Case Study: Brown-Forman defends Woodford Reserve’s premium leadership with PA Consulting

Brown-Forman - Customer Case Study

Brown-Forman, the global spirits company behind Woodford Reserve, faced a challenge as competing bourbon brands began imitating the bottle’s distinctive visual language and threatening its market leadership. To protect and extend the brand’s identity, Brown-Forman worked with PA Consulting, through its Essential Design team, to refine and modernize the original Woodford Reserve packaging system and develop a stronger design language for future product offers.

PA Consulting created a cohesive design framework that preserved Woodford Reserve’s signature bottle cues while enabling new expressions such as Distiller’s Select, Double-Oaked, and the Baccarat Edition. The redesign strengthened the brand’s trade dress and growth strategy, helped position Woodford Reserve as a leader in the super-premium spirits category, and supported strong business performance, including crossing the half-million case mark in U.S. sales for the first time in 2017.

Brown-Forman

Lawson Whiting

Chief Executive Officer