While alcohol is definitely the go-to choice of beverage for most, if not all adults, your brand might not necessarily be the first thing they’re reaching for. The reason for this is simple, either they don’t know your brand exists, or they haven’t had a chance to try it out and see if they like it.
When you’re looking to take your alcohol marketing to the next level, many obstacles can make it impossible for you to do so. Whether it’s beer marketing, wine events, or liquor promotion, you gotta do it right when you want to see some results.
Current Challenges with Promoting Alcohol
There are a ton of problems when it comes to liquor marketing. From working within stipulated regulations to meeting customer demands for products, alcohol marketers have a tough job to do.
Mass sampling is great for wine marketing, but you should ensure that it is done while fulfilling local, state, and national regulations of alcohol and promotions.
Age Verification
While this can definitely be an awkward requirement, it is one of the most crucial. Not conducting thorough identity verification at any event can be catastrophic for the organizers and lead to long-term damage to the brand.
During promotional events, when there are crowds of people lining up to try out various brands of alcohol, it can be chaotic trying to see if everyone is above 21. Not only that, mistakes can easily be made by staff that’s not used to handling high volumes and increased rush.
Over-Serving
When you’re at a promotional event or a food festival attended by hundreds of people, how can you tell who’s already been served your sample once? Worse, how will you be able to prevent people from getting drunk due to your liquor sampling products?
Without a proper strategy and trained staff, preventing over-serving and getting age verification can be a disaster you might not be able to avoid. You can try out methods like hand-stamping or even more innovative techniques like biometric identification when you’re trying to verify and ensure that no one has more than one sample.
Choosing The Best Time
All types of alcohol have a season in which they are optimal for promotional activities. You can expect a rise in your beer sales when you’re promoting them through beer events throughout the summer.
Whisky, brandy, and even rum see increased popularity during the winter months, especially during Christmas. Knowing when to plan your promotional events is crucial when you want the best possible results.
- Summer: Beer, White Wine, Cocktails
- Winter: Whisky, Rum, Wine
- Autumn/Fall: Cider, Bourbon, Ale
- Spring: Sangrias, Cocktails, Gin
Visibility and Awareness
Whether you’re at a food festival or a standalone event, it’s crucial to understand how your brand will be most visible to your audience. People could walk past your stall without having a clue as to what you’re offering.
You also want to create a memorable experience for the audience to ensure that they remain aware of your brand long after they’ve been exposed to it. Finding ideal methods to increase visibility and awareness can be hard for brands to achieve.
Creating out-of-the-box content and introducing seasonal campaigns for your brand are great ways to get started on your upcoming promotional events.
How Can Your Brand Benefit from Alcohol Promotions?
Trying to make your alcohol brand successful through random and poorly organized alcohol sampling or wine tasting events will not help anyone. Your brand needs to be visible, bold, and attractive for customers to approach it and create a memorable experience to ensure they never forget it.
Knowing Your Audience and Requirements
Before you jump in head-first trying to plan out a perfect strategy for your promotional events, you need to know who your audience is and what they want. Start by figuring out:
- Target demographic
- Events they are likely to attend
- Their preferences
- Easy and efficient ways to reach them
- What they want from their perfect alcohol brand
Knowing these aspects ahead of time can greatly aid you in creating the perfect strategy.
Ensuring the Correct Strategy
When you’re looking to create a strategy that ensures your brand and products are on full display at any event and get the attention they deserve, you need to include the following elements:
- Innovative ways for alcohol promotion
- Branding on all items available for sampling
- Trained staff for alcohol promotion
- Information about your brand
You need to cater your strategy to your brand, which means that if your brand is about ethical drinking, it should be utilizing sustainable materials (like biodegradable cups) during promotional activities.
Harness the power of social media and your employees when you need to spread the word about your upcoming sampling event to see positive online and offline engagement.
Consider introducing special events like free product giveaways, first-time discounts, and more when you want to encourage people to not just sample but purchase for your brand as well.
Sampling and Swag From Your Brand
When you’re looking to create a lasting impression on whoever visits your brand stall or event, giving out samples and swag with your branding prominent on it is essential.
Whether it’s a beer tasting event or a large festival that includes booze, you need to ensure that you’re creating an experience for the audience, from when they enter your stall to when they leave it.
It includes having professionals deliver your samples to the audience and telling them a bit about your brand. Driving positive engagement is crucial when you want people to leave the event thinking favorably about your brand.
Try going beyond your typical wine cork opener or bottle opener when you’re considering what type of swag to give. Whether you’re giving full-size beer mugs with your logo, or a set of shot glasses, ensure that it’s part of the unique experience you provide for your audience.
From standalone alcohol events to sampling events that are part of a food festival, brands can harness various techniques to ensure better visibility for their alcohol brand.
Contact the Auctus Agency now to help your brand with events and samplings!
