The moment of truth

When was the last time you walked into a pub or up to a bar and knew, way beforehand, what you were going to order? Perhaps a pint of Guinness, a bottle of Miller or a schooner of Cockburn's sherry.

The odds are heavily in favour that you had no idea what you were about to order and this behaviour is borne out by vast quantities of research that show that the majority of us have little concept of our brand preference for up to a minute or two before requesting it.

And even if the generic preference has already been established - beer, lager, cider or gin, for instance - the brand has not.

So is brand advertising having the impact that it once did or should we, as an industry, be spending a greater quantity of our marketing budget on what has been termed 'branded moments of truth' - the short period before a customer actually purchases a product? In the case of pubs and bars, this is the period between the customer walking into an establishment and actually making a purchase.

The pub is the thing…

Would our marketing pounds be better spent developing strategies that centre in and around the pubs and creating instantaneous reasons

to purchase rather than just focusing on advertising? At Savanna cider we certainly believe this to be true.

Because what part does traditional advertising have on the outcome of a round of drinks? Research shows that there is a very high likelihood that whoever is paying for the round and chooses the first drink will unwittingly dictate the choice to others in the group. So if the payer chooses a brand of lager the number of 'me toos' will be significant. This is a branded moment of truth - the time when brand choice is made.

Can it be said that advertising is failing to have the impact it once did? Probably. With the fragmentation of the media and additional choice of media, the rise of the internet and the number of messages flying around the ether - each person is exposed to about 4,000 messages a day - the sheer volume of noise means that the majority of messages are blocked out. Plus there is research that says 85 per cent of consumers now express a preference for trials and sampling over traditional advertising.

In at the point of purchase

The good news is that there are new agencies such as the aptly named Branded Moments of Truth whose raison d'etre is to prompt customers to purchase by developing strategies around the buying conundrum. Examples include using barstaff as 'brand suggestors', additional point-of-sale on beer and cider pumps to prompt recall, and internal sales promotional material to activate desire.

The use of staff within an establishment as brand suggestors' who are trained to endorse a particular category and brand is very effective at steering the key procurer towards the promoted brand. This is just one of the many ways for customers to experience a brand, allowing them to make a decision as to how the brand really feels (tastes).

While it would be a foolish man to say advertising is dead, it would perhaps be more thought-provoking to suggest that it is not the marketing panacea it once was. There is too much competition, too many media alternatives and too little time to digest the messages.

What is certain is that marketing to the consumer during the small window of opportunity when they are actually considering purchasing is becoming increasingly important.

Chris Bowen is managing director of Babco, UK distributor of Savanna Cider​​