Spirits Corporate Dictionary

Benchmark

A reference which is already present in the market of the brand or similar in approach or offer to the one which the brand offers. But a benchmark may also be something of an equivalent price or serve a similar purpose but is a different product, for example a Calvados could be the benchmark of a brand of Cognac.

Example of use: ‘The benchmark of a new pink gin to the market may be the leading pink gin in that market, ie one from Sevilla’

Indie Bartender Understanding: The typical comparison between brands that marketeers make which may have nothing to do with reality ! A benchmark of your bar could be any of the following, any other bar that serves cocktails, any other premium cocktail bar, or even a pub where people go for a pint ! It’s all in the perception that the marketeers think that the consumers have…

BTL

Literally Below-the-Line – The line is the theoretical median below which marketing activites are designed to have a direct effect on immediate business and sales.

Example of Use: ‘Our BTL strategy focuses on price-off activities in supermarkets at Christmas to ensure a sales boost during this important part of the year.’ –

Indie Bartender understanding: There’s this fictitious line in marketing below which anything brands do is supposed to drive short-term brand business, sales and invoicing, and growth. No one’s ever seen the line, but marketers and brands can discuss it all day!

Brand

The most valuable asset of any company. A brand is an entity which ‘lives’ according to the four Ps of marketing – Place, Product, Promotion and People. Brands communicate benefits, both tangible (product) and emotional (image), in their quest to sell to (place) and seduce consumers (people).

Example of Use: ‘The name of a Brand is what should stick in consumers’ minds. A brand is like a living being, it begins its life, it lives, it evolves, it grows, declines and can die … ‘

Indie Bartender understanding: We all want to be a brand ! Brands make money, and the more they reach their target the more profitable they become…

Brand ambassador

In essence everyone who works for a brand should be considered an ambassador of that brand and should be treated as such. Generally speaking, though, a brand ambassador is a paid advocate and expert of the brand capable of living and breathing that brand wherever they go and whenever.

Example of Use: ‘The Brand ambassador of Brand XX regular comes to our bar to train our new staff about the production of the brand and how we can use it. ‘

Indie Bartender Understanding: This is one of the industry’s favourite tools. The job of a BA is very glamourous, travel, meeting people, trainings, drinking, working networks … everything we as batenders love doing ! But it comes with its obligations from the brand … effect and results are expected!

Brand building

You can build a brand by selling more or by selling better. The goal of building the brand into a stronger and stronger entity is any company’s goal since the brand is their most valuable asset. As we all appreciate you build something upwards, generally brand building is achieved by, for example, through improved packaging, developing greater desirability, innovation into new product variants, distribution in more premium venues or outlets … brand building is creating value and additional value creates means to invest more in brand building.

Example of Use: ‘Instead of focusing on just developing distribution and on selling more product this year, we have a plan of more brand building activities in place which should help us reach our target.’ –

Indie Bartender Understanding: Brand building is the term used for the strategy of strengthening any brand through brand building activities. These contribute to making the marketing mix stronger and the brand’s assets more desirable for the targeted consumers.

Brand owner

The owner of the brand, ie. the shareholding company, or physical person or whoever is registered as owning it. As opposed to distribution companies, re-sellers, representatives or agents, the brand owner actually owns the registered brand name and is generally the person or organization which finances its development.

Example of Use: ‘We consider the brand owner to be those who finance and manage the A&P Budget.’ –

Indie Bartender Understanding: Many of the brands we love, use and work with in our industry are owned by big multi-national companies whose names have nothing to do with the name of the brand. Others are owned by smaller independent companies or even individuals. Whatever their size, name, origin or type of organization, the entity which owns the brand registration is the brand owner.

DEPLETIONS

The technical name brands usedfor the amount of sales in a specific environment.

Example of Use: ‘The depletions of the brand in a specific market or channel are going up this month versus last year.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: When measuring the performance of our outlets and venues, a brand may ask to see our depletions. This info could be part of a commercial agreement that we have with them. Our depletions of the brand ae therefore the base on which the brand will decide if we are performing well or not.

DISTRIBUTION

The act of ensuring that the brand becomes available to be bought by its customers and consumers in the places and conditions that the brand strategy requires.

Example of Use: ‘The brand’s distribution strategy focuses on hospitality venues this year.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: To get distribution a brand needs a distributor and it’s the distributor who ensures that the commercial strategy of the brand gets it to our venues through the cash & carries or through the wholesalers we work with.

DOMESTIC MARKET

The market where consumers buy with all the VAT and other taxes are included in the price paid. Domestic refers to ‘at home’, therefore the home market for the consumer.

Example of Use: ‘Domestic market prices include all taxes.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: All of our venues, unless they are on cruise ships or international ferries, are in Domestic markets and the products we sell are fully taxed by the government authorities of the countries where we work.

DUTY-FREE MARKET

Duty refers to tax and this is the market where consumers buy with certain taxes discounted from the price paid. The duty-free market usually proposes bottle formats of 1L at a saving of 30% vs the domestic market price which makes the litre bottle at a rough parity to the regular sized bottle in the domestic market. Duty free sales are not possible when travelling between countries of the single market of the European Union.

Example of Use: ‘When crossing a border (except within the European Union’s single market or other similar international organisations) purchasing duty-free products within limits is authorized. This mainly applies to perfumes, tobacco and wines and spirits.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: When we travel, we like to visit the stores in the airport or on the international ferry. These often propose products at cheaper prices because of the VAT and tax savings that they are allowed to apply.

LISTING

The act of a making a brand available in a venue or chain of venues and outlets. Having a listing does not automatically mean that the product arrives on shelf or behind the bar, or that sales will happen. Once the listing is agreed, perhaps on the basis of listing fees, then brands get access to different services or possibilities which will help them ensure that their presence in these venues or outlets adds to the brand’s performance.

Example of Use: ‘Obtaining a listing means that the brand may have access to that venue’s sales venues and organization. Gaining listings means distribution is increasing and the brand’s availability developing.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: A listing is basically a brand becoming available in venue or outlet. It can be obtained because we fall in love with the brand thanks to its positioning, its quality or even just the people who are making it or because the brand pays fees for it to be on the back bar or visible. Listing is the presence of the brand for sale in our venues.

LISTING FEES

The costs associated, and which may be needed to spend, in order to gain a listing.

Example of Use: ‘The listing fees in that chain of casinos are very high but if the brand doesn’t pay them then it won’t be listed and be sold behind the bar !’

Indie Bartender Understanding: Depending on the impact that the venues have on the local market or town where it is situated, the owners may decide that the big brands may have to pay to get special services from the venue. These can be special visibility positioning, exclusivity in product categories, special status on the drinks menus and focus from the team. The listing fees will be the cost that these brands will pay to be able to get their brand(s) in and to benefit from these services.

LOCAL

A vision, approach or strategy of a brand which is particular to a specific market. As opposed to Global.

Example of Use: ‘A brand owner may produce a global brand plan outlining the objectives and means to globally support the brand throughout the coming year, but then the Local team will produce the Local brand plan which will target the specific customers of the brand in a specific geographical area, the country or the local market.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: Local is what it says whereas Global means worldwide or whatever in its entirety. In marketing it doesn’t necessarily the area down your local street, it means the local geographical market or country for example. The area for which the most local team work.

LOYALTY

Consumer or customer loyalty is the measurement of how motivated consumers or customers are to continue purchasing a same brand or product over a long period because it satisfies their quality expectations and communicates an image which they can identify with.

Example of Use: ‘Consumer loyalty may be affected if the quality of the brand is changed. The brand consumers may decide to turn away from it.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: We all like consumers and guests to come back to our venues, its ‘easy’ for us since we can create direct relationships with them and notice when they return. For brands it’s a bit more difficult since they don’t know their consumers personally. Loyalty is the way they measure returning consumers

MARTKETING MIX

This is composed of the four ‘Ps’ – Defining People, Product, Place, Promotion – which characterize the basis of any marketing strategy.

People – The brand’s defined target
Product – The actual product which the brand is selling and its points of difference versus its competition
Place – The brand’s distribution strategy – priority markets, channels, off-trade vs on-trade
Price – The brand’s price positioning versus its competition.

Example of Use: ‘A marketing strategy can only be defined if the four Ps are addressed. No brand can succeed if one of these are ignored and not defined. The strategy can not move ahead. ‘

Indie Bartender Understanding: We all need to know who we are, who we are talking to, what about and where … and brands are the same. Our venues are also the same. Each P is important to define the mix and then the strategy.

MEANINGFUL

This is when brands build relationships with consumers by improving product perception and emotional affinity to be more meaningful to consumers’ desires. It is one of the ways we can understand consumer loyalty thanks to research.

Example of Use: ‘This brand’s level of meaningfulness has increased and can be the reason why consumer loyalty is increasing.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: Meaningfulness is a deep marketing concept and they could talk about it til the cows come home but its basically what it says, its about how meaningful to a consumer the brand seems to be.

MEDIA SPEND

Money, or A&P Budget, which is spent on media to communicate to consumers – Media may be newspapers, radio, tv or out-of-home billboard advertising, but also on digital channels. Communicating in the media may be decided for different reasons and the messages with different content, but is generally agreed in marketing that this ATL spend is designed to influence consumer perception and image of the brand.

Example of Use: ‘The media spend of the brand on TV has increased and thanks to consumer research we can see people’s impression of it is evolving.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: Brands spend piles of money on different types of expenditure. They need to know where their spending is going and as part of the A&P budget, different lines are created of which Media Spend is one.

MULTIPLE PUB OPERATORS

MPOs are common in many markets and are composed of groups, small or large, who own several hospitality outlets and venues. The expression is particularly used in the UK where pubs of all types, sizes and concepts exist.

Example of Use: ‘MPOs may be under the same brand and concept, or each may have their own positioning. A typical MPO may own an estate of traditional pubs as well as a chain of funky concept bars …’

Indie Bartender Understanding: A technical term for groups which own and operate several hospitality venues. Used particularly in the UK.

OBJECTIVE

A brand will have a set of objectives which may range from selling more product, to increasing prices and value to extending distribution to new areas of a market.

Example of Use: ‘The brand’s principle objective this year is to develop it’s degree of consumer loyalty.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: We all need, define or have objectives imposed upon us. They are like the motor that keeps us moving forward. Like people, brands have objectives and these are generally defined top down from the hierarchy and our performance in reaching them is measured from the bottom up. Just like in life!

OFF-TRADE

The channel where consumer buy to consume off the premises, probably at home.

Example of Use: ‘Off-trade sales increased during the Covid19 crisis and the confinements since people could not go to on-trade venues, they bought their alcohol and drunk it at home.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: Supermakets and off licenses don’t have licenses allowing them to serve drinks to be consumed on the premises, they just sell the bottles and people go and drink them elsewhere.

ON-TRADE

The channel where consumers buy to consume on the premises, ie. the hospitality industry’s venues.

Example of Use: ‘On-trade sales were boosted during the FIFA World Cup when people came to watch the football matches on the big screen and consume on the premises.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: On trade, because people consume on the premises … simple!

ON-TRADE SEGMENTATION

The on-trade channel is segmented into different families of venues. This helps the marketing teams at the brand owning companies to define their company and portfolio strategy depending on the positioning of the brands that they have and their objectives. A typical segmentation defines between style (contemporary or traditional) and positioning/quality of the venue (mainstream, pemium and super premium). Generally speaking a traditional British pub or village Mom & Pop’s venue would be Traditional Mainstream, whereas the World’s Best Bars would be at the other ed of the spectrum.

Example of Use: ‘The on-trade segmentation in Market X is very skewed towards mainstream traditional since the premium and contemporary venues are not very well developed yet.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: We all have to fit into boxes so that the marketeers can analyse our offers and positioning. Whether we work in mainstream or super premium of traditional or contemporary, giving our best is what is the most important so that we are satisfying our consumers and guests.

SALIENCY

Over and above brand awareness, saliency is a brand’s need to be particularly noticeable and prominent to ensure its appeal to consumers. Saliency could be said also to be ‘stand out’ … A mix of meaningfulness, saliency and difference are what makes brand strong. Understanding this and the levers to pull to make them strong and balanced can help towards strengthening the brand.

Example of Use: ‘The brand will be more salient if we develop its premiumness by working on its packaging, it will stand out more.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: Another one of these marketing concepts which brand managers love … we all want to stand out and be seen, the brand too thanks to its packaging but also thanks to other activities it develops, including being present and visible in our venues.

SERVE

A serve is a drink as it is sold to a consumer. A serve can be the brand served neat, mixed (cocktail, long drink … ) or can come with elements which complement the experience for the consumer as proposed by the bartender. Brands and hospitality actors use the word serve more than drink since it evokes more of a wider experience than that of just having a drink put in front of you.

Example of Use: ‘My recommended serve of a glass of XO cognac is to accompany it with dried fruits to enhance the taste experience.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: We serve serves in hospitality. You could say that there are venues which put drinks in front of their guests, but generally in the world’s best bars we are offering the experiences that consumers expect, therefore we serve and what we serve are called serves.

SHIPMENTS

As opposed to depletions, shipments are the sales that a brand will make to its distributor in a national market from its production base, rather than to a specific customer within in a market. Our shipments to the UK increase every year.

Example of Use: ‘The brand owner sends shipments to its distributor in the Netherlands three times a year. The distributor then has the stocks necessary to sell to its national customers and these sales are known as depletions!’

Indie Bartender Understanding: In a sales chain different words help to easily understand what is being referred to. Here shipments are the sales of the distributor from its production site to its national distributor.

SWOT

The SWOT is the summary of the brand’s environment through its Strengths and Weakness in the market as opposed to its category’s Opportunity and Threats.

Example of Use: ‘When we did the Swot for the brand of gin we wanted to launch, the prospects seemed good on the basis of the Strengths the brand has. We tweaked the Weaknesses of the marketing mix and this addressed the Opportunities and the Threats we could see in the market. ‘

Indie Bartender Understanding: Like the marketing mix the SWOT is an important element of marketing preparation and the basis of any strategy and plan. We need to know what a brand’s strengths and weaknesses are facing the opportunities and threats the market poses.

VENUES & OUTLETS

The collective names for the places where wine and spirits brands are served in the on-trade and off-trade.

Example of Use: ‘There are 50.000 hospitality venues in the market where I work.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: Just names of the places where we work and sell to our guests or consumers. Outlets used a lot for the off-trade channel.

VISIBILITY

How a brand is potentially seen by consumers in a point of sale is called Visibility. Visibility is achieved by the bottle’s presence behind the bar, then can be improved with more facings, or in some cases, a bottle can be presented upside down on an optic behind a bar if it is a fast moving reference for the venue; in this case, the producer would place the labels also upside down so that they can be read normally when on the optic.

Example of Use: ‘This new packaging and striking label will improve visibility so that the consumer can see our brand from the other side of the bar.’

Indie Bartender Understanding: The first level of visibility of any brand is how it is designed and presented, then how it stands on shelf or behind the bar next to its competition and after that other activities can be envisaged to help improve its visibility. These additional activities would usually be agreed in a Commercial Agreement and include additional facings, secondary placements etc.

VOLUME

Volume is the common word used for shipments of units of a brand, in the wine and spirits world this is generally measured as cases of 12 bottles. For spirits a case can be of 12 x 70cl = 8,4L or 9L when the bottles are of 750ml (USA; Canada and S. Africa). Volume can also refer to alcohol degree of a spirit, or volumes of different ingredients in a cocktail.

Example of Use: Volume Growth is generally an objective for any brand owner.

Indie Bartender Understanding: In the industry volume doesn’t refer to the loudness of the music it is a quantity of sales but it also has two other meanings relating to parts of the ingredients of a cocktail or the % degree of alcohol in a spirit.