Trade Talk: Ian Stead
Ian Stead, MD of marketing fulfilment specialist, MDA Limited, calls on brand owners to work closer with licensees on pub promotions.
In an increasingly competitive marketplace, both brand owners and retailers know effective marketing is vital to attracting the right customers and creating the right experience. Sophisticated marketing offers more ways than ever to communicate effectively with consumers. But at the same time, the industry has to get smarter to make the most of these opportunities. Get it wrong and you'll inevitably be wasting precious resources and losing out in the battle for customers.
In the wake of The Portman Group, advertising has become more costly, complicated and restrictive, hence the increased focus on below the line promotions and point-of-sale (POS). More and more brand owners, pub chains and retailers are putting extra investment into this area.
Most recently, all the talk is about targeting. Not so long ago, brand support meant a large quantity of identical POS, shipped out to every stockist in a regular scheduled delivery.
The industry now has to be more agile where events are concerned, with more tailored activities to allow licensees to create a unique experience within their outlets. The days of mass-produced kits being forced into pubs are well and truly over and the onus is on brand owners and retailers to recognise that a bad activity that has the support of a licensee is likely to be more successful than a good activity that hasn't.
In fact, if you can change the balance between push and pull you will inevitably generate a better result. A great example is the way that Punch provides marketing support for its estate of 8,000-plus outlets - allowing them to build the promotions they want by mixing and matching from a range of promotional items.
Of course, brand owners have to invest more and work harder to succeed with bespoke promotions. But the proof is in the pudding - as promotions lose the "one size fits all" uniformity of the past and start to work in terms of your customers and their preferences, they can deliver significantly greater brand awareness and return on investment; plus, the chance to save money by largely eliminating wastage.
With all the technology now available, and faster access and better communication via the internet, there's no excuse for not challenging your own promotional practices to see if they could be better.
Finally, a word to the wise. Yes, drinks marketing is more sophisticated than it used to be. Yes, there are some great new ways to boost profits. But we also mustn't forget about getting the basics right - every time.
For example, installing a new beer should mean that when the beer arrives, so does all the right POS to support it. Does this always happen? Does it hell! Even some of the biggest brands could benefit from a "reality check" on their basic systems.
