Listing, Listing, Listing

Some months ago we shared amongst ourselves at Sedley Place a very interesting article that had been posted on LinkedIn by Eric Sampers, entitled What I Learned From Setting Up Illogical Drinks & Launching Mary (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-i-learned-from-setting-up-illogical-drinks-mary-eric-sampers/?trackingId=CsIuRP7CZl4piBe8Qf6icQ==).

The article is very frank and illuminating about his experience of creating a new drinks brand and its ultimate failure. It’s quite clear just how much was invested by the founders, their partners and suppliers in the brand and is a testament to the passion and commitment that’s needed.

At the time we read the article we were reminded of the discussions we’d had with another new brand – a flavoured sake - about the challenges facing them in achieving their primary off trade goal: supermarket listing. Like Mary they’d invested in developing the drink and its packaging, had created an e-commerce channel and had started to develop contacts in the on-trade. But their primary goal was to get a supermarket listing… just like so many other brands. Having reached out to our own contacts in the drinks marketing and distribution world it was clear that they were in a Catch 22 situation: without a demonstrable consumer base they were unattractive to retailers, without retail listings they would struggle to scale up and achieve that consumer base.

More recently we were reminded of this situation when attending some drinks trade shows. On a number of occasions we were asked if we had contacts who could help these new brands with distribution and listing in the UK. On our return to work we reached out to some of these contacts and the uphill struggle they face was once again made clear. In fact, one drinks marketing specialist told us they had a full portfolio of brands they were supporting and a waiting list of 50 gin brands who’d previously approached them.

Eric Samper’s article and our own experience of the challenges brands face - especially new ones - acts a powerful stimulant to our own creative process. Knowing how important it is to define, differentiate and distinguish a brand in its category and competitive set is just one element each one has to get right in the product, sales and marketing mix but it’s the one where we can contribute. By getting these things right we can at least help to start the process of consumer engagement.

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