It’s no secret that craft beers are the fastest growing segment of the beer market, and due to their growing importance to liquor store owners and other purveyors of fine brews, craft brews require a different sales technique at the point of sale.
In the beer market, price points have traditionally been the top sales point in a typical point of sale sign. However, with craft beers the sale is different. Beer distributors that sell craft beers take extra time and effort to educate the customer about the various types of craft beers, even going so far as to take a page out of the wine menu and pair them with complementary foods.
The project show here produced for Raynham Wine & Liquors in Raynham, Mass., by Colonial Wholesale Beverage Corp. – designed, printed and installed by Colonial’s Tennyson Lacasio – is a perfect illustration of the craft beer sales concept writ super-large across 90 feet of cooler space.
The sign has just a taste of branding at either side, with 12 foot long bottles of Colonial’s latest addition to its beer portfolio from Boulevard Brewing Company, Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale and Long Strange Tripel, as bookends to the sign. Other than those two bottles, there’s no branding and no pricing. The rest of the sign marks the store’s Beer Cave, flanked by a quick explanation of craft beer types shown bubbling up in the glasses in which they’re made to be enjoyed.
Though light on branding and absent pricing, Colonial’s Lacasio says this treatment is entirely appropriate, leading consumers to Colonial’s craft beers. It’s also exactly what the store owner wanted, giving Colonial better product positioning in the store while helping cement the relationship. Colonial went head to head with a competing distributor on this project, and pulled ahead for the point of sale victory with Lacasio’s classy, crafty design.
The 90-foot long by 43-inch tall cooler sign was printed on LexJet TOUGHcoat Water-Resistant Self Adhesive Polpropylene and applied to Coroplast, which was attached to the wall with an industrial hook-and-loop system, a.k.a., a product that rhymes with Melcro.
Lacasio says he only uses the industrial hook-and-loop system for signs that will be attached to the wall permanently, or for a long time. This method is preferable to screws and washers that mar the overall look of the sign, he says.
Lacasio and one of Colonial’s merchandisers spent the good part of a day applying the graphics to the Coroplast, working from the middle panel out to ensure an even application across the cooler, making sure to leave some extra material at the end so you don’t come up short after all that work.
