ASPIRATIONAL LIFESTYLES

However, as brands like Weirdo, Partake and the Essentia and House Wine collab show, to really speak the visual language of Gen Z, and the younger cohort of Millennials, rooting brands in a lifestyle-driven space is key. What is aspirational to Gen Z is not what has driven many previous generations. There’s anomalies, sure. But it’s wellness, not wealth that universally appeals. To resonate, brands need not concern themselves with looking overly premium, they need to focus on belonging to the wellness, lifestyle-led world these consumers want to belong to.

By rejecting the traditional tropes of drinks design and instead opting for cues more associated with a growing wellness industry, brands are placing themselves in the heart of what appeals to this educated, imageconscious cohort.

But it can’t be ignored that drink, and particularly drinking to excess, just doesn’t appeal as much to this health-conscious generation. Scrapping the visual style that many categories have long adhered to and adopting that of the wellness market, enables a brand to not only stand out amongst its peers, but blend in with this consumer’s carefully curated image.

Basking a little in the health halo of wellness brands through leaning into their visual style puts alcohol brands in a more neutral space, visually. This is something that will be especially important for non-alc brands as they seek to distance themselves and be less defined by what they are not, and celebrated and embraced more for what they are. As the non-alc category, and particularly spirits seek to redefine themselves as standing on their own two feet and offering something better than alcohol (whether you buy into that concept or not), the visual language used to market it can only move ever further apart from its full-strength counterparts.