Women Gyrating in Cages and the Competition
Yesterday was a truly mixed day of feelings. I think we had our biggest high of Muddler Cocktails short life span and then within a matter of hours our biggest low but I'll talk more about this later.
We went to the Bar 07 exhibition to see what everyone was up to. There were some pretty impressive displays and some very interesting new products there. It had everything from pub furniture, lighting and smell machines to premium spirits, mixers, cocktail shakers, beers and a girl gyrating in a cage in an attempt to promote an energy drink!
It was a little strange in that while there were some business people looking and trying the wares it seemed that the majority was made up of groups of 20 year olds, which didn't look to dissimilar to stag do's, who had thought it would be a good day out and were making the most of the free samples on offer. Unfortunately the samples were so small that we really couldn't see how this could either be enjoyable or quite how so many of them seemed to have got so well oiled. Oh well each to their own.
So what of the competition. Well there were 3 direct competitors that we could find, 2 of which we were aware of and one which was new to us. It's a bit of a roller-coaster of emotions when you come across your competitor. My first reaction is one of dread, B*LL*CKs someone has thought of it already and beaten us to it. But on closer inspection, i.e. trying their product and looking at what they were really trying to do, this sense of dread would rapidly dissolve into a feeling of superior self righteousness!
While the competitors are using fruit juice and alcohol they have missed what we believe is the key to the reason for putting these two ingredients together. You can hear their logic, 'Right, there's a big trend in natural fruit juices, there's also a really big market in alcohol, I know why don't we combine the two, then we will get the best of both worlds!' The million dollar question is, when people go for an alcoholic drink are they looking for a natural fruit juice with alcohol in it? We think probably not. But if you look at the same two trends and think what is it that people already enjoy that can combine the two? Well the answer to this is simple. It's the Cocktail.
By having the cocktail at the heart of what we do this means that we are not just throwing together two types of ingredients but we are first and foremost crafting and infusing ingredients to create a delicious tasting cocktail. It just so happens that in doing this, due to the high quality of our product, everything we use is natural.
The Muddled Cocktail we believe is the key to truly bringing the two worlds together of fruit juice and alcohol. Ultimately it's this that gives us the confidence on reflection to take on our competitors and if anything they have helped us in consolidating exactly who we are and what we want to be able to give to you.
So what was this high I talked of at the very beginning? Well yesterday we got booked in the diary our first meeting with a bar manager who owns several pubs in London, which was further testament to our idea and the product we are producing and a great vote of confidence.
This high was, however, relatively short lived as we were then told by our sleeving company that they have sleeved the wrong bottles!!
I think starting your own company is a bit like a classic English Summer's day. There are moments of blissful sunshine where you are warmed to the core, and then within a moment you can be chilled to goose bumps by an enormous black cloud. The thing is, at the minute, whenever there's a black cloud I can't help but think there's an even better silver lining just behind it.
We went to the Bar 07 exhibition to see what everyone was up to. There were some pretty impressive displays and some very interesting new products there. It had everything from pub furniture, lighting and smell machines to premium spirits, mixers, cocktail shakers, beers and a girl gyrating in a cage in an attempt to promote an energy drink!
It was a little strange in that while there were some business people looking and trying the wares it seemed that the majority was made up of groups of 20 year olds, which didn't look to dissimilar to stag do's, who had thought it would be a good day out and were making the most of the free samples on offer. Unfortunately the samples were so small that we really couldn't see how this could either be enjoyable or quite how so many of them seemed to have got so well oiled. Oh well each to their own.
So what of the competition. Well there were 3 direct competitors that we could find, 2 of which we were aware of and one which was new to us. It's a bit of a roller-coaster of emotions when you come across your competitor. My first reaction is one of dread, B*LL*CKs someone has thought of it already and beaten us to it. But on closer inspection, i.e. trying their product and looking at what they were really trying to do, this sense of dread would rapidly dissolve into a feeling of superior self righteousness!
While the competitors are using fruit juice and alcohol they have missed what we believe is the key to the reason for putting these two ingredients together. You can hear their logic, 'Right, there's a big trend in natural fruit juices, there's also a really big market in alcohol, I know why don't we combine the two, then we will get the best of both worlds!' The million dollar question is, when people go for an alcoholic drink are they looking for a natural fruit juice with alcohol in it? We think probably not. But if you look at the same two trends and think what is it that people already enjoy that can combine the two? Well the answer to this is simple. It's the Cocktail.
By having the cocktail at the heart of what we do this means that we are not just throwing together two types of ingredients but we are first and foremost crafting and infusing ingredients to create a delicious tasting cocktail. It just so happens that in doing this, due to the high quality of our product, everything we use is natural.
The Muddled Cocktail we believe is the key to truly bringing the two worlds together of fruit juice and alcohol. Ultimately it's this that gives us the confidence on reflection to take on our competitors and if anything they have helped us in consolidating exactly who we are and what we want to be able to give to you.
So what was this high I talked of at the very beginning? Well yesterday we got booked in the diary our first meeting with a bar manager who owns several pubs in London, which was further testament to our idea and the product we are producing and a great vote of confidence.
This high was, however, relatively short lived as we were then told by our sleeving company that they have sleeved the wrong bottles!!
I think starting your own company is a bit like a classic English Summer's day. There are moments of blissful sunshine where you are warmed to the core, and then within a moment you can be chilled to goose bumps by an enormous black cloud. The thing is, at the minute, whenever there's a black cloud I can't help but think there's an even better silver lining just behind it.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home