Background

Van Moll Craft Beer is a small brewery located in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The brewery was founded in 2014 by two friends who are passionate about craft beer. Van Moll Craft Beer produces a wide variety of beers, including IPAs, stouts, and porters.

I was a marketing intern at Van Moll Craft Beer for eight months. The goal of this thesis project was to create brand associations for Van Moll to strengthen the brand’s positioning in the marketplace. Van Moll did not have a clear idea of what message they wanted to tell and how they wanted to convey this message in conjunction with the brand. They wanted to come across as informal, jovial and creative to their various target audiences but did not know how. Based on this communication problem, an objective, problem statement and research questions were created. This is the focus of the research and indicates what needs to be researched in order to realize the final product.

Method

The Design Thinking Method was used to answer the main question of how Van Moll comes between the ears of the very diverse target group in such a way that, despite their differences, they recognize themselves in Van Moll’s brand, concept and product. The brand associations come with a strong story in which the brand can tell its mission, vision and core values in one fell swoop: the brand story. This was made through design requirements based on research.

Akin to that, to create the mobile web store, the ten heuristics of Jacob Nielsen were also used to create a fitting and user-friendly design. Through a userflow and wireframe the design was created and shaped.

Challenges

One of the challenges I faced when working at Van Moll Craft Beer was that the brewery was very small. This meant that I had to wear many hats and be responsible for a lot of different tasks.

Another challenge I faced was the Covid restrictions and thus was homebound for most of my internship. This was a hard challenge to overcome.

Process

The process of creating a new website and webshop for Van Moll Craft Beer started with me doing research on the brewery and its target audience. I also looked at the websites and webshops of other craft breweries.

Once I had a good understanding of the brewery and its target audience, I started designing the website and webshop. I wanted to create a website that was easy to use and that would appeal to the brewery’s target audience on a mobile-first base.