Branding at the weekend

It is a marketer's lot that we are never really off the job. Take a glorious weekend a couple of weeks ago... 'Let's go to the fair and there is a beer festival on at the pub in the village' Perfect!!
Yet there were marketing lessons lurking there. Firstly at the fair. No ordinary fair, it was Carters Steam Fair. Every show and every caravan consistenlty decked out in a suberb colour combination of ochre and organge with a strong identifaible logo everywhere with a powerful description. No brand manual, I'll bet just a family buisness certain and proud of its's identity.
A lesson to every one of us - pride is one of the most important factors in branding and implementation

Over at the beer festival I started musing where had the phenomenom of the beer festival come from? I reasoned thus...with the headlong pursuit of lagers, cheaper to produce and easier to serve but with the key differentaion being in the expensively won image sustained by TV advertsisng the big brewers did not support their bitter brands. So into the gap came every Tom Dick and Harry with their micro brewery and silly names yet with a good and interesting product self-selected by the publican. By the way the gap may have been widened by the big brewers practice of guest beers.
Marketing Superior thought; In a big market leave a consumer gap and it will be filled.
So that was how I came to have a pint of Old Tom and thoroughtly enjoyable it was too.
Now back to work!