With cider offering great margins it is a vital category to promote to your customers.
Promotional activity is a key part of any business mix and every pub, as a business, needs to plan and execute promotions effectively in order to improve profitability.
Cider is a profitable drink for publicans and a part of the repertoire of drinks that millions of consumers enjoy. This means it is important to run a number of specific promotions on cider throughout the year.
Promotions can do many different things for a brand or a category, for example:
- encourage trial
- increase footfall
- increase brand/category awareness
- encourage brand switching
- increase wet and dry sales through greater spend
- encourage repeat purchase, and
- reward customer loyalty.
As has been said, with cider offering great margins it is a vital category to promote - and not just in the summer when you would have captured the cider sales anyway.
The basic advice for running promotions is the same as for any marketing activity.
It is important to start with a clear idea of what you want to achieve, plan appropriately, have in place the things you will need (staff, point of sale, additional stock, etc.) start the promotion and then evaluate the success against what you originally intended.
Starting with a clear objective in mind then there are three basic forms of promotion.
There is the "value-added" promotion - these offer something to the consumer as a reward for purchase, eg the current Blackthorn "Coast 2 Coast" campaign that offers instant wins and the chance of a holiday in Hawaii or the Diamond Mini contest from Diamond White.
There are price promotions - these offer consumers a discount on the price per pint or a reward for an increased weight of purchase, eg discounted pitchers of cider. These promotions can be an important mechanic to reward customer loyalty and increase wet sales.
A very successful idea devised by the staff at the Destiny nightclub in Glasgow was to promote pitchers of Blackthorn with an energy drink and blackcurrant as "Big Pink Jugs". This promotion took sales from one keg a week to ten kegs a week.
There are linked promotions - this is where two categories are combined to capture incremental sales because of the combined offer.
The most obvious linked offer in a pub would be to link food and drink. Given the refreshing nature of cider and because it is a great match for many foods there are many pubs that run "Curry Clubs" to promote Blackthorn and drive dry and wet sales.
Having understood that promotions can deliver a range of results from increased trial to increased weight of purchase and that three basic forms of promotion exist, it comes to the actual promotional mechanic to use. This is limited only by the imagination of the publican and/or the brand owner.
Often companies like Matthew Clark Cider will work with publicans to devise appropriate and effective promotions. In fact, the marketing team at Matthew Clark has developed a range of potential mechanics based upon the type of outlet and the intended objective.
Matthew Clark Cider will also assist with the important business of making a success of the promotion.
It is vital to focus on how a promotion will be managed, because its success or otherwise will be determined on how successfully it is implemented.
It is important to plan appropriately, consider how to communicate the promotion, to consider any external implications, eg the gaming legislation covering prize draws and competitions, and vitally how to evaluate the promotion. In summary, these are principally the elements of good management.
Five steps to successful promotions
- have clear objectives, eg increase trial in Gaymers Olde English
- plan appropriate, eg order extra kegs of Blackthorn
- communicate the plans, eg staff briefed and consumers informed via Blackthorn posters etc
- consider health and safety, gaming legislation etc
- measure and evaluate against the goals you set in advance.
Matthew Clark CiderSimon Russell: 01275 890351Nicola Randall: 01275 890778