The liquor industry is replete with iconic bottles, each telling a unique story; think Johnnie Walker, Courvoisier, Patrón, Chivas Regal, Mozart, Chambord, Cîroc, and Hibiki.
Liquor bottles are far more than just vessels, they are powerful marketing tools, where the bottle is the brand and the brand is the bottle, each inexorably linked in a sales and marketing embrace.
However, the pursuit of unique bottle designs has often overlooked the practical needs of bars.
In this blog, we will explore how bottle design enhances and hinders bar operations.
Design queues from perfume bottles
For just over 15 years, liquor bottle design has undergone a significant transformation, given the entry of thousands of new brands or old brands reinvented to attract new customers.
One of the first new brands to adopt the “perfume bottle” led design thinking was St-Germain, with many brands following in their footsteps.
According to Scentses + Co, "Through the bottle design, perfumers get a chance to tell the story of their scent even prior to a customer gets a single whiff of it. It tells you about who they are, what their brand stands for, and what kind of scent awaits you in that bottle."
This is the same feeling or emotion that liquor bottle design builds on to create a link to history or other cultural queues such as the Belle Époque.
We asked Aussie icon vermouth brand, Regal Rogue, about their bottle design and why the bottleneck is small, they replied, "Because when we created our own bespoke bottle in 2018, we were drawn to vintage Eau de vie bottles being a grape product and so this design indirectly linked to those styles in recycled glass."
While eye-catching designs may attract consumers off-premise, bars have specific requirements and this can create challenges for bartenders.
Ironically, the race to develop bespoke bottle designs has inadvertently created the reverse, which we call an “anti-bar bottle”.
An “anti-bar bottle” is a bottle shape selected by brand owners for aesthetics, where functionality is ignored and the consequences come at a high cost.
But first, the wine bottle?
Let’s quickly look at wine bottles. From a marketing perspective, the design feature differentiating wine brands, other than the name and contents, is the label on the bottle.
The most striking aesthetic of the wine bottle is the commonality of its shape, which has remained fairly constant for several hundred years.
We believe that the wine bottle design was informed purely by the closure traditionally used which was cork. Cork being a natural material requires hand crafting to ensure it can be snuggly fitted into a bottleneck to seal it, in so doing securing the contents.
Unlike wine bottles, which have maintained a fairly consistent shape, liquor bottles have enjoyed more design freedom. This has led to a wide variety of shapes and sizes, often overlooking the practical needs of bars and bartenders.
When design leads, bars are usually left behind
It’s widely known that 20% of all liquor sales are generated in bars, with more or less 80% of it generated from retail distribution channels.
In a retail setting, aesthetics is an important consideration in making a sale or attracting consumer interest.
Saying that, bars are a critical pathway to consumer “discovery” by introducing consumers to a new spirit or brand through a low-cost risk entry point of consumption made by a shot or mixed drink.
It can be said that designers rarely consider the bartender when it comes to bottle design, which can create unintended operational consequences impacting on-premise liquor management.
Here are some of the questions that need to be considered with bottle design in the bar setting:
- Does the bottle sit easily on a speed rail?
- Is the bottle easy to pick up by someone with small or large hands?
- Is there sufficient neck length and shoulder to allow for a comfortable grip?
- Is the bottle well-balanced when picked up? Think of squat bottles versus long bottles.
- Does the bottleneck opening (bore size) easily accommodate a standard speed pourer to allow a bartender to quickly serve a guest without a problem?
What are the on-premise consequences of poor bottle design?
- Liquor wastage due to problematic pourer fit (bottleneck openings are too small or large).
- Bottles too difficult to pick up or pour slow down service, tending to force bartenders to use other competitive brands instead.
The ultimate solution to bespoke bottle brands
Nowadays, there are about 6 commonly used bottle bore sizes, of which only 1 or 2 fits a standard speed pourer.
To solve the issue, Überbartools™ developed 6 bottle cork sizes for the ProFlow™ speed pourers to fit the vast majority of bottles used in the market: Extra Small, Small, Universal, Large, Extra Large and Extreme.
So how do I know which size corks are required to fit the bottle brands a bar sells? Check out our Speed Rail Bottles Brand Survey.
Cannot see your brand or would like an opinion on the correct sized cork to fit your bottles? Ask here.
Don't let poorly designed bottles hinder your bar's success. Take control and ensure your bartenders have the tools needed to serve customers fast and effectively.