Clearly, every city, state, or country has its own distinct culture and source of pride (sports teams, history, etc.), and along those lines, most craft breweries leverage some form of their geographic context to strengthen their brand. On the most basic level, craft breweries start locally then grow nationally. After all, it was local recognition and pride in their home-made brand that gave breweries such as Sierra Nevada, Dogfish Head, and even Samuel Adams such strong foundations, enabling them to expand their brands into nationally recognizable entities.

With brands like Sam Adams you can almost taste the home-town pride stirred in on top of the hops, yeast, and other flavors that the brewers put into them!

2. Embrace your audience. There’s a reason people feel so strongly about which beer brands they like. Craft beers have learned how to embrace their audience (partially due to the local connection mentioned above), and have found great success in remaining highly focused on building personal connections with their drinkers. Flying Dog Brewery has even adopted the endearing tag-line “Good people drink good beer,” quoting the infamous Hunter S. Thompson and drawing upon the trippy imagery of his hit novel (turned movie) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. What better way to connect with a young, hip audience than by lovingly referencing pop culture?

Furthermore, Dogfish Head calls its brand of beer “Off-centered ales for off-centered people,” playing off the quirky and “alternative” styles of beer they produce and the audience of quirky people that tends to enjoy them.  The take away point, though, is that brands like this seem to fully understand that people love their product. People enjoy identifying with their brand, because the breweries make it so easy to do so! They have, for the most part, done an excellent job of providing a clear point of connection, something with which a specific audience can relate to easily.

3. Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Unlike the giant beer producers that have traditionally dominated the market for years, small craft breweries are not afraid to not be everything to everyone. In fact, you’ll often find many craft brands come out with statements such as, “You really might hate this beer.”

These small, proud brands have embraced the fact that they can’t please everyone with their products, and they’re not afraid to market themselves based on that fact. Everything from graphics to bottle style serve as unique identifying aspects of craft brews and many breweries have made names for themselves based on their distinct personal style. And while some people hate the strong, harsh bite of a bitter brew, some breweries have built their entire business around insanely bitter and traditionally “unpleasant” beer.

When marketing any brand, though, resist the urge to try to please everyone. While there may be a broad solution to a product that would satisfy a multitude of audiences, many brands excel at marketing just one or two specific products. In craft breweries, we see a prime example of “quality over quantity” when compared to the giant national beer brands. In some senses less is better, right?

4. Have a passion for your product. It’s as simple as that. The biggest piece of marketing advice I’ve taken away from my experience with craft beer is that passion shines through if you let it. After seeing an amazing cinemagraph of the Dogfish Head brewing process, I was hooked. The passion oozes out of the series of moving images. To this day I think of the images when I order their beer, the hands-on process of the brewing still fresh in my mind. It’s passion like this, and dedication to the crafting process that shows a sincere and genuine love for the product that small breweries are producing. We could all learn from them in that regard.

It’s easy to be passionate about a product you love. So, my final take-away? Market something you love and your passion will show through.

EDIT (05/22/13): I found this post recently and thought it was too good to not include: Logo Design Tips with 8 of the Best Looking Craft Beer Brands.