Pub Mentors: Surge in soft drink sales

Nicely done: the pub has successfully improved soft-drinks visibility

Martin Sampson, out-of-home shopper marketing controller at Coca-Cola Enterprises, keeps tabs on his protégés.

Nestled in the busy bar and restaurant area of Bristol, the Elephant is in a great location to capture not only the daytime lunch trade of nearby businesses but also the bustling Bristol nightlife.

I revisited the pub on a Friday afternoon with the bar steadily filling up with customers about to start their weekend.

Following a few emails and phone conversations charting the good progress so far, I was really keen and excited to see the impact of our execution plan.

The key focus areas agreed were:

Improving soft-drinks visibility with food.

Improving soft-drinks visibility at the bar.

Showcasing quality products and perfect serve.

Improving soft-drinks visibility with food

Soft drinks have the highest incidence of any category purchased with food and 65% of all soft-drink purchases made before 4pm.

During my initial visit to the Elephant the menu did not reflect this, with a food-only lunchtime menu and a cocktail one to peruse, from 11am, but no soft-drinks menu.

Menu visibility at lunchtime presents licensees Ben Bartrip and Sarah Eskins at the Elephant with a great opportunity to drive penetration and incidence.

In trials conducted across 250 managed pubs there was category uplift on soft drinks of between 5% and 9%, simply by making
brands and packs more visible to the consumers.

Result: Ben agreed to improve soft-drinks visibility on his lunchtime menus. Menus have been reprinted to include brand logos and product descriptions for the Elephant’s key soft-drinks brands.
Improving soft-drinks visibility at the bar

Previously, there was little or no visibility of soft drinks on or behind the bar. The fact that one in four drink orders in a pub contain a soft drink shows how they are an integral part of an outlet’s offer.

Result: Ben and Sarah have swapped a speciality bottled-beer brand on the top shelf of their back-bar cooler that was delivering a poor volume performance and replaced it with their packaged range of soft drinks.
The importance of quality products and quality serve

Alastair Scott, the pub’s official mentor, talked a lot on our visit about the importance of ‘signposting’ outside and inside the pub, indicating clearly to potential customers what the outlet is about, thereby giving them reasons to visit.

Result: Ben was keen to trial branded cola glass bottles, in addition to his existing cola post-mix, to help signpost a quality message about the Elephant.

Ben also acknowledged the importance of branded glassware and, where possible, provides all of his beers in a branded glass and feels it enhances the quality of experience for the customer. He has now mirrored this best practice with his
soft-drinks range.
The Elephant’s soft-drinks action plan summary

Create a soft-drinks menu to complement the lunch menu to be displayed on all tables pre-4pm.

Use brand logos and product descriptions on menus to deliver a clear message to customers.

Ensure adequate chilled space for soft drinks.

Ensure soft drinks are visible to customers.

Use branded glassware for soft drinks to enhance the overall quality experience and drive consumers’ value-for-money perception.

Overall results

Ben has executed the business basics brilliantly and made a fantastic start with the help of his mentor’s support and guidance.

The soft-drink brands featured on his menus and made visible on the top shelf of the back-bar chiller resulted in a 14% uplift in volume and revenue versus the four weeks prior to implementing the changes.

I hope this positive sales performance continues and that it is not long before Ben and Sarah realise their aim of opening a second outlet.