Are shots off target?

With responsible drinks retailing at the top of the trade's agenda, pubs are looking at new ways of serving spirits

If the word tequila followed by a space were ever to be the endgame on Blankety Blank then the top answer would inevitably be 'slammer'.

For years the pub trade has been turning a blind eye to the fact that it was selling this and other spirits whose main method of drinking was fast, alongside other forms of alcohol and frequently in quick succession.

But with responsible drinks retailing at the forefront of most respectable licensees' minds, the way such spirits are drunk is under scrutiny.

Suppliers of drinks in categories like tequila, Sambuca and ready-made shots are having to reassess the way they market their products and how licensees should serve them.

Recent weeks have seen the launch of Sauza Hacienda, a tequila being positioned as a spirit for mixing or sipping, at least partly in response to responsible retailing pressures.

It's the first admission by a major spirits firm that its brand has a responsibility to be part of the solution because it's part of the problem in the first place.

The Allied Domecq team behind Hacienda are hoping that selling a 51% reposado tequila will take the market away from slamming.

The tequila has a higher ratio than mainstream tequilas of spirit from the heart of the distillation process, which it says makes it sweeter and cleaner and, therefore, more suitable for sipping and mixing.

Senior brand manager Gareth Brown says: 'Our intention is to fill the gap that exists between blanco and 100% reposado tequilas with a high quality 51% reposado that will encourage both the trade and consumers to move away from the ubiquitous and limiting shots into long, mixed drinks.'

It will focus on long drinks such as the Paloma, a mix of Hacienda and citrus juice over ice, although the actual package will be tailored to different types of outlets.

Bar-staff training will be a key part of its roll out strategy.

Brown says: 'The change in consumer drinking away from ready-to-drinks to premium mixable spirits in recent years, the premiumisation of brands in the top-end bars, and increased focus on moderate consumption of alcohol, all add weight to the launch of Hacienda.'

Pointing the finger at others

Elsewhere, brand owners and distributors are more reluctant to disown shot drinking, defending their own brands and sometimes pointing the finger at others.

James Hayman, director of Hayman Distillers, which handles Scorpion flavoured tequilas, admits that it will be difficult to ditch tequila's slamming image, even though its sales strategy is based around Margarita cocktails.

'We're doing in-bar sampling and part of that will be as a cocktail and a long drink,' says Hayman, 'but there will still be a shot element to the market because it will be difficult to get people away from slamming'.

Shots' market growth of 3% in the year to May, according to AC Nielsen figures, suggests that consumers aren't ready to give up such drinks just yet, unless there's a big sea change in what's on offer.

The market leader in pre-prepared drinks, After Shock from Maxxium UK, insists there's no conflict of interests between responsible marketing and a product intended to be drunk as a shot.

Its latest versions, Black and Silver, were both test marketed at high season in the less-than-sober environment of Ibiza, before being introduced to the UK.

Brand manager Brian Woods said: 'We tend to go along with the Portman Group's view that it's not the way you drink but how much of it you drink. The average consumption is only about two shots of After Shock.'

But isn't part of the problem that shots are frequently drunk as part of a long session alongside other alcohol? Isn't it disingenuous to think that a customer will turn up at a pub, have two shot drinks and then go home for a mug of cocoa?

Woods says he had no research on what else After Shock drinkers consumed in a night but did concede that 'shots are sometimes drunk alongside beer'.

He adds: 'We've got a policy of not discounting the brand at all and we certainly don't want to promote it on price with retailers.'

He says After Shock's Ibiza activity was based on 'learnings' from the music industry.

Woods adds: 'You have records which are launched there in the clubs and become the anthem of the summer, then people come home and buy the record.

'We are probably the only alcoholic drinks brand that puts every single piece of marketing activity past the Portman Group before we introduce it.'

Suppliers of spirits that are viewed as shot-type brands, with abvs close to full-strength spirits, argue that the prices of their products act as a deterrent to heavy consumption.

Hayman says: 'The problems come more from the sugary 20% abv shot drinks that go for about £1 a shot.

'People do go out and drink a lot if they're drinking something extremely sweet and very easy to drink, and maybe they don't realise how much they are consuming.'

Brighton-based Danes built its Tuaca brand on the back of a shot serve, but has started to promote mixed drinks more recently.

The firm's Sammy Berry says: 'It helps if you've got a versatile brand. Although Tuaca's a liqueur, at 35% abv it acts as a full-strength spirit in that you have students who'll drink it as shots and older people who'll drink it as an after-dinner drink.'

Some shot drinks are rubbish

Berry backs Hayman's view on the influence of price. 'People do need to be careful. Some of the shot drinks that are on the market are really just cheap rubbish, but because they're only 15% to 20% abv they can be sold at £1 a shot and obviously there's an incentive to drink more of them.'

Global Brands, which has its Corky's shots at 20% abv argues that the reason for the popularity of such brands is because they represent 'a more versatile and responsible proposition'.

Promotions co-ordinator Sophie Harben says: 'People definitely seem to be more aware of what type of drinks are on offer. Today, when we are in a venue, the first question we get asked about Corky's is 'what abv is it'?'

Marketing boss Alistair Cross argues Corky's has helped bring some consistency to what people are drinking. 'Up until two years go we were used to seeing retailers mixing their own shooters, making up a variety of unregulated and unmonitored alcoholic liquids.

'Consumers could walk into a variety of venues and buy a shooter without really knowing what it contained.'

It's not the way you drink, but how much of it you drink