Reaching The End Consumer Within A Free Market - Hospitality Flashcards
What ways are there to reach the end consumer within a free market in hospitality?
- Bars
- Restaurants
How to reach end consumers through bars?
SPECIALIST WINE BARS
These bars specialize in selling wine (although they may sell other alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks). These are usually independently owned, individual wine bars or form part of a small chain. In many ways, they are very similar to specialist wine retailers – in fact, there are an increasing number of outlets that sell wine both for consumption on and off the premises.
Like specialist wine retailers, these bars tend to have knowledgeable, well-trained staff who can hand-sell wine to customers. They usually seek out wines from smaller producers, often from less well-known wine regions and less common grape varieties, aiming at ‘high involvement’ consumers who are willing to pay above average prices for very good and outstanding quality wines. Specialist bars, are, therefore, an ideal route to market for such producers. As with specialist wine retailers, some of these bars focus on particular countries or styles of wine. For example, in Paris, bars specialising in natural wine are currently very popular.
Many specialist wine bars also offer food and choose some of their range specifically to match with that food. The food offering can range from artisan cheese and charcuterie platters to full three-course meals and can reach the standard of fine dining restaurants.
Some bars specialise in having a small, regularly-changing selection of wine, whereas others have a wide range of wines at different price points – including, in some cases, super-premium, hard-to-find wines.
These specialist bars do not usually offer big-name wine brands (except perhaps when it comes to sparkling and fortified wines) because they cannot compete on price with the larger bar chains which have stronger purchasing power. They tend therefore to stock wines from smaller producers.
There are some larger chains of wine bars (e.g. Davy’s in the UK) which sell sufficiently large volumes of their most popular wines to have their own-label wines. These are usually high-quality wines and would be a good option for a medium-sized producer.
GENERAL BARS
These bars have less of a wine focus, with wine being just one – and usually not the most important – of the drinks on offer. The range of wines available would be very limited, usually produced by the major companies and from well-known regions and grape varieties. They tend to be inexpensive or mid-priced wines, chosen to appeal to a wide range of people and could be drunk with or without food. In wine-producing countries, these are likely to be dominated by local wines.
In some cases, these are the same wines as those available through retail outlets. However, with the bar’s mark-up, these cost considerably more than in shops and so, to avoid consumers making direct price comparisons, some producers make brands which are sold only to the hospitality sector.
Some bars have a specific theme (e.g. American sports bars, Irish bars or British pubs) which will skew the range of drinks on offer. For example, Irish-themed bars throughout the world tend to promote the beer Guinness, with wine having much less prominence.
How to reach end consumers through restaurants?
NON-DESTINATION RESTAURANTS
As the name suggests, someone eating at a ‘non-destination’ restaurant is not making the meal the main focus of the lunch time or evening. For example, they could be going on to the theatre or cinema or having a quick meal after work.
Many non-destination restaurants are part of chains, although some are independently owned. In general, the wines on offer need to appeal to a wide range of consumers and so will tend to be from well-known regions and grape varieties and may be major brands. They are likely to be inexpensive or mid-priced. In wine-producing countries, the range will often be dominated by local wines.
Many non-destination restaurants have a country-based theme (e.g. Italian, Spanish or Lebanese), in which case the wines would tend to be heavily drawn from the relevant country.
CASUAL DINING
This category falls between non-destination and fine dining restaurants. They can be used in a variety of situations: from quick meals (in the same way as non-destination restaurants) to longer meals (like fine dining restaurants). These restaurants tend to be independently owned, often being individual businesses or part of a small chain.
Casual dining offers a very high quality of food and wine but without the formality of ‘fine dining’. The wines offered in such restaurants will be more in the mid-priced to premium price bands than those in a non-destination restaurant. The wines will have been chosen with food and wine pairing in mind, the wine list or menu often including suggested pairings.
The wine list will often offer a mixture of wines from better-known regions and varieties and less well-known ones. Staff will betrained sufficiently to advise customers on which wine might suit their particular taste, price range or food choices.
In wine-producing countries, the range will often be dominated by local wines and, if the restaurant’s menu is themed around aparticular cuisine, the list may also be dominated by wines from that country. However, in these restaurants, there are more likely to be some carefully-chosen wines from other countries on offer as well.
FINE DINING
These are very much ‘destination’ restaurants, where the experience and the meal are the reasons for the visit. Many will have one or more Michelin stars or have a very prestigious head chef. Examples of fine dining restaurants include Le Bernardine in NewYork (USA), The Fat Duck in Bray (UK) or El Celler de Can Roca in Girona (Spain).
Food and wine pairings are particularly important in fine dining restaurants, with a trained sommelier and highly-skilled staff on hand to make recommendations to customers. Many such restaurants offer ‘tasting menus’ which offer food and wine pairing.
The wines in these restaurants must be of the highest quality and are often super-premium wines available in very limited quantities. The head sommelier will usually have a role in choosing the wines to be included in the wine list. It can be a great source of pride for a producer to have their wine listed in such restaurants.
Restaurants such as these often use brokers to seek out hard-to-find wines that they want to feature on their list.
