Private: Intelligence

The integration of digital into brick and mortar business is proceeding quickly, and one of the msot intriguing expressions of this trend is Bartab.com, an SF-based startup that lets you send and receive $1 drinks with your Facebook friends.

It’s quite ingenious, and like the best ingenious things, dead simple.

1. Join
2. Choose a bar from the list of participating bars
3. Choose a drink from the bar’s list of promoted drinks
4. Send the drink coupon to a friend (or yourself.)
5. To redeem, you show the barman or barmaid your phone and pay a buck

Wowza, hunh?

- What a great way for a bar to drum up business!
- What a great way for budget conscious young people to go out at a slightly lower cost.
- What a great way for a control freak to get their way on what bar s/he and the friends will patronize that night.
- What a great way for liquor brands to promote mixed drinks versus suds.
- Or suds companies to promote their brands of suds.
- Or or or.

There are a variety of reasons why this sort of model might work better for bars than group couponing. Because I would imagine that trial rates would be enormous, given that you pay on premise versus online for a coupon you might or might not get around to using.

I would also be interested in knowing the impact this has on tipping. In my (extensive though now dated as I have not had an alcohol drink in 10.5 years) experience, a buck a drink is a “normal” tip in a bar. My suspicion is that a customer would be AT LEAST that generous on a discounted drink.

I would also think that you are covering your costs on a lot of drinks (using well brands,) so there wouldn’t be the danger of creating unprofitable sales. So long as a reasonable number of people follow up the discounted drink with a full priced one, there’s great money to be made here. And the opportunity to drive trial and loyalty makes this a really intriguing bar marketing tactic.