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- A curious trend has been emerging in the massive global alcoholic beverages industry in the past few years: "Beer has been losing its market share to wine and spirits" (Bailey, 2015). However, this trend is to be considered differently in developing economies as beer is on the contrary increasingly consumed by the average Sub-Saharan African and Asian consumer. Additionally, more and more expensive beers are purchased by those consumers in the last couple of years (Business Monitor International, 2014). Within the beer category, another growing and notable trend to be pointed out is the rise of craft beers. This revolution has been spreading so well in the United States for the past twenty years that it is believed to reach more than 20 percent of the U.S. beer market within the next five years (Cernivec, 2014). Recently, South Africa seems to be following the same trend and growth in its craft beer market. This Sub-Saharan country merits to be given a great attention as it combines an increasing general consumption of beer as well as a growing craft beer trend and is therefore full of growth potential. Craft beers are the results of a growing demand for differentiated and "local" products and for unusual consumption experiences different from the mass consumption products. The scope of this thesis focuses on this recent trend of craft beers in South Africa and especially on the importance of the differentiated brand image conveyed to consumers. "A brand is worthless if it does not connect with the right audiences in a relevant way", claimed Cory Torrella. To do this, it is likely that the craft beer sector must go away from the mass media communication means and favor a "back to basics" and targeted approach to seduce the very demanding consumers. As a student selected for the International Business program, I was able to complete my internship during six months in a craft brewery (WLIT Brewery) implementing its Belgian craft beer locally in South Africa. This experience allowed me to get involved in the launch process of Leopold7, the craft beer marketed. I noticed that, although being a well differentiated product, the brand identity and the segmentation of Leopold7 were crucial for its market penetration and seemed to lack some clarity. This allowed me to develop a clear problematic on which to base my research questions and a methodology to answer them. This thesis is composed by a first theoretical part divided in four chapters: a company overview, a chapter about beers in South Africa, a chapter about consumer behavior overview and a last chapter about branding. The second part is a practical part divided in three chapters: the first one states the research questions and the methodology utilized, the second enunciates the analysis of the results and the last one discusses them.