visible on the bottleand uh, this is definitely well,
this is for 21 plus peopleanyway.
But the signature went acrossthe brand name and obviously
george dickle, but the d andgeorge dickle um was like a very
(22:29):
fancy big calligraphy style dand it just looked like it
circles the name dickle or dickpart of dickle.
It was just like.
That was one thing we needed tospot and get rid of straight
away because, again, as a brand,like, looking at it from a
distance, like oh, it looksgreat.
But actually if you zoom in andscrutinize labels like so
that's a big part of like whatwe do to help make sure that
those things don't go out.
And, like to Chris's point aswell, and it happened to
(22:50):
everyone Like you can Google,like Nike, kfc, all these huge
companies all have these fauxpas as they look to go global
too.
So it's good to have morepeople on the team.
Speaker 5 (22:59):
Essentially, and if they're really smart, they trade
on them.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Well, I've been looking at your logo and I
haven't noticed yet anythinghidden or subversive, so I'll
follow up if I do find somethingfor you.
It's there, though.
We call those Easter eggs.
Speaker 5 (23:17):
Yeah, that's it, the best ones.
Talking of visual Easter eggs,look at all the work done for
disney by the animators who, bythe way, went unpaid for many
months and the easter eggs thatthe disney artists started
hiding in some of the mickeymouse are are unbelievable.
Have a dig on the internet andum, they're some of the best
(23:39):
easter eggs you can find allright, well, listeners, we will
not put those links in the show.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
You can do that work yourself yeah let's, let's get
back on track here.
Let's talk about so we've donethe rebrand and so we're, we've
got the identity and sort of thepublic facing thing.
What about?
How is brand arc different fromwhat other companies that offer
brand development do?
How is BrandArc different?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I'd say the biggest thing that is different from
BrandArc to other companies isthat it's something that I've
noticed at trade events thatI've been to is that when you're
looking at building a brand atthese shows, you're going to see
a number of boots.
You're going to see the personthat will find you a liquid, so
a broker.
You're going to find aco-packer who's going to
actually bottle the liquid foryou.
(24:24):
You're going to find, maybe animporter who might help you
bring the product into theUnited States if it's not a
domestically produced product.
You're going to find someonelike a Chris.
There's going to be a designerthere that can help make your
labels look wonderful and yourpackaging look wonderful.
You're going to find a glasssupplier.
You're going to find a capsuleor cork supplier.
So those are the six people thatI've already mentioned that are
(24:45):
part of building a brand,whereas I feel like our
differentiation is we do all ofit in house.
So we have a crack design teama la United Creatives.
We have a wonderful PR groupthat can help with
communications on brands, as inthe Baddish Group, plus MJ and I
are the sourcing componentryand kind of marketing brand
development agency all in one.
So from a brand owner'sperspective, what I'd rather do
(25:07):
with one person that gives usall this information in one nice
, very sharp email and weeklycall, or do I want to have six
vendors and suppliers all aspart of this?
Either one of them could letyou down at any one stage for
whatever reason, and thensuddenly you're delayed, um.
So not only do we do it allin-house, but we also help you
like manage the entire project.
(25:28):
So not just hey, here's apretty bottle, here's a pretty
label.
It's coordinating all of thatgetting it penciled onto a
production um, onto onto theirschedule and actually physically
having a bottle to show for it.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
So that's the biggest , I'd say, differentiator
between us call it what it is,and it's a one-stop shop.
You know it's, and that isactually also a luxury that's
what.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
That's what I was about to say.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
It's nothing more one-stop shop.
It's a brand in a box, buteverything the architects are
all people who are familiar andwork day in, day out in the
industry.
Like Ian said, you might go toa designer who's a designer for
soap.
They don't know about theliquor industry, so they're
(26:13):
first going to have to startresearching and that takes up
time and when you're paying adesigner, time is money.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
Yeah, very true, and that's our big value proposition
.
Is that, saving you time?
So, again, if you're aninvestor and you come across
someone who has a reallyinteresting idea and you want to
give them a reasonable amountof money, you can guarantee with
those there's a quicker returnon investment because we will
actually deliver a product toyou within a couple of months,
depending on how much time wehave for this project versus
(26:40):
someone.
A lot of the brand builders inthis industry are coming from
different industries.
They've made money in financeor in real estate, or they've
got a great family and friendsthat want to do this and
learning.
It could take you at least ayear just to understand the lay
of the land in terms of how thethree-tier system works in the
US, never mind having anythingto show for it.
So, like I said, we can workwith Chris, we can work with
(27:01):
Laura, we can work with all ofour other vendors to deliver a
product in rapid time.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
We're also very transparent when we do calls
with people on what we can do,can't do, will do, won't do, how
.
We're not trying to nickel anddime.
We want to help you get thebest bang for your buck and also
care about your project too.
So we're very open andtransparent about everything.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
And everyone's experience adds value to the
project, whereas you know you'renot going to always find
someone who is passionate orputs their heart and soul into
it.
Yeah, definitely passionate, or?
Speaker 1 (27:34):
puts their heart and soul into it.
Yeah, definitely.
Can we talk about next steps?
Is it just okay?
We've got everything in place,let's just get to work.
Is there more that you need todo to?
If you will, I guess, throwsome elbows and establish the
brand and make it known thatthis is who we are.
This is BrandArc.
What does that work?
Look like.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
So yeah, so it's a big push and and maybe Laura,
you can jump in on this one tooso there's a big push regarding
messaging, because thetraditional MHW client is
definitely a little bitdifferent from a brand arc
perfect client.
As an importer and distributor,you tend to work with finished
products, so you kind of missthat whole year to three years
of establishing the product,building it and getting it ready
(28:13):
for commercial use.
So obviously that's important.
And then what we're doing alsois that we're very fortunate we
got a pretty good budget forthis year regarding trade shows.
So getting out into theindustry and kind of like not
necessarily stepping away frommhw, but showing people that mhw
has more services than the kindof traditional services that
mhw is more known for.
So we're going to be workingwith a lot of chris with our new
(28:34):
booth setup.
So we're going to be workingwith a lot of Chris with our new
booth setup.
So we're going to be attendingthe American Craft Spirits
Association in March.
We're super excited about that.
That's in Arizona.
In the next couple of months.
We're going to be at theInternational Bulk Show in San
Francisco in July.
We'll also be at the AmericanDistilling Institute Conference,
adi in August and hoping to getto Amsterdam also.
(28:55):
So a European show for theWorld Bulk Wine and Spirits show
in November.
So yeah, big piece is justactually we have all these great
graphics, we have all thesegreat case studies, we have all
these great products and activeprojects.
We want to be able to showpeople what we're doing and
hopefully, in terms of sales,people are coming to us and
saying, okay, you worked on this, like I want to work with you,
versus what do you do?
(29:16):
Tell me about it and maybe I'mof interest.
Speaker 5 (29:18):
It's underrepresented really, like design and sort of
brand management and whathappens under the hood to build
brands.
You go around the train showsand it isn't really represented
at all Like the physical things,like the glass foundries, who
makes the stoppers, who printsthe labels, that's there.
But the actual business ofrunning and growing brands I
(29:42):
mean I just come back fromBerlin bar convent like a month
or two ago and it was likethere's nothing there on this
front, you know, and it's likeit's like the thing no one talks
about or wants to let anyoneknow how it's done.
So yeah, I think, I think theindustry needs it.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
And that's what we're trying to do as well, because
definitely it's something thatwe see a lot when we're out and
about, when we're talking to,maybe, people who haven't
reached out to us directlyregarding BrandArc, but it's
just a conversation that's comeup in passing and it's always
like where were you 18 monthsago when I started this journey?
(30:21):
Because there's so manychallenges and pitfalls that
people have felt fallen into andthey decided to hit certain
launch windows and miss them andspent money and lost money and
lost momentum and whatnot.
So that's the whole idea is toget out there so that when
people are Googling, like maybethey're at their job right now,
thinking like you know, it wasmy dream.
I love tequila so much I reallywanted my own one.
I think I have enough moneysaved or I have some friends or
family or associates who cankind of jump in on this with me,
(30:41):
but like, where do I start?
So that's the kind of personthat we're looking to try and
find, especially this year, andmaybe Laura, if you want to talk
to a little bit about thatregarding messaging, yeah, I
think.
Speaker 4 (30:51):
for me it's getting Ian and the team and their work
front and center where wenormally wouldn't have an
opportunity to showcase.
So for me it's going topublications like Brand Week and
outside of the normal beveragetrade, getting the team
showcased as a branding agencyversus just a division of MHW.
(31:18):
So I see speaking engagementsahead and now that we're trying
to bring more brands on boardand happily ready to tell
stories of past success, thatgives me a whole lot of
ammunition to go back out thereand position this as a fresh
company within a company.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
And you mentioned it briefly there.
So we're doing trade shows.
Are you specifically showcasingBrandark?
Are you going to have a boothor what's that look like?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Yeah, so all of those three shows.
We will have a booth.
So we'll be working with Chrison getting all of those
materials ready and graphics sothat when people are walking by
and squinting they can see branddark bowls and big and looking
great so that maybe some peoplewho maybe just see the name are
intrigued want to come over andfind out.
And then for the folks who arewalking past the booth, we're
going to have a lot of ourbottles on display as well, so
(32:10):
they always kind of the hardpart is keeping them all like
kind of clean, so obviouslypeople are coming up, picking
them up and they're kind of.
The hard part is keeping themall like kind of clean.
So obviously people are comingup, picking them up and they're
like kind of handling them.
It's like, oh, that's a 600bottle, can we please be careful
with that one?
Um, and a lot of these samplesare not actual samples.
They've been gifted to us aspart of production, so like
we're not pouring anything.
So we're always sad to say whensomeone sees like an 18 year
old whiskey, like, oh, can I tryit?
Like no, when we don't have alicense to pour it right now too
(32:32):
, this is like my only bottle,so this is mine uh kind of thing
too.
So that's going to be fun.
But also at um, theinternational bulk show in san
francisco, I'll be doing akeynote speech, which I'm
excited, slash, terrified, andthat's going to be, to chris's
point, about brand building.
So it's going to be like a ballabout private label or white
label, whichever way you want tocall it.
And kind of for aspiring brandowners who are maybe coming to
(32:54):
these shows looking to sourceliquid, it's again how do I
actually, when I have my liquididentified, how do I get it into
a bottle and what bottle shouldI use and which co-packer
should I use?
How much should I make, whatbudget should I put together and
when can I realistically havethis on shelf?
Because I've been given Xnumber of dollars to turn this
around by the end of the year.
Is that realistic?
Is it feasible?
(33:19):
And that's where we kind ofjump in Cause.
After talking to someone for 10minutes, we have a great idea
of like this is happening orthis is not happening, and if
for it to happen we need X, yand Z to happen, and then
usually they're like okay, howmuch does it cost?
Speaker 3 (33:26):
And one thing I'm very passionate about including
in any booth that we have issome kind of little snack, so
that people want to come to ourbooth and have like, oh, a
little snack.
So that people want to come toour booths and have like, oh, a
bag of pretzels, or, and thenwait.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
But if you want pretzels, do you also want to
talk about our business?
So to that point, that is agreat point, because for folks,
a lot of the industry, likebeveragecom, industry events are
industry events, so they're notreally open to the general
general public.
So when you explain them tolike friends or family or
whomever ever, they always soundgreat.
There's wine, there's spirits.
You don't have to pay foranything.
You can sample as much as yourbody will allow you to.
(34:03):
But people get dehydrated andafter a couple of hours or a
couple of days will eventuallystart getting sick of things and
just having a coffee or likepopcorn, handy, uh, or mints or
something like that.
Like it's a really good way toget traffic to the booth and
then suddenly some of thosepeople that might have just
walked past are like the bestpeople to talk to because, like
they maybe went there for onereason, didn't know that we
(34:24):
existed, came over to pick up alip balm or something like that,
and then suddenly it's justlike, oh, I'm here, like what
are we going to talk about?
And then suddenly that's thebest meeting of the entire show,
kind of thing too.
Speaker 5 (34:33):
Yeah, the MHW stand in Berlin actually had really
good coffee and it was sort ofsat within a sea of whiskey.
So yeah, it was welcome.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
You heard it here folks Stop by the Brandark booth
to get a snack and then putyour greasy mitts all over Ian's
bottles.
And, mj, if you can capture aphoto of Ian with like a sham or
whatever he's using to wipethese bottles down afterwards, I
would love to see that.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Yes, I would be on it .
Speaker 1 (35:00):
That might perhaps lead into my next question here,
which is about social media.
Is there going to be a separatesort of entity for BrandArc, or
is it just going to go?
Hey, we're part of MHW, we'regoing to just exist there.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
So I am hoping to talk with our marketing team and
maybe get into more of like theInstagram side so I can post
some fun projects.
We're working on that.
People can see like the step bysteps.
They can see trade shows,different bottles, different
videos of how the bottlings workand all sorts of things like
that.
So we're in talks about that.
(35:32):
It's in the works.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Watch this space we're in talks about that, it's,
it's in the works.
Watch this space.
Yeah, and on that like, becausewe get involved in a lot of
like kind of definitely thefunner parts of the industry,
it's, it's it's a great way toget like really good content out
there and just to give people aflavor of like products coming
down the line.
And we're super excited to workon a new rtd that just launched
in california last week, maruhigh um.
(35:54):
It's going to be hopefully oneof the next big kind of
competitors to the likes ofWhite Claw and Truly.
And we'll be going to thebrand's office on Tuesday for a
kind of launch happy hour kindof piece.
So it'll be great to get someshots of the cans because the
packaging is wonderful andobviously it's a great way for
us to kind of all to let ourhair down, because it was
definitely.
A lot of.
These projects can be stressfulbecause certain times we do have
(36:17):
really hard deadlines and it'sjust trying to make them happen
is difficult.
The beverage alcohol industryin itself is such a complicated,
convoluted industry sosomething that might take three
weeks in the normal world Iwould say could take six months
in the beverage alcohol spaceand even longer too.
So, um, so yeah, we're excitedto start sharing more about what
we do and if clients will allowus kind of early stages of like
(36:38):
mood boards, that kind of stuffto show you OK, we got here,
but this is the process fromwhere it started.
So I always love showing peopleoff where it started, because
everyone sees the finish goodand you're like, oh, that's
great.
And it's like well, it took alot of design stages, a lot of
back and forth and a lot ofsamples to get from A to Z, as
an example too.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
So, yeah, we're looking forward to sharing some
more of our stuff on socials aswell.
Just maybe not how much massgoes into everything, because
that's the less glamorous partto show on social media is the
mass.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
There's a lot of gallons to liters to miles to
pounds, which is always fun.
So that's yeah, that's anotherfun aspect of our day to day.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
That's a different podcast.
We'll launch the Brand Buddiespodcast.
We'll steal that from.
MJ and we'll make that a mathpodcast To sort of bring this
back around to more of theclients, the end clients of a
brand arc.
I'm hoping that this entireconversation, that we've had all
of this work, all of this timeand effort that's gone into A
(37:39):
rebrand, really establishing agood, identifiable, unique brand
for something that was existingas a business unit, if you will
, within mhw.
I'm hoping that that sort ofdemonstrates to Brands out there
that a quote rebrand is notjust ah, just a new name and a
logo and you just update thewebsite and that's it.
(38:00):
Right, that's a rebrand, that'sall you have to do.
Can we talk about having thatconversation with clients that
perhaps come to you, laura, orto any of you?
Can you talk about what thatconversation is like and how you
have to walk brands throughhaving that potentially
difficult conversation of whatthe reality of a rebrand really
(38:21):
entails?
Speaker 4 (38:21):
For me, I generally work with brands that are ready
to go on the shelf.
But there are some brands thatcome to me and they have no clue
what they're doing.
They have the liquid in thebottle.
So that's basically where I sit.
So from there I'll go on andrecommend or set up a meeting
(38:44):
actually with the MHW team.
I had one case of someone whosaid I have an idea for a brand,
but he had his bottle ideaalready and it's taken him three
years.
He's established the brand inItaly, he's expanding out to
other markets in Europe and he'sstill not ready to come into
(39:08):
the US.
Because the US, as Ian and MJknow, it's not the US, it's like
50 different countries, whichis also part of, you know, the
science and the ease of goingwith somebody like MHW for this,
just because it's MHW, theystill deal with every state,
(39:31):
every city, every logisticalequation, state, every city,
every logistical equation.
And then for the other portionis I do know some entrepreneurs
who want to start brands.
So for them, you know, I justgo to my MHW contact, which is
Bridget, and start aconversation.
Also, recommend other brands,be they people, recommend other
(39:58):
brands, be they people, andwelcome them or try to welcome
them into the MHW fold, becauseyou know, power is knowledge.
The more people, the morebrains we have, we can all get
further.
Speaker 1 (40:10):
I have a silly question.
I encourage folks to check outthis shiny new logo for the
BrandArc brand here.
We'll put links obviously inthe show notes there, but I'm
looking at it there and if youcan imagine, as this is an audio
format BrandArc inside thatcapital A it's sort of a camel
case, brandarc one word In thatcapital A, sort of nestled in
(40:32):
there is the sort of silhouetteof a bottle and the label is
sort of negative against that.
Did y'all have a specificbottle in your head when you
dropped that bottle in the A, orwas it just like, eh, whatever
fits.
Speaker 5 (40:45):
No, we just wanted to do a bottle that looked like a
bottle and work within there.
And yeah, the crossbar of thecapital letter A is the label,
if you like.
So it's a kind of a use of thenegative space as well as the
positive.
But yeah, we just wanted to getin that.
You know, this is aboutarchitecture, it's about
building, construction,architecture of a brand, and it
(41:07):
was about getting that into avery simple, you know, and
effective kind of a word mark.
You know, I think a lot of logosare like that.
They're incredibly simple, butthey'll have a sort of idea
behind them and you know, tomention apple computers, again,
you know, it's an apple with abite out of it, but the story
behind that brand is incredible,you know, and it's it's the
(41:29):
same.
With this, we're really justsort of trying to tell a story
of bottling and labeling, butyou know there's a whole lot
more to.
But if this can stop and makesomeone think, or they see the
bottle there and they're like,oh, I've seen it, even though
it's negative space, then youknow we've done our jobs.
Speaker 3 (41:44):
Or maybe it'll inspire them Like I want to make
something that looks like thatbottle.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
There you go.
That's an opportunity for abrand out there.
All right, now it's time forour fun question that we like to
ask at the end of every episode.
Now, Chris and Laura, you willalready have answered this
question, and that question issimply what is your favorite,
let's say, adult beverage?
(42:10):
Now, if that has changed, it'sbeen a while since either of you
have been on.
If that's changed, then let mehave it.
Chris, what's on your palate.
Speaker 5 (42:18):
these days I'm actually getting over a throat
infection, so I'm drinking a hottoddy.
So that's been the palatepleaser of the week.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
How crazy do you go?
Do you go cloves and the wholething, or you keep it simple?
Speaker 5 (42:31):
Cloves, lemon, honey, brown sugar.
But actually, because I'm inthe drinks industry, I'm using
really, really good whiskey.
You're meant to put cheapwhiskey in a hot toddy, but I'm
putting like $300 whiskey in ahot toddy, but don't tell anyone
.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
The hottest toddy I've ever heard of.
That's amazing, Laura.
How about you?
Speaker 4 (42:56):
I'm drinking more agave spirits these days, but
I'm combining that with a loveof bubbles.
So a French 75 made with amezcal or a bacchanora is it for
me?
I love, love, love bubbles andme, I love, love, love bubbles.
(43:19):
And agave is just differentfrom the darker spirits I
normally enjoy, like a bourbonor a scotch, that's lovely.
Speaker 1 (43:22):
A French 75.
Very, very good.
And, mj, since this is yourfirst time on the podcast, we
will ask you the question whatis your favorite adult beverage?
It can be Desert Island, youknow your forever beverage, or
just whatever you're chillingwith right now.
Speaker 3 (43:38):
I am just a simple girl who loves a glass of red
wine that's very heavy on thedark fruit, chocolate, cocoa
kind of notes.
That's just.
That's my go-to, tried and true.
We'll always hit the spot.
That's my go-to, tried and true, we'll always hit the spot.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
I want to say this has been a lot of fun.
Huge thanks to Laura Baddishand Chris Edmonds for coming by
and chatting with us.
Speaker 4 (44:04):
You're welcome.
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
We've got to have you back again soon.
We'll have links in the shownotes if folks would like to get
more info on the Baddish Groupor United Creatives.
And thank you, listeners, forjoining us on the MHW Mark
podcast, and thanks again to IanPerez and MJ for joining me in
hosting this podcast is producedby me, jimmy Moreland, with
booking and planning support byCassidy Poe and Bridget McCabe.
(44:26):
It's presented by MHW.
Find out more at mhwltdcom orconnect with MHW on LinkedIn.
Lend us a hand by subscribing,rating and reviewing this
podcast wherever you listen.
We'll be back in your feed intwo weeks.
We'll see you then, cheers.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.