The MHW Mark Podcast
Welcome to the MHW podcast, bringing you conversations with experts and leaders in the alcoholic beverage industry. Covering topics ranging from selling alcohol online, creating a new brand from scratch, and what you need to know when you start doing business internationally. Hosted by Jimmy Moreland and a rotating cast of cohosts from the folks at MHW.
The MHW Mark Podcast
Lessons from the BrandArc Rebrand - with Laura Baddish and Chris Edmunds
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
Welcome to the MHW Mark podcast, where we take deep dives into various aspects of the alcohol industry. My name is Jimmy Moreland. Mhw is a US and EU beverage alcohol importer, distributor and service provider. Co-hosting with me today, for the first time in quite a while, is MHW's Ian Perez. How have you been, ian? It's been a while, I know Good to see you, Ian.
Speaker 2:It's been a while, I know. Good to see you. Jimmy. Happy New Year. I don't know if we're still doing Happy New Years on the 17th of January, but it's January.
Speaker 1: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 to welcome a new co-host, a new face to us anyway, mhw's MJ. How's it going, mj? Welcome?
Speaker 3:Hello, happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Good to have you on here Now can you give us a brief rundown of how we got you on here? I like to always joke about Cassidy roaming the halls of MHW with like a blow dart gun trying to bag our next co-host. So how are we so lucky to have you on the show here?
Speaker 3:Well, it all started a couple of years ago, because I am actually a career switch person. I worked for nine years as an elementary school teacher Wow and I actually had the privilege of teaching Ian's girlfriend's daughter for two years Wow. And so I got to know Ian. And then Ian let me know that he was looking to hire for this new project manager role, which I applied for and got. So I've been at MHW for six months now and shortly after starting, Cassidy let me know that she's always looking for people to be on this podcast, and so it finally happened.
Speaker 1:Here you are.
Speaker 3:But I'm excited to get to talk about Brandar.
Speaker 1:Now in which job this one or elementary school teacher, would you say? You deal with? More crying, more tantrums, more Honestly?
Speaker 2:it's mostly me. Not necessarily tantrums, but a lot of tears. A lot of blood, sweat and tears are involved in making this stuff happen.
Speaker 3:And still nine years of elementary school teaching, definitely saw more tears from me than this position has.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for your service. So we've got a great conversation today with a couple of people who helped the MHW team out quite a bit on something of an internal project. On this podcast we typically talk about things that are very, very brand-facing Advice and you know stories and anecdotes, things for the individual alcohol brands, but on today's episode this is a little bit a peek behind the curtain at what's going on at MHW and specifically one of the I guess you might call them the semi-autonomous enclaves within MHW. That was known as the Concept to Commercialization program, which we've talked about many times on this podcast and maybe some of our listeners their brands have taken advantage of it. But we're going to talk about the rebrand of that and to do that, let's go ahead and jump right into it, get into this conversation with our guests. We have welcoming back the founder of the Baddish Group, laura Baddish, and United Creatives designer, chris Edmonds. Welcome back both of you to the show.
Speaker 4:Thank you, Jimmy.
Speaker 5:Nice to be back.
Speaker 1:Thank you, it's great to have you back. Ian, can you get us to work here? What do you got for us?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the goal of this episode is to kind of talk through the new name that we've come up with for this division or program within MHW and we're super excited to unveil. Brandarc is the name that we landed on to essentially explain the full suite of services that we offer under that umbrella, and suppose the reason why we decided to do that it's probably a long answer to go back to the beginning is when we first started working in this project management style base. We were working with a pretty large brand agency and they had asked us if we could help with some brand development for a new New to World whiskey and as a new kind of division, a new kind of service or company or whatever way you want to describe it. Over time, that service evolves and we felt, after four years of doing this, now was the perfect 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 that those were either difficult to say or didn't quite sum up exactly what we were doing.
Speaker 2:So we kind of wanted to create a set of graphics, a full name and an extended piece on the website so that people can see this as its own kind of service or entity or almost company or division and then know exactly what we do and then hopefully reach out to us directly for some services. Because, while it's great obviously being part of mhw, but mhw is specifically known in the industry regarding importation and uh and distribution in the united states, but now a lot of people are learning about the new services that we can provide to you. So I thought to stand out a little bit from mhw was good to to come up with a new name and a new kind of set of graphics for our trade events. That's a great example.
Speaker 1:I'll tell listeners that Ian is not lying about the branding. If you're lucky enough to get an email from Ian, he's got a brand new Spiffy signature line with the new branding in there and it looks very, very nice. Laura, I guess let's talk about the name brandArc, if that's where we're going here. Were there any other names that we considered? Like, how does that process go? I know we're talking a little bit bigger picture than we usually talk on this podcast, being super focused on the. You know more on the client side, but this is the MHW Mark podcast. Let's talk MHW business. How does all of this come together?
Speaker 4:Well, you know this has been ongoing and the right name was very important and you know they landed on a few key names, narrowed it down. But BrandArc really encapsulates for me and the one that goes out with, you know, messaging to support BrandArc everything that BrandArc is capable of from the beginning of the communications process and that could start with the paper on a label or the color or the font type to what's in the bottle, like bringing the arc around and then going full circle with positioning and marketing and strategy until finally there is a place where everyone is comfortable and the bottle gets on the shelf, it gets its visibility, it gets its presence. So ARC goes full circle and ARC is also a very powerful word to me personally and I think what Ian and MJ and the team are doing they're creating a powerful, not only visual but package for new to market brands or brands that want to refresh and then giving them like this, like speedy shot into the retail universe per se.
Speaker 1:I feel like just the word arc evokes the idea of storytelling, and on this podcast, we are constantly talking about how brands need to incorporate telling their story in order to be successful in market. So I'm tracking, I like it, I think it's, I think it's a great idea.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean, there's no hidden agenda with the brand arc.
Speaker 5:It's kind of like you know, got to come up with all sorts of agencies or you know sort of intercompany names that are weird and wonderful, but I think it's pretty important that it's straightforward to understand.
Speaker 5:People are going to know that it's about brand and brand architecture, you know, and it's it's not just a logo on a label of a drinks brand, it's also, you know, kind of through the line offering and that's what the arc is about.
Speaker 5:You know it's also, you know, kind of through the line offering and that's what the arc is about. You know it's kind of you know you can start a business but you know you've got to move it around and you've got to make it and grow it sustainably and you know, and then you've got to get a label on there and you know it's all of the logistics that go for that, that MHW kind of involved with. So yeah, I think it's kind of you know it's a little bit about calling a spade a spade and being honest and saying, well, it's brand architecture, it's a start to finish process and we've sort of got this made up. Single word of brand art it's kind of like a composite of familiar, composite of two words brand and architecture, but just dark as well. And you know that's given us the formation of a, of a word mark.
Speaker 3:We did a little bit of design for that um to give it its own identity within the sort of mhw umbrella and when we first started trying to come up with the name, ian and I literally just had this whole document where we would put down any name we could possibly think of that could work, and some were just fun and silly. Like I remember, I put down brand buddies at one point and then we had a bunch of little meetings, like with Laura and other members of the team, and even Chris came up with a name that we really were thinking about called Drinkify. So yeah, it was just a whole process of elimination and discussing what name best represents what we want to showcase to people.
Speaker 2:And it's really hard. I don't know, Jimmy, maybe you have a similar kind of background, obviously as a musician, probably in bands and groups, and trying to come up with a name that fits all the characters in the band and the music you're trying to play and the stories you're trying to tell. It's just really hard to find that name that everyone likes. It resonates with what you're trying to do as well. I'm sure you have a lot of stories around that.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's probably the least mature kind of ideation session you can imagine, but there's parallels for sure.
Speaker 5:After a while you actually stop thinking about the meaning of the word and then you start thinking about the brand or the company. And then you start thinking about the brand or the company if you're lucky and successful. It's like if you think of apple computers, no one really thinks of the fruit when you hear about the company apple anymore. You know you think of their products, you think of their methodology, you think about, think different and all the different slogans and campaigns that they've ran. So I think you know it'll be the same with the same with brand arc. You know I always think of that cocktail bar milk.
Speaker 5:Think you know it'll be the same with the same with Brandark. You know I always think of that cocktail bar Milk and Honey. You know one best bar in the world. It's like you wouldn't really think of those two ingredients when you're in that cocktail bar but it kind of fit and it felt right and it evoked a certain sense of they were taking care of the ingredients in the drinks and things like that. So I think with Brandark it'll sort of mature into itself over a while as we start to get new projects under our belt.
Speaker 1: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 and Chris to other clients that you've had, as far as doing a rebranding for something that is kind of a subset of a larger company?
Speaker 5:You know, a lot of the time for us it's, you know, 1% inspiration and then 99% perspiration. You know, sometimes the ideas will come to us quite quickly and then like kind of making them happen over the various touch points and doing all the due diligence on the different creating the different pieces of design and collateral that can take, you know, quite a while. So yeah, I mean as a company we're an ideas wheelhouse and it's just kind of like making sure everything's aligned. And you know there was some sort of fitment here with MHW, you know, to make sure that it dovetailed and sat nicely with that. But yeah, for us the ideas come quickly and then it's like the execution and making. You know that always takes longer. It's the same with our drinks branding projects as well. They come quick and then you know we'll spend months making them happen.
Speaker 4:So yeah, I also thought that the team smartly brought in other industry professionals just, you know, just on calls and very casually, to talk about perception, what people perceived MHW to be, and then what's needed in the marketplace and how to communicate. What Ian and MJ do every day and a lot of the brands that I work with don't do that. They sit in a bubble and even though they're an expert in a category, they don't look outside that category. What MHW did is brought in other industry professionals writers, people who did positioning, people who were social media specialists. So it was best practices from the very start. They did not, even though it's their name, their product.
Speaker 4:Ian has been doing it for years. They still took into advice everything that was feedback through all these sessions so that it wasn't oh, this is what we do, this is Ian's idea and here's the name. It was a continuing dialogue and I think for me, we started talking about this, ian, in the summer of yeah 24. This in in the summer of yeah 24, so not really that long. To come up with something so powerful is this? Because I do think this is a powerful tool in the mhw toolbox.
Speaker 5:Yeah, whatever you do, you've got to stress test it. You know you can't just do something 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 you give it to the world. So, yeah, I mean, definitely this brand and the name was stress tested and you know, from from a design point of view, I would like to think that when people see it it's not overdone, because brand arc is in the business of creating brands, you know, namely drinks brands and making them happen. But a lot, a lot of drinks brands today are actually segueing into other things. So, like you know, you've got a drinks brand and it meets with some success and then that drinks brand becomes a fashion line and they do wearables and they start doing leather jackets and motorbikes and all the rest of it and it's the same name you know. So I think with brand arc it's like it isn't overt styling, it's not over the top like dripping in gold.
Speaker 5:We've actually tried to just be really default and there's like a little kind of stamp of approval with the kind of sub brand which is just to sort of, you know, it's like quality check and that's kind of like what Ian and the team do and that's what we do on a kind of like design sense as well. So we're not trying to like load in all of these like fancy luxury aesthetics. It's very much a kind of like default bouts and braces. You know where. If you like MHW is is the army and, uh, you know brand dark is like, is like the special Marines, it's like it's like the crack team brand arc is like is like the special Marines, it's like, it's like the crack team.
Speaker 4:Chris, you bring up a good point, because I just read this morning that a founder of an ice cream company is very much a believer in protein, protein, protein and just launched a protein bar that doesn't have any identity to the ice cream. She's just positioned as the founder of both brands and I wonder if you really lose the association that you've brought up as the best, the most creative, the most wonderful product and then just totally go off and not put your name on the second product that you're launching. I think Brand Arc as the imprador of MHW really makes sense. And I think the other thing is I was on email with the writer this morning and I had no idea that he knew about MHW and he pulled interviews for me that he did with one of the executives from years ago, and MHW is such a known entity that it may really make sense to go this way and associate the two.
Speaker 5:Yeah, sure, I mean I don't think like there's going to be an exit plan for Brandark leaving MHW. You know I can understand, like with with the ice cream and the kind of energy bar. It's like they may want them to have very separate identities because you know, who knows what the business plans are in the future. But I think with Brandark having the same styling and colors and kind of like syncing up with the mhw kind of brand world, you know that's mhw nailing 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 that they were aligned.
Speaker 5:I mean, the earlier work we did, we drinkify, there was a lot of lime green going on and it was pretty wild and it did feel like a kind of californian startup, you know. But yeah, you know that's what collaboration is about and, um, you know, we sort of got the result.
Speaker 1:Uh, in the end, yeah, Now, ian and MJ, I promise with this question I'm not trying to start a fight, but is there anything with this rebrand? Is there anything that has changed with your services compared to what was offered with the concept of commercialization, or is this just a new name and a new coat of paint?
Speaker 2:And like. The best way to think of BrandArc now is that it was kind of like a startup within a very big company, which is nice, because most startups have a lot of issues with security with regard to like is it going to exist in three months time? So it was a really great kind of playground for us to be able to do some things with having less risk if such and such offering or service failed. So that's a big part of the reasons why we went to do a rebrand is that we've completely changed. So originally it was just a little bit of project management, but now we've gone pretty much full suite of services regard to supply chain, consulting, bits of marketing here and there and just general consulting advisory, and it's something that MJ and I talk about a lot on calls with new business, as in. We definitely like to use the term consultancy with regard to like being people in the know, industry experts as an example. But we'd like to also use the term project management because I think sometimes consultants can get a bit of a stigma of expensive. You get information and then you still have to do everything yourself, whereas we're doing all that Plus we're actually implementing all of the observations and all of the pieces of information that we're identifying, we're helping implement those too.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, the services have changed a lot and that's the big reason why and we wanted to do this and just to go back to the kind of initial question with why we did this originally was that mhlb has a great set of graphics already, great assets, um, but when we went to a trade show in the summer time, a lot of those assets are dedicated more towards importation, customs clearance, logistics, that kind of stuff where that's part of BrandArc for sure. But we definitely wanted to hammer home the more storytelling, brand building, sourcing and those other pieces required for us to bring a project together. And that's why it was a really important goal of Chris was to make something new, but also that it can stand beside MHW and not look too far out of place. So the graphics are, I think, a bit of a more of a kind of, I would say, contemporary. Take on the MHW logo and assets. So it's a little bit more artsy because, again, we're storytellers, we're a little bit more on the artistic side versus logistics and compliance and importation, which kind of tends to stay away from the kind of creative aspect of it. It's a bit more formal, a bit more procedural, as an example too.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, the services have changed dramatically and probably will continue to change because, again, as a still a relatively new business within a business, we're always getting new and weird and wonderful queries and probably the best part about my job is that I can bring it to our senior leadership team and they're basically like if you think you can do it, let's try and see how and see how it work and obviously letting clients know. So we're kind of constantly evolving, which is like, especially from mj's, maybe, standpoint as a newer person. Every job, every day is different within this role and every project. There's no two projects ever really similar we're're also always.
Speaker 3:We want to convey the fact that the story we're telling is the client's story and they still have ownership of that. We are just facilitators of their story, of their dream. We're not trying to take it from them. We're trying to help them bring to reality what they want.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and bring it into sharper focus as well. And I think, you know, when clients come to us and they will have that dream and they'll have that story and it's very important to preserve that and help people build on that. But sometimes it needs to be put into sharper focus. You know, like it's like your brand name might have a double meaning, which is negative, and it's like let's discuss that. Or one of your product names might have a double meaning.
Speaker 5:So it's kind of like just being able to see like the growth pattern of a company or a drinks brand or a brand, and sort of stress testing that before you invest in new design and making it bigger, you know. So it's just like clearing the path and making sure that the future is good for something, and that is sort of just about having an ability to see something through the eyes of a consumer. It's that simple and that's what I say to my design team here all the time. You know we might spend time creating a new brand or creating a new drinks packaging and I'll be like imagine you're looking at it for the first time. Does it make sense, you know?
Speaker 5:is there anything in here where it'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 stress testing. Actually, I don't use the word stress, it is another word that begins with S, it's four letters. But that's what we do we stress test.
Speaker 1:Is that the kind of stuff that's like, oh, what does your logo look like upside down? Or you know how does it translate to a myriad of languages?
Speaker 5:and those kinds of things Exactly, and it's just like the Nike Airs when they had flames on them and it said something offensive in Arabic. You know, it's just making sure that things are seen by different people and they're okay.
Speaker 2:I think one one, I don't know. Maybe, jimmy, we might need to edit this one out, but we have one really good one. I don't know, chris, if you remember back to cascade moon edition 2, the george dickle um anniversary product, but I remember one of the things they wanted was his signature to like be very visible on the bottle and uh, this is definitely well, this is for 21 plus people anyway. But the signature went across the brand name and obviously george dickle, but the d and george dickle um was like a very fancy big calligraphy style d and it just looked like it circles the name dickle or dick part of dickle. It was just like.
Speaker 2:That was one thing we needed to spot and get rid of straight away because, again, as a brand, like, looking at it from a distance, like oh, it looks great. But actually if you zoom in and scrutinize labels like so that's a big part of like what we do to help make sure that those things don't go out. And, like to Chris's point as well, and it happened to everyone Like you can Google, like Nike, kfc, all these huge companies all have these faux pas as they look to go global too. So it's good to have more people on the team.
Speaker 5:Essentially, and if they're really smart, they trade on them.
Speaker 1:Well, I've been looking at your logo and I haven't noticed yet anything hidden or subversive, so I'll follow up if I do find something for you. It's there, though. We call those Easter eggs.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's it, the best ones. Talking of visual Easter eggs, look at all the work done for disney by the animators who, by the way, went unpaid for many months and the easter eggs that the disney artists started hiding in some of the mickey mouse are are unbelievable. Have a dig on the internet and um, they're some of the best easter eggs you can find all right, well, listeners, we will not put those links in the show.
Speaker 1:You can do that work yourself yeah let's, let's get back on track here. Let's talk about so we've done the rebrand and so we're, we've got the identity and sort of the public facing thing. What about? How is brand arc different from what other companies that offer brand development do? How is BrandArc different?
Speaker 2:I'd say the biggest thing that is different from BrandArc to other companies is that it's something that I've noticed at trade events that I've been to is that when you're looking at building a brand at these shows, you're going to see a number of boots. You're going to see the person that will find you a liquid, so a broker. You're going to find a co-packer who's going to actually bottle the liquid for you. You're going to find, maybe an importer who might help you bring the product into the United States if it's not a domestically produced product. You're going to find someone like a Chris. There's going to be a designer there that can help make your labels look wonderful and your packaging look wonderful. You're going to find a glass supplier. You're going to find a capsule or cork supplier.
Speaker 2:So those are the six people that I've already mentioned that are part of building a brand, whereas I feel like our differentiation is we do all of it in house. So we have a crack design team a la United Creatives. We have a wonderful PR group that can help with communications on brands, as in the Baddish Group, plus MJ and I are the sourcing componentry and kind of marketing brand development agency all in one. So from a brand owner's perspective, what I'd rather do with one person that gives us all this information in one nice, very sharp email and weekly call, or do I want to have six vendors and suppliers all as part of this? Either one of them could let you down at any one stage for whatever reason, and then suddenly you're delayed, um. So not only do we do it all in-house, but we also help you like manage the entire project. So not just hey, here's a pretty bottle, here's a pretty label. It's coordinating all of that getting it penciled onto a production um, onto onto their schedule and actually physically having a bottle to show for it.
Speaker 5: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 is actually also a luxury that's what.
Speaker 3:That's what I was about to say.
Speaker 4:It's nothing more one-stop shop. It's a brand in a box, but everything the architects are all people who are familiar and work day in, day out in the industry. Like Ian said, you might go to a designer who's a designer for soap. They don't know about the liquor industry, so they're first going to have to start researching and that takes up time and when you're paying a designer, time is money.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very true, and that's our big value proposition. Is that, saving you time? So, again, if you're an investor and you come across someone who has a really interesting idea and you want to give them a reasonable amount of money, you can guarantee with those there's a quicker return on investment because we will actually deliver a product to you within a couple of months, depending on how much time we have for this project versus someone. A lot of the brand builders in this industry are coming from different industries. They've made money in finance or in real estate, or they've got a great family and friends that want to do this and learning. It could take you at least a year just to understand the lay of the land in terms of how the three-tier system works in the US, never mind having anything to show for it. So, like I said, we can work with Chris, we can work with Laura, we can work with all of our other vendors to deliver a product in rapid time.
Speaker 3: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 and dime. We want to help you get the best bang for your buck and also care about your project too. So we're very open and transparent about everything.
Speaker 4:And everyone's experience adds value to the project, whereas you know you're not going to always find someone who is passionate or puts their heart and soul into it. Yeah, definitely passionate, or?
Speaker 1: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 to do to? If you will, I guess, throw some elbows and establish the brand and make it known that this is who we are. This is BrandArc. What does that work? Look like.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so it's a big push and and maybe Laura, you can jump in on this one too so there's a big push regarding messaging, because the traditional MHW client is definitely a little bit different from a brand arc perfect client. As an importer and distributor, you tend to work with finished products, so you kind of miss that whole year to three years of establishing the product, building it and getting it ready for commercial use. So obviously that's important. And then what we're doing also is that we're very fortunate we got a pretty good budget for this year regarding trade shows. So getting out into the industry and kind of like not necessarily stepping away from mhw, but showing people that mhw has more services than the kind of traditional services that mhw is more known for. So we're going to be working with a lot of chris with our new booth setup. So we're going to be working with a lot of Chris with our new booth setup.
Speaker 2:So we're going to be attending the 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 the International Bulk Show in San Francisco in July. We'll also be at the American Distilling Institute Conference, adi in August and hoping to get to Amsterdam also. So a European show for the World Bulk Wine and Spirits show in November. So yeah, big piece is just actually we have all these great graphics, we have all these great case studies, we have all these great products and active projects. We want to be able to show people 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? Tell me about it and maybe I'm of interest.
Speaker 5:It's underrepresented really, like design and sort of brand management and what happens under the hood to build brands. You go around the train shows and it isn't really represented at all Like the physical things, like the glass foundries, who makes the stoppers, who prints the labels, that's there. But the actual business of running and growing brands I mean I just come back from Berlin bar convent like a month or two ago and it was like there's nothing there on this front, you know, and it's like it's like the thing no one talks about or wants to let anyone know how it's done. So yeah, I think, I think the industry needs it.
Speaker 2:And that's what we're trying to do as well, because definitely it's something that we see a lot when we're out and about, when we're talking to, maybe, people who haven't reached out to us directly regarding BrandArc, but it's just a conversation that's come up in passing and it's always like where were you 18 months ago when I started this journey?
Speaker 2:Because there's so many challenges and pitfalls that people have felt fallen into and they decided to hit certain launch windows and miss them and spent money and lost money and lost momentum and whatnot. So that's the whole idea is to get out there so that when people are Googling, like maybe they're at their job right now, thinking like you know, it was my dream. I love tequila so much I really wanted my own one. I think I have enough money saved or I have some friends or family or associates who can kind of jump in on this with me, but like, where do I start? So that's the kind of person that we're looking to try and find, especially this year, and maybe Laura, if you want to talk to a little bit about that regarding messaging, yeah, I think.
Speaker 4:for me it's getting Ian and the team and their work front and center where we normally wouldn't have an opportunity to showcase. So for me it's going to publications like Brand Week and outside of the normal beverage trade, getting the team showcased as a branding agency versus just a division of MHW. So I see speaking engagements ahead and now that we're trying to bring more brands on board and happily ready to tell stories of past success, that gives me a whole lot of ammunition to go back out there and position this as a fresh company within a company.
Speaker 1:And you mentioned it briefly there. So we're doing trade shows. Are you specifically showcasing Brandark? Are you going to have a booth or what's that look like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so all of those three shows. We will have a booth. So we'll be working with Chris on getting all of those materials ready and graphics so that when people are walking by and squinting they can see brand dark bowls and big and looking great so that maybe some people who maybe just see the name are intrigued want to come over and find out. And then for the folks who are walking past the booth, we're going to have a lot of our bottles on display as well, so they always kind of the hard part is keeping them all like kind of clean, so obviously people are coming up, picking them up and they're kind of. The hard part is keeping them all like kind of clean. So obviously people are coming up, picking them up and they're like kind of handling them. It's like, oh, that's a 600 bottle, can we please be careful with that one? Um, and a lot of these samples are not actual samples. They've been gifted to us as part of production, so like we're not pouring anything. So we're always sad to say when someone sees like an 18 year old whiskey, like, oh, can I try it? Like no, when we don't have a license to pour it right now too, this is like my only bottle, so this is mine uh kind of thing too. So that's going to be fun.
Speaker 2:But also at um, the international bulk show in san francisco, I'll be doing a keynote speech, which I'm excited, slash, terrified, and that's going to be, to chris's point, about brand building.
Speaker 2:So it's going to be like a ball about private label or white label, whichever way you want to call it. And kind of for aspiring brand owners who are maybe coming to these shows looking to source liquid, it's again how do I actually, when I have my liquid identified, how do I get it into a bottle and what bottle should I use and which co-packer should I use? How much should I make, what budget should I put together and when can I realistically have this on shelf? Because I've been given X number of dollars to turn this around by the end of the year. Is that realistic? Is it feasible? And that's where we kind of jump in Cause. After talking to someone for 10 minutes, we have a great idea of like this is happening or this is not happening, and if for it to happen we need X, y and Z to happen, and then usually they're like okay, how much does it cost?
Speaker 3:And one thing I'm very passionate about including in any booth that we have is some kind of little snack, so that people want to come to our booth and have like, oh, a little snack. So that people want to come to our booths and have like, oh, a bag of pretzels, or, and then wait.
Speaker 2:But if you want pretzels, do you also want to talk about our business? So to that point, that is a great point, because for folks, a lot of the industry, like beveragecom, industry events are industry events, so they're not really open to the general general public. So when you explain them to like friends or family or whomever ever, they always sound great. There's wine, there's spirits. You don't have to pay for anything. You can sample as much as your body will allow you to.
Speaker 2:But people get dehydrated and after a couple of hours or a couple of days will eventually start getting sick of things and just having a coffee or like popcorn, handy, uh, or mints or something like that. Like it's a really good way to get traffic to the booth and then suddenly some of those people that might have just walked past are like the best people to talk to because, like they maybe went there for one reason, didn't know that we existed, came over to pick up a lip balm or something like that, and then suddenly it's just like, oh, I'm here, like what are we going to talk about? And then suddenly that's the best meeting of the entire show, kind of thing too.
Speaker 5:Yeah, the MHW stand in Berlin actually had really good coffee and it was sort of sat within a sea of whiskey. So yeah, it was welcome.
Speaker 1:You heard it here folks Stop by the Brandark booth to get a snack and then put your greasy mitts all over Ian's bottles. And, mj, if you can capture a photo of Ian with like a sham or whatever he's using to wipe these bottles down afterwards, I would love to see that.
Speaker 3:Yes, I would be on it.
Speaker 1:That might perhaps lead into my next question here, which is about social media. Is there going to be a separate sort of entity for BrandArc, or is it just going to go? Hey, we're part of MHW, we're going to just exist there.
Speaker 3:So I am hoping to talk with our marketing team and maybe get into more of like the Instagram side so I can post some fun projects. We're working on that. People can see like the step by steps. They can see trade shows, different bottles, different videos of how the bottlings work and all sorts of things like that. So we're in talks about that. It's in the works.
Speaker 2:Watch this space we're in talks about that, it's, it's in the works. Watch this space. Yeah, and on that like, because we get involved in a lot of like kind of definitely the funner parts of the industry, it's, it's it's a great way to get like really good content out there and just to give people a flavor of like products coming down the line. And we're super excited to work on a new rtd that just launched in california last week, maru high um. It's going to be hopefully one of the next big kind of competitors to the likes of White Claw and Truly. And we'll be going to the brand's office on Tuesday for a kind of launch happy hour kind of piece. So it'll be great to get some shots of the cans because the packaging is wonderful and obviously it's a great way for us to kind of all to let our hair down, because it was definitely. A lot of.
Speaker 2:These projects can be stressful because certain times we do have really hard deadlines and it's just trying to make them happen is difficult. The beverage alcohol industry in itself is such a complicated, convoluted industry so something that might take three weeks in the normal world I would say could take six months in the beverage alcohol space and even longer too. So, um, so yeah, we're excited to start sharing more about what we do and if clients will allow us kind of early stages of like mood boards, that kind of stuff to show you OK, we got here, but this is the process from where it started. So I always love showing people off where it started, because everyone sees the finish good and you're like, oh, that's great. And it's like well, it took a lot of design stages, a lot of back and forth and a lot of samples to get from A to Z, as an example too.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, we're looking forward to sharing some more of our stuff on socials as well. Just maybe not how much mass goes into everything, because that's the less glamorous part to show on social media is the mass.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of gallons to liters to miles to pounds, which is always fun. So that's yeah, that's another fun aspect of our day to day.
Speaker 1:That's a different podcast. We'll launch the Brand Buddies podcast. We'll steal that from.
Speaker 1:MJ and we'll make that a math podcast To sort of bring this back around to more of the clients, the end clients of a brand arc. I'm hoping that this entire conversation, that we've had all of this work, all of this time and effort that's gone into A rebrand, really establishing a good, identifiable, unique brand for something that was existing as a business unit, if you will, within mhw. I'm hoping that that sort of demonstrates to Brands out there that a quote rebrand is not just ah, just a new name and a logo and you just update the website and that's it. Right, that's a rebrand, that's all you have to do. Can we talk about having that conversation with clients that perhaps come to you, laura, or to any of you? Can you talk about what that conversation is like and how you have to walk brands through having that potentially difficult conversation of what the reality of a rebrand really entails?
Speaker 4:For me, I generally work with brands that are ready to go on the shelf. But there are some brands that come to me and they have no clue what they're doing. They have the liquid in the bottle. So that's basically where I sit. So from there I'll go on and recommend or set up a meeting actually with the MHW team.
Speaker 4:I had one case of someone who said I have an idea for a brand, but he had his bottle idea already and it's taken him three years. He's established the brand in Italy, he's expanding out to other markets in Europe and he's still not ready to come into the US. Because the US, as Ian and MJ know, it's not the US, it's like 50 different countries, which is also part of, you know, the science and the ease of going with somebody like MHW for this, just because it's MHW, they still deal with every state, every city, every logistical equation, state, every city, every logistical equation. And then for the other portion is I do know some entrepreneurs who want to start brands. So for them, you know, I just go to my MHW contact, which is Bridget, and start a conversation. Also, recommend other brands, be they people, recommend other brands, be they people, and welcome them or try to welcome them into the MHW fold, because you know, power is knowledge. The more people, the more brains we have, we can all get further.
Speaker 1:I have a silly question. I encourage folks to check out this shiny new logo for the BrandArc brand here. We'll put links obviously in the show notes there, but I'm looking at it there and if you can imagine, as this is an audio format BrandArc inside that capital A it's sort of a camel case, brandarc one word In that capital A, sort of nestled in there is the sort of silhouette of a bottle and the label is sort of negative against that. Did y'all have a specific bottle in your head when you dropped that bottle in the A, or was it just like, eh, whatever fits.
Speaker 5:No, we just wanted to do a bottle that looked like a bottle and work within there. And yeah, the crossbar of the capital letter A is the label, if you like. So it's a kind of a use of the negative space as well as the positive. But yeah, we just wanted to get in that. You know, this is about architecture, it's about building, construction, architecture of a brand, and it was about getting that into a very simple, you know, and effective kind of a word mark.
Speaker 5:You know, I think a lot of logos are like that. They're incredibly simple, but they'll have a sort of idea behind them and you know, to mention apple computers, again, you know, it's an apple with a bite out of it, but the story behind that brand is incredible, you know, and it's it's the same. With this, we're really just sort of trying to tell a story of bottling and labeling, but you know there's a whole lot more to. But if this can stop and make someone think, or they see the bottle there and they're like, oh, I've seen it, even though it's negative space, then you know we've done our jobs.
Speaker 3:Or maybe it'll inspire them Like I want to make something that looks like that bottle.
Speaker 1:There you go. That's an opportunity for a brand out there. All right, now it's time for our fun question that we like to ask at the end of every episode. Now, Chris and Laura, you will already have answered this question, and that question is simply what is your favorite, let's say, adult beverage? Now, if that has changed, it's been a while since either of you have been on. If that's changed, then let me have it. Chris, what's on your palate.
Speaker 5:these days I'm actually getting over a throat infection, so I'm drinking a hot toddy. So that's been the palate pleaser of the week.
Speaker 1:How crazy do you go? Do you go cloves and the whole thing, or you keep it simple?
Speaker 5:Cloves, lemon, honey, brown sugar. But actually, because I'm in the drinks industry, I'm using really, really good whiskey. You're meant to put cheap whiskey in a hot toddy, but I'm putting like $300 whiskey in a hot toddy, but don't tell anyone.
Speaker 1:The hottest toddy I've ever heard of. That's amazing, Laura. How about you?
Speaker 4:I'm drinking more agave spirits these days, but I'm combining that with a love of bubbles. So a French 75 made with a mezcal or a bacchanora is it for me? I love, love, love bubbles and me, I love, love, love bubbles. And agave is just different from the darker spirits I normally enjoy, like a bourbon or a scotch, that's lovely.
Speaker 1:A French 75. Very, very good. And, mj, since this is your first time on the podcast, we will ask you the question what is your favorite adult beverage? It can be Desert Island, you know your forever beverage, or just whatever you're chilling with right now.
Speaker 3:I am just a simple girl who loves a glass of red wine that's very heavy on the dark 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:I want to say this has been a lot of fun. Huge thanks to Laura Baddish and Chris Edmonds for coming by and chatting with us.
Speaker 4:You're welcome. You're welcome.
Speaker 1:We've got to have you back again soon. We'll have links in the show notes if folks would like to get more info on the Baddish Group or United Creatives. And thank you, listeners, for joining us on the MHW Mark podcast, and thanks again to Ian Perez and MJ for joining me in hosting this podcast is produced by me, jimmy Moreland, with booking and planning support by Cassidy Poe and Bridget McCabe. It's presented by MHW. Find out more at mhwltdcom or connect 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 in two weeks. We'll see you then, cheers.