Marketing & promotions: Blow your own trumpet
Some publicans are wary about promotional events. This applies to both 'packaged' events, where suppliers provide marketing materials and prizes, and licensees' own events, such as beer festivals and special offers on food.
The wariness usually comes from misplaced scepticism about the potential results. Cautious publicans should realise that drinks companies, which expect a return on any investment, create promotional events regularly because they know that these boost business.
While the occasional event may under-deliver, they work in the long term. The publican who never runs an event is missing opportunities.
Some shy away from events through lack of confidence. In reality, running an event can be easier — and more successful — than they might imagine, given proper planning. The key consideration will always be the reason for holding an event. In other words, what should you be promoting?
Deciding to promote a specific drink is not a bad idea, but it misses the point: your aim is not to boost sales of a particular product. Whatever you promote, it is just a means of getting new customers to try the pub and existing customers to spend more money.
Your real aim is for customers to return when there is no event running. Consider what you stand for. Are you a real ale pub, a young persons' pub or something else? If you think that there is nothing marking you out from other pubs in your area, ask why customers come to you, rather than going somewhere else. Try to sum up the good things about your pub, the things that set it apart from the competition, in a single sentence. The result will be your pub's brand story, which is at the heart of the emotional bond you have with regular customers.
Pick your promotions
Once you have defined your brand story you can begin thinking about the types of promotional event that will communicate it. If you are known for your real ale selection, have a 'mini festival' for a couple of weeks, offering a range of guest beers not normally found in your area. If your selling point is regular live bands, have a weekend music festival.
To take an example from the high street, All Bar One's brand story is that of a sociable bar for young urban professionals. It reinforced this at the beginning of the year with 'The Campaign for a Real Lunch', created by Brandhouse to encourage office workers to take a proper lunch break. This was based on the insight that office workers take an average lunch break of just 19 minutes, despite research showing that taking a proper break to eat something wholesome in the middle of the day boosts energy levels.
Tools of the trade
The campaign emphasised the need to refuel the body with warm food, particularly during the chilly winter months, and was designed to attract new customers and boost sales. All Bar One's pubs promoted the event using A-frame display boards, tip-tray cards and menu cards, plus a range of materials for use in and around the bar. You could use any or all of these to promote your own event - not forgetting the potential of local advertising.
When mounting your own promotion, remember the key point: whatever the nature of the event, it has to promote your brand story.
The aim is to make an emotional connection with your target market and establish your pub as a desirable destination.
The more the nature of your promotional event tells people that you have the sort of pub they would enjoy, the more likely it is to attract new customers who will like what you have to offer. If an event brings in people who like what they find, they will keep coming back.
David Beard is creative director of marketing agency Brandhouse
All Bar One's campaign
reinforced its credentials
as a sociable bar for young urban professionals
