Seeding your brand into the on-trade
Seen as the traditional path to getting your drinks brand into the off-trade, seeding with the on-trade is vital to getting noticed and bottles joyfully emptied.
Seen as the traditional path to getting your drinks brand into the off-trade, seeding with the on-trade is vital to getting noticed and bottles joyfully emptied. But the journey to off-trade success is not a guaranteed, logical outcome, or even the only outcome worth having.
You’ll still need to pound the streets
If you’re a premium spirit brand, you will, have to seed with the on-trade to grow your presence. You may have a good-tasting liquid, a bottle, a label designed and even a compelling story, but that doesn’t mean your brand exists. The task is to build your brand, and there isn’t one answer for how you do that.
Understand your customer, segment that audience, then segment again
Before you put a foot on the road, speaking to bar managers and head bar tenders, before spending money on product design and infrastructure, you need to understand who your customer is. Have as deep an understanding as possible of your type of consumer, those likely to love and engage with your brand. This has to be your first task.
Then think about the variety of on-trade establishments: traditional pubs, restaurants, cocktail bars and lounges, not to mention events, pop-ups, bottle shops with spaces to drink. What’s the mix of consumers at these places? If they sell lots of lager when the sun shines, it might not be the right place for you.
Independent businesses are a good place to start
When you go to one of a chain of bars, you’re unlikely to speak to a decisionmaker. Independent businesses, who are owner-operators are more willing to give you a chance, and their time. They have autonomy and more likely to be on your wavelength.
The idea you’ll go straight to a major listing in the off-trade is unrealistic, so start on your doorstep, locally, with fellow business owners to build your consumer community.
Build credible data
If you manage to get a good glut of independents selling you, or you’ve been to farmers’ markets and events and sold there, you are amassing the data you need. You can talk about demographic, volume, sales patterns – all of which is hard data to get you to the next step.
You’ll need more than passion
Your passion for your brand and your business is not in doubt. But a real understanding of what your product is saying, and to who, is worth just as much, if not more, when it comes to building brand.
And don’t be afraid to shout about that understanding when you talk to hotels, bars and restaurants - how it went and how much you sold. That is real data. And whether that’s gained through events, festivals, via social media campaigns, or however and wherever you engage consumers, then good. There’s no single route to your consumer as there was ten years ago. It’s all this data that enables a credible conversation with group buyers, retail buyers and independent operators.
Do more than one thing
You’ll need to seed with the on-trade to increase your distribution, but don’t stop doing the local stuff like events, pop-ups, etc. It all works in parallel – one feeding the other to grow a wider spectrum of consumers.
Appreciate the bar tender
Tap into the expertise of the bar tender. A premium spirit is an investment to a consumer, but one measure – served right – is accessible. What a bar tender can do should be way beyond what can be created at home.
There are dozens of amazing looking bottles behind a bar, so showing how your brand can be a hard-working brand for that bar is important.
Talk the language of the person serving the drinks so you can communicate how your brand fits: a long drink, to a high-tempo spritz, lower tempo complex cocktail, or simple serve over ice.
The on-trade/off-trade circle
You’ll unlock a wider distribution when consumers aim to recreate a loved on-trade experience at home, in their growing number of ‘at-home bars’. The on-trade feeds the off-, as brands and on-trade support each other. It’s circular, all elements working in concert, adding layers to your brand distribution as consumers become familiar, invested and committed.
Kraken cracked it
A great example of a brand that successfully grew, right though the demographics. They engaged with venues, identified and captivated subsets of customers and grew a thriving off-beat culture.
The main takeaway
Remember, it’s your data that enables credible conversations with buyers.
Hard graft, patience and planning will grow your brand, but the supermarket listing needn’t be your only goal. And, what’s sold in supermarkets runs the risk of no longer seeming special – that’s just the game we’re in.
Seeding your brand into the on-trade