Your humble executive director was a panelist at the third annual BDLive! conference recently held in Dallas, TX.
Off-premise managers from across the country gathered to learn from industry experts, share insights with each other, and become more knowledgeable and efficient beverage alcohol retailers.
Among the most interesting and practical pieces of advice were:
"You want to be the go-to store in your area. There are 50 stores within five miles of my store, at least three of which are warehouse stores. So I started going to my competitors' locations and talking to the customers there. And I started making adjustments based on those comments."
-Paul Santelle, Owner of Garden State Discount Liquors and President of the New Jersey Liquor Store Alliance
"I can tweet from my car that we have a new release of something and by the time I get to the store, we're sold out of it. Twitter can move the revenue needle, whereas Facebook is best to increase brand awareness."
-Brian Rosen, COO of Evolution Wines & Spirits
"If you've been in this business for 25 years like I have, the biggest adjustment you'll need to make is learning social media."
-Paul Kaspszak, Executive Director of the Minnesota Municipal Beverage Association
"You want to capture the customers' information so you can communicate with them one-on-one. Whether it's a text number, email address, or Facebook page, get that information. But don't talk to them too much or you'll lose them. Talk to them about once a week."
-Jim Dean, Owner of Hazel's Beverage World
"In 2007, four flavors made up 70 percent of the flavored vodka market, which were 14 percent of total vodka. Now there are dozens of flavors, and they make up 21 percent of sales. And flavored whiskies now make up five percent of the whiskey market."
-Laura Welsh, Client Director at Nielsen
"The beers that are growing the fastest are the highest-priced, craft and superpremium. Craft has gained 2.2 share points in the off-premise in the past year."
"There are now more breweries (more than 2200) than there were before Prohibition, and a new brewery opens every day."
-Harry Schumacher, Editor and Publisher of Beer Business Daily
"Beer companies prefer advertising on television, and tend to target the Hispanic market. Of all beverage alcohol advertisers in 2011/2012, Patron was the number-one spender, followed by Bacardi and Smirnoff."
-Adam Rogers, Senior Analyst at the Beverage Information Group
"Until you understand why people steal, you can't stop it. You can have all the technology in the world and it won't matter."
"Ten percent of people will never steal, and ten percent will steal as much as possible. Most people, 80 percent of the population, may steal if the right opportunity presents itself. Your job is to take away that opportunity."
-William Alford, President of International Lighthouse Group 
