Logbar: Digital Point of Sale Innovation for Alcohol Brands

One of Accenture’s solutions for Achieving High Performance in Alcoholic Beverages is for brands to focus more on their business customers (as opposed to consumers) and develop high performance trade marketing and trade relationships.  So here’s a great trade innovation from Tokyo that could be adapted to help premium brands stay premium, continue to extract margin, and build relationships with on-trade partners.

The cocktail menu on the tables at the Tokyo cocktail bar Logbar (and being trialled in London) is an interactive menu on an iPad Mini (see video above).  Customers not only browse, but also order drinks from the menu.  And they can create their own cocktail mixes (selecting glass, alcoholic ingredients, mixers and adornments) , add their cocktail to the menu – and if others then order the cocktail, they get a reduction on their own cocktail bill.  The interactive menu also supports table-table flirting…

We think this is smart digital POS, and a concept that the big drinks groups should consider offering to their trendsetting style bar customers.  By providing customers with innovative digital POS (featuring of course, their own brands), brand owners would be helping their customers find their feet in the new experience economy, forge relationships, build their brands and shift stock.

Of course, there will always be a role in influencer (trade) marketing for discounts, free branded merchandise, and scantily clad sample girls – but with new cost-effective digital technology, there is a real opportunity is to add interactive value to the brand experience.