Personalised cocktails top Diageo’s drink predictions
As part of Marston’s Pub of the Future consultations, Diageo presented ideas of how personalisation of drinks - in particular spirits - can be used in pubs, bars and clubs to attract younger consumers.
Faith Holland, head of category development, told the Publican's Morning Advertiser's sister title M&C Report: “Everybody wants to be part of the personalisation trend. Drink is becoming a form of self-expression and we are starting to see that in drinks and going out choices.”
Self-assembled cocktails
Diageo has identified a growing interest in personalisation that can translate to the drinks market such as individual serving trays with components of cocktail that can be self-assembled at a table.
“We look at consumer trends and how people are spending their money and making choices in drinks and in other parts of their lives. We are always looking for new ideas and new things, particularly for spirits. In the US spirits are more developed and lots of ideas tend to start there and we take them and see how they might translate to here in terms of serve and matching lifestyles,” Holland said.
“We’re starting to see a spirits revolution in London and Leeds. There’s a cocktail culture and people now want to try new things.”
Something different
Diageo estimates around a quarter of pubs now serve cocktails and it receives increasing interest from operators and pubs looking for bar academy to get into cocktails, which Holland attributes to people going out less and wanting to drink something different when they do.
The drinks company is focused on creating and delivering drinks that both taste and look appealing, including novel serving styles that can be photographed, tagged and shared on social media to promote the venue and the drink.
As part of its Pub of the Future research Marston’s invited the team of 10 people (age 18-32) to Diageo’s London based Customer Collaboration Centre to see what drinks young people would like to see in their pub of the future.
The campaign was launched in partnership with The Sun to find a team of 10 volunteers to create a vision for how pubs should evolve to attract younger clientele and retain its place at the heart of the community.
The group, which met for the first time in November to discuss food trends, was shown a range of spirits, wines, beers and soft drinks as well as serve methods that could be used in the pub of the future – Marston’s will consider the team’s ideas shared throughout the 12 month process, for use across its pubs estate in future.
At the inaugural meeting in November the group was talked through menu ideas and recent food trends with KK Foods to create a menu that will be unveiled at the end of the process. KK Foods presented their predictions for food trends for the year that include street food dishes, home comfort meals and ‘dirty food’ such as barbeque, ribs and burgers.
'It's crucial we evolve'
Head of customer insight for Marston’s Inns & Taverns, Louise Fleming said: “It’s crucial that we evolve our offer to reflect the changing needs of consumers; through this project we are working some way toward pubs becoming an integral part of the social repertoire for the next generation.”
The findings of the group of young people will be presented to the Marston’s executive board at the end of October and the best ideas will be incorporated into the pub of the future.
