Personalising Drinks This Christmas
Would a ban on promotions limit alcohol sales? This is a hard one to answer. The Institute of Sales Promotions just reported a survey completed in Scotland by Asda. The result was that removing or limiting promotions would not lower alcohol consumption. With Christmas rapidly approaching we have added personalised wines, beers and spirits to the Promotional Gifts Store but as a holding page to say we offer them, ‘let us send you more information’. I guess this is our responsive approach and one that is more appealing in many ways to limiting promotions. We offer them, can provide them but you have to ask. Perhaps if we made alcohol less readily available in this country, controlled its consumption better and made retails, waiters and bar tenders more responsible for their actions in the sales process we would start to change our culture. In Italy if you are caught driving whilst drunk your car is crushed and the proceeds go to the State. In the US a bar tender can be prosecuted for selling you your last drink and the age for alcohol consumption is higher. And off course in France, wine is something introduced to young adults as part of the social process at dinner tables. Somehow we have to move from a nation of warm beer drinkers and I do not think we will get there by simply removing ‘BOGOFs’- buy one get one free and other promotions from alcoholic drinks.
