Talking up your wine offer

Wine more than any product needs you to act as a salesman behind the bar. Grappling with the grape requires a bit of a Del-Boy spirit, because individual wines do not sell themselves, the way a lager with a big branded font, or a spirit brand sitting invitingly on the optic rail does.

Whether branded or non-branded, the label rarely does the sales job for you. It is too small and in the case of many of the older, more classic wines, too non-descript. So what are the best ways to sell or merchandise wine?

The Publican got advice from two men whose very role in the trade is to advise licensees on this subject: Robin Knapp, wine director at Matthew Clark, and Phil Garmston, wine development director at Waverley TBS.

Create an innovative, wine-friendly back-bar

The back-bar is the preserve of spirits while the back-bar fridge is still dominated by bottled lagers and ready-to-drinks. To get more from your wine offer, this attitude has to change.

PG: "If at all possible make sure your wines are visible to the customers on your back-bar. Visibility is the key. If customers think you are quite serious about wine, they will buy more wine."

RK: "Think of all the back-bar space taken up with spirits that you never sell, while at the same time of all the wine you put in the back- bar fridges that can't be seen.

"And how often are your wines put next to the lemons on the back-bar or under the bar? The single biggest obstacle to people buying wine in pubs is if customers are uncomfortable with how the wine is being looked after.

"At Matthew Clark we have introduced mini-blackboards. They are non-glossy and actually fit onto individual bottles. If you have one of these boards displaying: 'Reserva Rioja, £16.99, oaky red' directly to the customer, you will sell so much more of it."

Blackboards

Blackboards are used by an ever-increasing number of licensees as a sales tool for wine. But it seems they are only one part of the solution.

RK: "Blackboards are great for creating atmosphere for customers looking to buy wine. But they have to be written in an easy-to-understand way, otherwise you can confuse people. The headline words have to be clear and easy to understand; words that people can latch onto.

"The problem with relying only on blackboards is that if a customer sees a South African chenin blanc on a board they can be a bit reticent to stride up to the bar and ask for it.

"What's much more preferable is that they get to the bar and see that wine right in front of them on the back-bar - then they would be much more likely to buy it. People are much more interested in wines that have the information on the bottles. Merchandise as close to the point of sale as possible."

Merchandise on the bartop?

One big disadvantage wine has compared to beer in the on-trade is that the latter is often served through fonts. And not only do they act as a serving vessel but also as a very handy merchandising and branding tool. But wine can follow suit, according to Robin.

RK: "More companies are serving wine from bags-in-boxes and on pump from the bar. Now while people do undoubtedly expect to drink wine poured from a bottle, you need only look at the example of Australia. It is one of the most progressive countries in the world when it comes to wine and so many drinkers in Australia drink wine from a bag-in-box."

Freshen up your winelist

You could argue there is no right or wrong answer to how many wines you should put on a winelist. In fact, there are entire features ready to be written about how to put one together. But there are still some basic, fresh ideas to think about.

PG: "You need to recognise your market. Who are your customers? Who are you trying to appeal to? If your customers have a really big appetite for rosé, then put five or six rosés on your list - be ambitious with it.

"The thing that people are doing these days is grouping wines by style. So for example: 'crisp, dry whites', 'light reds' and 'full, robust reds'. Plus, start your lists with the rosés or champagnes.

"Don't lead in with house wines. People are describing wines in a more fun way these days - à la Oddbins. Many more wine drinkers in pubs are aged between 20 and 25 and they don't want wine to be boring."

Point-of-saleBrand owners in other categories never miss an opportunity to market their messages to pub-goers, particularly in giving licensees the merchandising tools to do this through point-of-sale. But wine is lagging behind.

RK: "The wine trade has been woefully inadequate in providing merchandising tools that are needed to successfully promote wine in pubs. There is very little point-of-sale - the wine trade is very backward in its ways. I think the wine trade ignores merchandising at its peril.

"The public do latch onto certain grape types and if you focus on these grapes you are much more likely to get a successful sale out of it. Highlight a merlot, or shiraz or chardonnay on your point-of-sale, for example - names that people see everyday in the supermarkets."

Trading up

Rather than hacking your prices to pieces or heaping a huge mark-up on your wines, why not approach it from a more constructive point of view? The message is: set your prices reasonably and your customers will look to trade up to your more premium wines.

PG: "You need to be fair with your pricing. Don't make people feel they are being ripped off. The only thing you can bank is cash - not cash margin. And if people feel there are getting a good deal then they will trade up."

RK: "If you can get people to trade up because of improved knowledge then you are approaching the Holy Grail - for example, if someone asks for a glass of red and you ask them: 'Would you like a glass of house red or shiraz?', at least 50 per cent will ask for shiraz and that will improve you margins."Case study: the Drum Inn, Cockington, near Torquay

This Mitchells & Butlers pub, part of the Vintage Inns brand, is well-known for its enterprising approach to wine retailing. Here manager Larry Sleight, tells The Publican about the merchandising ideas employed in the pub.

"I would say over 95 per cent of our back bar is devoted to wine - be that a blackboard with our entire wine list or the wines themselves. Under or above each wine on the blackboard list is a description, stating the nationality, characteristics, grape and price of each wine. We don't put much more than that on there as we don't want to blur what we are trying to say.

"Just a couple of simple words such as 'a robust, full red' will do.

"It is important the boards and displays are behind the bar because I find your initial contact with the customer is always at the bar, when they are buying their first drink.

"That is why we do the bulk of our merchandising at the point of sale. We do other things like have special wine bottles on each of our dining tables, which has the wine list printed on them.

"We have come to appreciate over the past five to six years that wine sales are heavily on the increase so I think these ideas could be applied successfully in whatever pub you own."