Brand strategy for a cider often begins with what seems like a simple decision: launch something new and put it into the market. But those who avoid expensive missteps tend to pause and interrogate the fundamentals before naming a product or sketching packaging.
Isaac Arthur of CODO Design said the core work happens before any creative execution.
“What you need to work through when you’re doing any of this is, how do you position it, how do you name it, how do you promote it, how do you bring it to market?” he said at the 2025 CiderCon in Chicago, noting that the visibility of the parent brand on a new release is rarely a cosmetic choice. Instead, it reflects a deeper strategic question about why consumers buy in the first place.
Arthur pointed to what he calls the “main purchasing driver,” the primary reason a customer picks up a cider. In some cases, trust in the producer carries the sale. In others, the category, flavor or price point matters more than the brand behind it.
“Are they buying this because they know your cidery… or are they buying it based on this individual product itself?” he said.
That distinction becomes more critical as cideries mature. One of the first diagnostic questions CODO uses with clients is simply look at how long the company has been operating. Cody Fague said tenure creates both leverage and risk.
“If you have been around long enough… that’s valuable,” he said. “Every dollar you’ve ever spent has helped to grow the awareness of that brand.” The flip side, he added, is that established equity must be protected from dilution. Arthur framed the decision as a balancing act.
“You can leverage it, but you also have to protect it,” he said.
Another pressure point is precedent inside the portfolio. If a cidery has historically stayed within a tight stylistic lane, a sudden category jump can confuse loyal buyers. Fague said the team looks closely at whether a producer has experimented before.
“If you have stuck to one very specific traditional style… and then suddenly you want to launch… something else, it might throw people a little bit,” he said. Conversely, brands that have trained their audience to expect experimentation have more room to move.
Positioning discipline becomes even more important for specialists. Arthur said cideries known for a singular approach must be cautious when stretching beyond it.
“If you are a specialist, then anything that you do that pushes outside of that can risk harming that overall positioning,” he said. The risk is not immediate failure but gradual erosion of what the brand stands for in consumers’ minds.
Audience alignment is another filter. If the new product targets the same drinker, the parent brand can often carry more weight. When the audience diverges, the architecture decision gets more complicated. Arthur warned that while reaching new drinkers can be attractive, it can also backfire.
“You want to be very careful there, because… it can undercut your positioning and what you’re known for,” he said.
Portfolio cannibalization is a more operational concern but no less strategic. Arthur described working with a brewery that effectively split demand between two nearly identical Lagers. Fague said that situation forces a hard resource question.
“You look at your resources and think, well, would [we] be better served putting that all behind one brand,” he said, especially in a tightening sales environment.
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At the same time, a well-structured extension can reignite broader interest. Fague pointed to the sub-brand strategy used by brewery New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger line as an example of how a new platform can create a feeder system back to the core brand. The opportunity, he suggested, is to build an entry point for new consumers who may later trade into the flagship portfolio.
Even if the strategic logic is sound, execution capacity can become the hidden constraint. Arthur said many producers underestimate the ongoing lift required after launch.
“If you launch a new… brand, you have to actively build that with as much bigger and budget and just everything it takes that you built your parent brand with,” he said.
Fague put the warning more bluntly.
“When you’re launching new things, you have to be careful that you don’t overextend yourself,” he said, noting that new social accounts, design systems and distribution support can quickly multiply the workload. Keeping a product closer to the parent brand, he added, can reduce how thin a team must spread.
It’s less about finding a universal template and more about pressure-testing assumptions. The questions around tenure, purchasing drivers, specialization, audience fit and internal capacity are not academic exercises. They can determine whether a launch strengthens the brand system or quietly fractures it over time.
