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On-premise marketing for drinks brands: focus the spend

On-premise marketing for drinks brands: focus the spend

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On-premise marketing works when a drinks brand concentrates its spend on a short list of outlets and sequences its tools. It fails when the budget is spread across every bar a sales team can reach.

Why on-premise marketing needs a short list of outlets

A new drinks brand has a limited number of sales visits, a limited number of events and a limited number of free serves. The outlet universe in a large city runs to thousands. When the budget is spread thin, the brand is present everywhere and noticed nowhere. We saw this in two launch plans for bars and restaurants, one for a craft mixer and one for a premium water entering new cities. Both put the same discipline in front of the activities: know which outlets matter and in what order.

On-premise marketing starts with 100 to 150 outlets per city

The premium water plan targeted about 100 to 150 on-premise outlets in each city. These were the venues where the target consumer already pays a premium, because staff there influence what the table orders. The first stage of a city was planned at between six and eighteen months. Status came before scale, since a brand seen in the right outlets first is easier to sell into the next wave.

Availability before awareness

The craft mixer plan ran over 18 months and listed 11 trade activities. We then grouped them into four clusters and ranked them on urgency and importance. One rule drove the order: physical availability comes before mental availability. A bartender cannot recommend a product the venue does not stock. For example, an ambassador visit, a tasting or a launch event is wasted if the bottle is not behind the bar the following week. So the sequence runs from basic tools to brand building. Basic trade tools come first, and brand-building events come last.

Cap the signature serves at two or three

Bartenders can only push a few drinks. The plan capped the signature serves at two or three per brand. Fewer serves mean a clearer message. The same logic applies to sales material. When a range spans many SKUs and formats, therefore, the collateral has to stay simple. A salesperson who cannot explain the range quickly will not get a second visit.

Ambassadors open doors, they do not close deals

Brand ambassadors are often asked to deliver volume. In the craft mixer plan, however, their role was narrower: they open doors and build the relationship. Others close the deal itself. The plan also split the roles between producer and distributor. As a result, it avoids the common failure where each side assumes the other is following up.

Measure quality, not reach

The plan judged the activity on quality indicators, not on reach. Counting events held or samples poured says little, because it does not show whether a venue sells the brand. A related UK market audit shows why this matters. For instance, about two thirds of gin sales there came through cocktails, and one super-premium on-trade brand lost about a third of its volume in 2020. A brand that depends on venues cannot afford activity that does not convert into a menu position.

Five rules for on-premise marketing spend

First, name the outlets. A target list of 100 to 150 per city beats a general ambition to be in the on-trade. Second, secure stock before you run events. Availability comes ahead of awareness. Third, limit the signature serves. Two or three are enough. Fourth, write the producer and distributor roles down. Ambassadors open doors and the distributor closes them. Fifth, track quality, not reach. Menu positions tell you more than attendance. These rules also apply to an investor reviewing a drinks brand. If the plan cannot name its target outlets, then the spend is probably spread too thin to show a return. To apply this to your own business, see the Growth OS programme or the FMCG Growth Sprint.

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