Branded Beer Glasses 101

Pain in the ass.

That's how some bartenders would describe branded glasses. It's how I did, and the most taps I ever had to work with as a bartender was ten.
- not enough room behind the bar
- glasses that don't stack
- glasses of different shapes and sizes
are all issues that your bartender has to deal with.

Nobody ever told me WHY I should use branded glasses. I just didn't understand. I did it because I liked my beer reps, but couldn't understand how it helped anything else.  Now I know WHY it is important. It's not just because your rep tells you, there are several reasons.

Reason # 1 why Branded Beer Glasses are important:

"The Brand Is The Badge" - Beer Marketing 101.

People enjoy certain beers for two reasons, one is the taste, the other reason is for what the brand represents. Consumers (your guests) have a connection with their brand and they want other people to see which brand they are drinking. They use labels to communicate this when drinking from bottles and they use branded glasses to communicate this while enjoying draught.

Have you ever noticed that there are two labels on a beer bottle?

When you hold your bottle by the body of the bottle, the neck label is visible. When you hold your bottle by the neck, the body label is visible.

Branding is important, look no further than Nike, Starbucks, Apple, or ________ (insert any brewery).

Still a skeptic? There were no neck labels on value beer brands because until the last few years, value brands had no brand recognition; people drank it because it was cheap, period. Look at a Lucky or a Lakeport. No neck labels in the past.

When having a conversation with my neighbour last week, we were talking about beer (go figure) and he tells me, completely unprovoked, that he visits a certain bar because they serve his Keith's in a Keith's glass.

Then he proceeded to list several bars where he gets his Keith's in a Guinness or an unbranded/pop glass. He couldn't tell me exactly why he doesn't like it in the wrong glass, but said it's much better in the right glass. He did say he'll never go back to the places "who don't do it right". At $7.00 a pint, branding, image, presentation, and guest perception are as important now than they ever have been.

Check out reason #2 for branded beer glasses:

How using branded beer glasses makes you more money.