Dressing Up
Your Glassware

Where There's a Logo, There's a Way
to Wow Crowds and Woo Sales

Don't just think about the drinks you serve; consider what you are serving them in. Each drink list is tailored to fit the clientele and adding logoed drinkware can only add to the style and advertising power of your establishment. While different for every venue, setting up a drinkware program has three important characteristics. Looking at each of these three in turn, Nightclub & Bar asked a pertinent question, got some answers and collected a few tips, as well.

Advertising Effectiveness and Promoting a Brand
    • What is the benefit to branding through logo drinkware?
    The first key points to acknowledge when putting your logo, name or rendering on drinkware is the advertising effectiveness you desire and deserve. Logo recognition is a cornerstone in creating a brand. As they say, “A picture tells a 1,000 words.”
    In Pensacola, Fla., Bamboo Willie’s has been a boardwalk institution through more than one crowded tourist season, and General Manager Robert Gleim says they currently are looking into yet another specialty glass for this season. The bar already stocks logoed Styrofoam cups, plastic cups and shot test tubes with a name drop down the front. What does this matter? It gives the bar cheap, effective advertising and sets up their brand on the beach.
    “People are walking around the boardwalk with our cups,” Gleim says. “It gives us brand recognition.”
    Keeping their target market in mind, the bar sticks to the 10-ounce plastic and Styrofoam for several reasons. Disposable allows for the uninhibited movement of their cups outside of the bar and onto the beach. In addition to this, the bar’s branded drinkware also is in accordance with the law by providing a non-glass container on the beaches.

    Pat O’Brien made his actual signature famous when he began branding bar merchandise in the 1940s. Today, the franchise holds tight to their success with brand recognition. “We had an additional version of our logo that we were using in the 1980s,” says VP of Administration Shelly Waguespack. “When we realized the importance of solidifying our logo, it just became necessary to be more consistent.”

Cost Versus Profit Margin
    • How do you decide where logo drinkware falls within your budget?
    Deciding the portion to allot to your drinkware design depends on several factors and may take some trial and error before becoming a permanent number on the budget outline. Key factors to budget in include: How many colors are incorporated into the design, what kind of glassware will move the best, the benefits of going with one company over another and finally, inventory storage. If you are only devoting a small amount of the budget to logo drinkware, then grouping it with your other drinkware expenditures is probably the best option. If you are going to spend a significant amount of time and effort, incorporating it into the budget’s larger advertising segment is a possibility.

    Gleim says that he did a little shopping before deciding to go with Bamboo Willie’s food distributor, and he found that “everyone was pretty comparable.” While some companies may offer free design but a higher cup price, others will offer a fee for the initial design work but a break on cost overall. One benefit Gleim found with his food distributor was the warehouse advantage. “We don’t have  the space,” he says. “Our main distributor warehouses for us.”

Concept Support
    • Do you stick with a specific logo, or do you change the design to indicate a theme?
    Pat O’Brien’s offers patrons the chance to purchase more than 13 different kinds of stemware ranging from wine glasses to jiggers to the legendary hurricane glasses. While the logo is always the same, the different sizes and shapes blend in with various themed drinks on the cocktail menu to increase revenues.
    “We began the Category 5 Margarita at the beginning of last summer,” says Waguespack.
    The drink, while now holding a somewhat touchy name, has sold well and is a good example of cross marketing through logoed drinkware.

    In-house sales of drinkware can mean one more revenue stream. Of course, customers want something fashionable, yet indicative of a fun evening. While the occasional update every three to five years will keep a logo looking fresh, many operators who have been in this for a while will agree that drastic change is very risky.    
    As one of the only bars in San Luis Obispo with logoed drinkware, Mother’s Tavern pilsner glasses are lauded as a great gift idea.
    “It has always been the same,” Jamero says of the logo on the signature beer glasses. “We get a lot of regulars of all ages, but the glasses are known as good graduation gifts. So, on graduation weekend, we sell out.”

Plan a Detailed Profit Program
    Deciding how to set up a logo drinkware program is a complex undertaking. As mentioned before, there is a time of trial and error with so many variables coming into play. The size of your establishment, flow of traffic, type of beverages and storage all factor into a program specifically suited for you. A few aspects are vital, however. Make sure your logo drinkware remains true to the brand you are creating and make sure you educate your patrons on exactly what you offer. Table tents, signage and having your staff promoting on-premise will send sales nothing
but skyward. NCB