Maximising occasions

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By understanding drinking occasions you can more successfully meet the needs of your customers.Why do people choose one outlet over another? What...

By understanding drinking occasions you can more successfully meet the needs of your customers.

Why do people choose one outlet over another? What makes your customers select a particular type of drink? The answer to these questions lies in understanding "occasionality". Research tells us that "occasion" is one of the most important drivers of outlet and drink choice.

Each occasion tends to have a relatively distinctive profile:

when (day of week/time of day)
where (the type of outlets visited)
who (customer profile, amount spent and the type/number of drinks).

Understanding which occasions feature in your outlet can help you tailor your offering to more effectively meet the needs of your customers. For the purposes of simplicity, this feature will focus on five key on trade occasions.

Big Night Out, Party or Special Celebration

This is high-energy occasion (usually a weekend evening).

While visible in all outlet styles, this is the key occasion in nightclubs, modern pub/bars and café-bars. This is a valuable occasion featuring larger groups of younger consumers spending significantly more than average (£17) on drink. So it is important to get your product offer right.

On these occasions, your customers are much more likely to choose spirits, particularly Smirnoff, Jack Daniel's, Bacardi and liqueurs/specialities such as Archers. Ready to Drink (RTD) products such as Smirnoff Ice and Archers Aqua are becoming increasingly important.

Price is less important than speed and convenience of service, so effective chilled space management is a must for RTD brands. Promotions should also focus on enhancing the high-energy experience through fun/excitement events and product offers. A shooters or doubles offer in this type of outlet will be a good opportunity to maximise sales and profit.

Sociable Get Together

Medium energy and relatively young (44 per cent are under 34), this occasion is predominantly drinks-led (15 per cent feature food) and is important across most outlet styles (modern and traditional). An upbeat meeting of groups of friends spread across the week and weekend, this is the biggest on-trade occasion, accounting for almost one third of alcohol volume.

Guinness, spirits (especially vodka, gin and dark rum) and RTDs tend to feature more than normal and quality of serve is much more important here. Activity should focus on enhancing the group experience and influencing the "round buyer" through point-of-purchase materials and effective merchandising.

Meeting Friends

Similar to a "Sociable Get Together" (drinks-led and mix of older/younger consumers) but lower energy and much more frequent in traditional /community pubs and social clubs.

No drink category dominates this occasion (although beer/ale/stout is important) so merchandising and display can be used to great effect to influence decision-making.

Quiet Drink

Low energy occasions again featuring more frequently in traditional/community pubs and social clubs.

Smaller groups (30 per cent of occasions are alone, 40 per cent with spouse) meet often during the day and while the number of drinks consumed is lower than other occasions, the frequency makes this important.

Guinness, bitter and traditional ales are more important, together with traditional spirits such as Bell's, Gordon's and Captain Morgan.

On these occasions, which is much more about savouring the moment and bonding with family/friends rather than high energy socialising, quality of drink, service and staff attentiveness are particularly important.

Value perception is also important so transparent offers on quality brands (e.g. branded doubles)

Eating

As the name suggests, this occasion is dominated by food and is much more likely to be found in restaurants and food-led pubs/bars and amongst older consumers.

Drinking decisions are largely to enhance the eating experience and wine is particularly important, although pre/post meal drinks such as vermouth, gin & tonic and Baileys also feature.

While the style of outlet and the customers it attracts will largely shape your outlet's offer, it is worth bearing in mind that the reason they have chosen to visit is largely driven by your customers' needs, which in turn are driven by occasion.

Nature of occasion is the key influence over outlet and drink choice and understanding of the occasions fulfilled by your outlet is essential to successfully implement the business building & sales driving activities.

Merchandising the key products for your outlet's occasion will help to maximise your sales and keep your customers happy.

Occasion 1: Big night out, party or special celebration