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Malternatives in Motion
Today’s Variety Offers Up Tasty Traffic
 By Andy Ashby
People have their preferences. Some like beer, others like wine, and
some people swear by their favorite cocktails. However, there are other
opportunities to increase your sales. It’s important to offer people
alternatives. Specifically, many bar owners and managers think it’s
important to offer their customers malternatives.
Fresh Flavors, Fresh Opportunities
You might have noticed the malternative products simply because you
recognize their names. Skyy, Bacardi, Smirnoff and a bunch of other
companies have started producing these products in order to expand
their sales. Bar owners and operators also can increase their sales by
utilizing these heavily advertised beverages.
At Club Octane (cluboctane.com), a hot nightclub in Monterey, Calif.,
malternative products have become a staple of the drink menu.
“We carry everything from Smirnoff Ice to the Skyy products,” Owner
Taylor Wolfsen says. “Everything that has come down the pipe, we’ve
given a try. It’s just like the energy drinks were a few years ago. You
can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a malt beverage. I think it’s
great. It’s just giving people more options.”
Wolfsen says Smirnoff is his biggest seller among malternatives, but
regardless, he is enjoying all of the malternative brands’ offerings so
that his staff, in turn, can offer up a variety of flavors.
Bill Carlson, purchasing manger for Seville Quarter (rosies.com) in
Pensacola, Fla., used to purchase a ton of malternatives, he says,
including Bacardi products and Mike’s Hard Lemonade. “I’ve pared it
down to Smirnoff products,” he says. Malternatives flooded the market
at first, but the only one they keep really asking for is the Smirnoff
Ice.” Seville Quarter operators also still carry the apple flavor of
the Smirnoff product.
Club Octane, on the other hand, has enough fruit flavors to put a
supermarket to shame. Among the varieties they carry are Watermelon,
Grape, Raspberry, Orange, Apple and Black Cherry. It seems people
really enjoy fruit flavors in the alcoholic beverages. “Smirnoff really
picked up on that and put out a lot of different flavors,” Wolfsen
says. “All the flavors do really well.”
The fruit flavoring really appears to make malternatives popular — not
to mention a refreshing change of pace for guests wanting to take a
break from their usual beer. “It’s easier to drink,” says Matt Gilmore,
general manager at The Bitter End (thebitterend.com) in San Diego.
“With all of the flavors they offer, you can’t really taste the
alcohol. It’s like they mask the alcohol flavor.”
Accordingly, the trend among malternatives appears to be more and more
flavors. “They are trying to pull market share any way they can. Apple
seems probably our most popular,” Gilmore says.
It also can make a good substitute for a similarly flavored cocktail.
For example, take a patron who loves apple flavor but doesn’t like to
drink liquor, and you may have made a new sale — and possibly great
repeat sales.
“Some bartenders don’t really know how to make an Apple Martini
anyway,” Gilmore says, possibly alluding to the fact that modern
customer tastes can be very demanding.Carlson describes the
malternative-drinking demographic as “young and female.” “It’s sort of
a girly drink,” he says, although many of today’s malternatives appeal
equally to both genders.
Smirnoff’s flagship flavor, Smirnoff Ice, does well for Club Octane.
“It moves really well with the female demographic,” Wolfsen says.
“Instead of ladies night, you can do a malt beverage night and it’s
going to attract a female crowd.”
Clearing Misconceptions
There is some confusion among bar patrons about the malternatives that
feature well-known liquor names. “Some people don’t think it’s a malt
beverage,” Wolfsen says. “They think it has the brand of liquor in it.”
The mixture of liquor marketing with an easy-to-drink beverage can go
hand-in-hand. “I’ve noticed that liquor sales are on the upswing, and I
wonder if these malt beverages have been a step for people to get back
into cocktails. They go really well with our liquor sales. People tend
to go with the name brand of liquor they like,” Wolfsen says.
Gilmore has found that the malternatives can be a good entry-level
beverage for his bar guests. “People who are have never acquired a
taste for spirits or beer, they find malternatives more desirable,” he
says.
“I think it’s a good entry-level product because many people don’t know
liquor drinks that well,” Wolfsen says. “Also, girls like something
sweeter, and many of them don’t like traditional beers.”
When malternatives first came out, Seville Quarter staff would do
promotions with malternative companies. They would discount
drinks and have sales representatives come out to offer samples — and
there always have been a lot of new malternatives hitting the market.
“I remember at one time they had three or four come out at once,”
Carlson says. “When Zima first came out, I was buying about 20 cases a
week.”
One way Wolfsen promotes the malternatives at his club is through a big
promotion. If the shot girls are dancing on the bar, all Smirnoff
products drop to $2 until they get back down on the floor. To mark the
special, they have videos produced that count down the time left until
regular prices resume. The Smirnoff name is prominently displayed
throughout the promotion. All of this combined makes for a very lively
time at the bar, as dancing, music and drink sales combine. NCB |
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