Having the cheapest drinks deals in town isn't a responsible or profitable way to run a business these days. So how can you appeal to the student crowd otherwise? Nigel Huddleston reports.
There are two things that everybody knows about students: they like a drink and they're always hard-up.
Put the two things together and it would appear you have an easy recipe for commercial success by offering cut-price drink deals to attract a student crowd — plenty of footfall even if you do have to sacrifice a little margin.
But to do so could also risk encouraging excessive consumption, which puts the health of your student customers and the good reputation of your pub at risk in the long run.
It's a trap that, in the current political climate, pubs need to avoid falling into.
Alcohol education body Drink-aware and the National Union of Students are heading towards the forthcoming freshers' week and the new term on a mission to tackle alcohol misuse among the student population with the Why Let Good Times Go Bad? campaign.
As well as targeting student consumers, it will include co-developed training programmes for bar staff and codes of conduct for freshers' week activities.
Ben Whittaker, the NUS vice-president for welfare, says: "The majority of students drink in a responsible manner, but sadly some may feel pressure to drink excessive amounts of alcohol on a night out.
"Students' unions have worked hard over the past 10 years to ensure that bars on campus are operated responsibly."
But the NUS work doesn't cover pub companies and freehouses, which have to make their own decisions about how to market
themselves to what is a less captive student audience than enjoyed by campus bars.
A quick glance at the websites of larger pubcos with student-oriented brands shows that there is still considerable emphasis on price as a marketing tool, with one high-street chain offering £2 pints and two-for-one drink offers under its student section.
But the emphasis does seem to be shifting, with a realisation that there are other ways to appeal to students' pockets and passions.
For example, the same company was also marketing the attraction of free Wi-Fi and a £3 baguette and chips offer in its student activity, though they were further down the site's promotional pecking order.
Mark Baird, Diageo's corporate social responsibility manager, says: "You need to give students a real reason to be in your pub other than just price.
"Students are price-sensitive, but having the cheapest products in your bar isn't really sending out the right message about your business.
"Just to be the cheapest in town isn't a long-term, sustainable business model because being cheap isn't the only thing that motivates them."
Attractions
Live music, DJs, free taxi phones and meal deals are some of the simpler ways to appeal to a young audience without flogging cheap booze. Cutting the margin on food rather than alcohol is a straightforward way to appeal to students on a budget without encouraging them to get drunk.
"Good quality sharing plates are popular with students," said Baird. "Food and drink combos are a great way of offering a deal, but you have to encourage sensible alcohol consumption."
Several leading student-oriented pub brands have membership card schemes that encourage loyalty through a range of offers, including discounts with partner businesses.
Baird argues that being responsible doesn't rule out all types of drinks promotions, just those that encourage excessive consumption or that make it hard for customers to monitor their alcohol intake.
Jugs of beer that are a known quantity of four pints and ABV are within the bounds of decency, but giving people a big bucket of booze of indeterminate strength and a few straws doesn't allow them to regulate their own consumption.
Baird also argues that students' budget awareness means they just like getting free stuff — not necessarily alcohol. That's a point to bear in mind when working out prizes for pub quizzes.
Tap your reps for promotional items or even invest some of the margin you might sacrifice by giving away drink as a reward in some other appropriate prizes.
"They love PoS stuff, such as T-shirts and baseball caps," says Baird.
"Promoting can be about offering something more — it's too easy to fall into the trap of believing that promotions can be only about offering cheap alcohol. If you look at a lot of what we do with Guinness around St Patrick's Day it's giving items away, not price-promoting."
He adds: "Things like music can be a relatively cheap way of getting
people through the door. There are lots of young people in bands who want to play for free.
"Simple things such as clean toilets and welcoming, knowledge-able staff can also be attractive to student customers."
Be responsible
Baird also says that pubs should take steps to plant the idea of taking on water and soft drinks in young consumers' minds.
"I went into a pub the other day and there was a tap at the end of the bar and if you wanted free water you could just help yourself. People can be quite reticent about asking for water because they think they're asking for something for nothing or wasting the bar staff's time, but this is a way round that."
That theory's backed up by Drink-aware research of 2,000 young adults, which showed that 16% felt asking for a glass of water in a pub is socially unacceptable, while almost a quarter think their friends will ridicule them for having a non-alcoholic drink.
The packages that licensees put together to welcome students into their pubs can go a long way to changing those attitudes.
Case study: the White Bear, Bristol
Arguably the trick to successfully targeting the student market is not to target it too hard — students often just like good pubs, the same as anyone else.
When Julian Smith took over the Enterprise Inns lease on the White Bear a year ago it was already established as a venue frequented by students, but he used contacts from the other half of his business empire to up the ante. Smith is an established music promoter — his ventures have included running a club with the Bristol group Massive Attack — and he has used his contacts to host DJs and bands for free.
"It's not fundamentally a music-led pub, but every two or three months we have a big party night and it gets people talking about the venue.
"We're also quite militant about what music we play in the pub and quite clued up about it."
Both drinks and food have the emphasis on quality and value — and freshness for food — rather than the cheap and cheerful image that many student-targeted venues go for.
"We don't really aim for the stereotypical rugby club crowd, but we do support student groups. We've had the university cheese society doing a wine and cheese evening and we host the politics society."
The White Bear has also linked up with local club, Dave, for the Monday night Shabby Pub Quiz, so-called because participants have usually been partying through the weekend. "It's a laid-back, light-hearted affair," says Smith, who lets people called Dave take part for free.
The pub also drives traffic by offering a ticket-shop service for gigs and club nights in the city, many of them Smith's own promotions.
"If an event is selling really well, put 40 tickets on sale on the night and maybe get 200 people through the doors who want to buy them. You have to be relatively cunning these days to make money in the pub game."
Responsible ways
• Meal deals rather than drinks promotions — include soft drinks in the deals
• Make free water available and publicise the service
• Offer bands or a DJ showcase — and free entertainment for customers
• Don't make free drinks the prize for quizzes and competitions
• Link up with other local businesses, such as take-aways and record shops, for budget-friendly promotions
• Play the long game with loyalty-card promotions to keep them coming