The UK has more bars per square mile than any other European country. This is good for consumers because it leads to more choice, but for the pubs and bars themselves it means greater competition. Businesses need to stand out from the crowd to earn their share of customers and revenues, and this makes effective marketing all the more important.
So what techniques can they use to promote themselves? To drive more customers through their door they need to focus on developing high-quality marketing and point-of-sale material, from promotional banners to menus, advertising flyers and drink lists.
To pull in additional business this material needs to have a strong visual impact. While it should promote a consistent brand image overall, it needs to be easily customised to appeal to different markets. After all, the target audience at lunchtime will be very different from that in the evening.
In order to create this material and get key messages in front of target groups, pubs need high-quality, flexible printing. The leisure industry is one of the top 10 sectors for outsourced printing, spending more than £650m per annum. Yet, according to analysts Gartner, up to 20 per cent of all pre-printed material is wasted.
A study from the Centre for Economic and Business Research describes the leisure industry as one of the largest potential beneficiaries of more effective printing. It projects that the hotels and catering sector alone could save more than £9m a year through more efficient print processes.
Bringing your printing in-house can reduce wastage, save money and, at the same time, help promote your pub more effectively.
If you're buying your own printer you will need to achieve high productivity as well as gain full control of the creative process. Pubs and bars often need to get their message across to potential customers quickly - especially if they are running a new promotion or a 'one night only' special.
So look for equipment that is easy and intuitive to use - especially by staff with little or no IT knowledge and training, so they can get up and running quickly.
More than that, if your printer has integrated software you can design your own marketing material and print them out quickly and easily on a range of different media, enabling inexperienced users to create a consistent and professional look and feel in a very short space of time.
In addition, the ability to print on demand - rather than having to outsource jobs to specialist printers - makes it easy for pubs and bars to refresh and update their promotional material as and when required. This means material is constantly updated, print runs are reduced and obsolete stock is eliminated.
It amounts to a revolution in the sector's approach to marketing.
Ewa Johnson is marketing director of OKI Printing Solutions. For more advice go to www.askoki.co.uk