Bockale is getting a makeover to coincide with the launch of its latest non-alcoholic beer.

Bockale, which launched in 2016, is rolling out its fifth product in the portfolio – a lager. The move comes on the heels of a deal signed in September with Labatt to secure distribution to over 2,500 outlets across the Province of Quebec.

“The vibrant green slash featured on all Bockale products is central in the design of the brand universe and will be found throughout our brand identity, acting as a recognizable icon and enabling us to present all products as a clear, strong family,” says Jean-Benoit Collette, brand manager for Duvernois, whose portfolio also includes challenger Romeo’s Gin, Romeo’s Sonic, Pur Vodka and Choco Creme.

“The choice of colour came as we saw that it is underrepresented in the category and therefore would allow us to stand out within a visually crowded craft beer and non-alcoholic beer category.”

According to Collette, the neon tone has energy and vitality while the brush stroke is about referencing movement and handmade writing, to give it a craft sensibility.

The hierarchy of information on the can was of utmost importance, Collette says.

“We had to understand how consumers interact with packaging and what they look for when shopping for beer,” he says. Decisions were based on insights from the Association of Microbreweries of Quebec (AMBQ) and consumer data from Labatt Breweries of Canada.

One of the key design considerations – in addition to making sure that the brand, its logo and icons were predominant – was the the importance of clarifying the “non-alcoholic” nature of the product, followed by beer style, which had to be clear, evocative and recognizable.

To that end, the brand renamed its products in keeping with style conventions: Decouverte is now simply IPA, Perseverance is Cream Ale, Meteorite is now Tropic, and Aurora is now Sour.

The new brand image will be featured in the a “Beer of Choice” national advertising campaign, a positioning built around “extensive” market research that showed its core target values variety.

In the campaign, the brand aimed to address three major perception challenges faced by the non-alcoholic beer industry: that they aren’t fun, they lack taste and the ambiguity around when best to consume the beverage. To clarify which occasions non-alcoholic beer can be enjoyed, the campaign targets people who “live in the moment and choose to live it to the fullest, without compromising on taste and experience.”

“First and foremost, the overall convention for non-alcoholic products is that they exist as alternatives,” says Collette, telling strategy Bockale is not a plan B. “We aim to disrupt not only the non-alcoholic but also the beer market: one beer at a time, one choice at a time.”

The design work was done internally, with AB InBev and Labatt Breweries of Canada providing consumer validation and market and consumer data.