Getting the occasion right

Related tags Alcoholic beverage Coors brewers

By tracking consumer consumption patterns, Coors Brewers has identified six major on-trade occasions.Why should the beer category, or indeed the...

By tracking consumer consumption patterns, Coors Brewers has identified six major on-trade occasions.

Why should the beer category, or indeed the whole of the alcoholic drinks category be interested in occasionality within the on-trade?

The answer is simple - it has at its heart a desire to have an explicit understanding of the needs of your consumers, or put another way your customers.

Understanding Your Customers

How much do you really know and understand about your customers, in terms of their lifestyles, their aspirations, how they view your pub, or your competitors' pub?

When was the last time that you ever took out any research to discover what you were offering them, matched their needs?

What is stopping potential customers from coming to your pub in the first place, or is preventing them from coming to your pub more often?

The importance of really understanding your customers' motives for coming to your pub is crucial if you are going to be in a position to provide the correct ambience and atmosphere, the correct promotional offers, the right pricing proposition, and a range of products and brands that precisely meets their needs.

This marketing approach is a vital part of the way retailers, especially the supermarkets, have sought to grow their business in such a way that are not only satisfying their consumer needs, but also outperforming their competition.

How are you currently using all your retail space? Do you provide a range of brands that your consumers really want?

It is a fact that the drinking habits of consumers are changing. According to Datamonitor, consumers have abandoned their loyalties to single brands and now vary what they drink depending on the time and place.

The Retail Offer

This is an important observation as it challenges the publican to revise the type of offer that should be provided for the different occasions. For example the "celebration with friends" could conceivably see groups of young men begin the evening with pints of lager, before moving onto a repertoire of FABs, fuelling up to go to a nightclub on high energy drinks, and then ultimately chilling out on water.

Women, on the other hand tend to start with spirits, move onto bottled drinks and then ending up on exotic-tasting drinks.

Through recognising these decision-making processes that your consumers go through you can begin to tailor your offers more precisely.

Coors Brewers, through tracking consumer consumption patterns, has been able to identify six major on-trade occasions.

This allows the company to identify the very different characteristics you would find, ranging from those occasions which demonstrated low energy and low involvement from a consumer, very likely to represent a "quiet drink", to more of the destination outlets with the mood, the involvement and the energy is a great deal more upbeat.

By understanding the type of occasions that your business currently caters for you can begin to think about the type of strategies that you may want to put into place in order to grow your business.

For example, you may have recognised that there is an opportunity early in the week to boost trade. Having analysed your business, your consumers and your competition you may believe that this is best served by offering value for money food and linking this with a beer deal. Coors Brewers is developing the food occasion by introducing new packaging formats for Grolsch that act as an ideal accompaniment to food.

With the summer fast approaching there is a big uplift (50 per cent) in the number of people citing "refreshment" as their motivation for drinking. Quiet drinks, family days out and meals are more likely, with big night out less likely than the rest of the year.

Gearing your range and promotional activity along the lines of those drinks such as lager or FABs that provide refreshment is one way to grow your profitability and keep your customers happy.

How much space behind the bar and in the chillers have you provided to make sure you are promoting the right drinks for the summer?

There are also a number of key events through the summer of 2002 that can provide extra profit, notably the World Cup from a sporting point of view, and barbecues when the temperatures begin to soar.

How will you be ensuring that you will be maximising your profits and getting consumers to come to your pub as opposed to staying at home or going to another pub?

Consumer profiles by occasion

Social Get Together (27 per cent market volume)

  • Socialising with a small group of friends
  • Young and single
  • Good quality traditional pubs
  • Drinking draught lagers, ales and stouts

Quiet Drink (23 per cent market volume)

  • Relaxing low key occasions
  • Basic traditional pubs
  • Small groups of friends or colleagues on your own
  • Older and lower social grade
  • Drinking draught ale, stout and lager

Active Socialising - Meeting Friends(6 per cent market volume)

  • Organised socialising at an event or sport
  • Large groups of young people
  • Themed pubs, wine bars and nightclubs
  • Bottled and draught lager and FABS

Eating (7 per cent market volume)

  • Drinking with lunch or an evening meal out
  • In family pubs, restaurants and hotels
  • Older, married and higher social grade
  • Drinking bottled and draught lager

Upbeat Event - Big Night Out(25 per cent market volume)

  • Lively nights, drinking sessions and celebrations
  • Large, young, mixed sex groups
  • Lively pubs and nightclubs
  • Weekend nights, late evening and after midnight
  • Bottled and draught lager and FABs

Social Clubs (12 per cent market volume)

  • Regular drinking at local social or working men's pub
  • With one or two friends
  • Older people, married with children
  • Drinking draught bitters and lagers

Checklist for success

  • Carry out some simple research with your consumers to find out what they really want from your pub, encourage them to contribute comments and ideas
  • Undertake a simple SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) of your business and your competitors
  • What do you do well, where are the opportunities to gain more business or improve your current offer
  • What times of the week, or during the day do you have quiet periods? Think about different ways to develop your business
  • What occasion types is your business appealing to, are there opportunities to target new occasions?
  • Review the range of brands you offer to ensure that it is right up to date with your customers' needs, and make sure you feature in the hotspots of your bar
  • Set out a promotional plan to target key events, ie Valentine's Day, St Patrick's Day, World Cup games or barbecues in the summer
  • Direct market your pub to retain interest from your current customers, and advertise your business to recruit new customers
  • Seek new ideas by seeing what other pubs or retail businesses are doing well. What can you learn from them?
  • Put the customer first in developing your business

Speak to Coors category experts to gain advise on how to make more money from your business. Ring: 08456 000 888

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