Most venues know their average spend per head better than they know why people choose them over the place next door. And that’s a problem.
The on-trade has optimised itself into a corner; brilliant at shifting covers and pints, but catastrophic at building connection. Teams track footfall, average spend, menu mix, promo uplift and rate-of-sale with military precision. But ask how many guests genuinely wanted to come back (not just popped in because it was convenient), and the data goes quiet.
This isn’t a technology problem. It’s not even a budget problem. It’s a structural addiction to the short-term transaction that is reshaping what “hospitality marketing” even means. It should also make you question whether it still deserves the word hospitality at all.
The addiction: why the on-trade became a transaction machine
This didn’t happen by accident. It evolved from margin pressure, platform habits, and the false promise that more data automatically equals better marketing.
Here’s what’s really happening:
Operators generate demand on platforms they don’t control. Discovery happens on Google Maps, delivery apps, review sites, and paid social. By the time someone is deciding where to go, they’re already inside someone else’s ecosystem. You participate in demand formation but rarely capture it directly.
Engagement ends at the “offer.” A discount. A happy hour. A two-for-one. Once the deal’s redeemed, the marketing switches off. There’s no relationship-building, no loyalty-building, and no reason to choose you again next week. The interaction is purely transactional. Drink for money, end of story.
Metrics reward volume, not vibe. Teams get measured on covers, promo redemptions, and short-term sales spikes, not repeat visitation, brand preference, or advocacy. Performance activity that drives immediate volume gets more budget. Brand-building that creates belonging gets deprioritised as “nice to have.”
Tech becomes a substitute for hospitality. QR ordering, mandatory sign-ups, clunky loyalty journeys, “scan here to see the menu.” Useful when done right. Atmosphere-killing when it becomes the default experience. You don’t build loyalty by making people feel processed.
The result is simple. Venues and brands end up commoditising the very thing they are selling: an experience.
The cost of transactional thinking (for operators and suppliers)
When you market transactionally, you pay twice: once in margin, and again in meaning.
Guests become data points. Not people with preferences and rituals, just records in a POS/CRM. “Personalisation” becomes automated nudges, not human understanding. And when the system can’t see the nuance, it defaults to pushing offers.
Venue identity erodes. If every message is “Deal on now” you’re not building a brand, you’re running perpetual clearance sales. People remember the discount, not the place. That means you have to keep discounting to stay relevant.
Supplier brands get trapped at ‘listing’ level. Too many food and drink brands treat on-trade as distribution: win the listing, add a neck-tag, maybe run a promo. But guests don’t fall in love with a SKU. They fall in love with moments: the first sip, the ritual, the story, the bartender’s recommendation.
Teams fragment. Ops worries about service and staffing. Marketing chases reach and redemptions. Suppliers run their own campaigns. Agencies optimise for clicks. No one owns the full guest experience, from supplier story to venue theatre to what ends up in the glass.
There’s the opportunity. Not “more tactics.” Joined-up thinking.
Our approach
This is exactly the kind of problem Trunk exists to solve.
Trunk is the marketing agency that consults, crafts, and connects ambitious brands with their business goals.
Consult with curiosity. Start by diagnosing the real goal: footfall stability, repeat custom, higher spend, better reviews, stronger brand preference. Then ask what’s getting in the way: discount dependency, inconsistent experience across locations, supplier activity that doesn’t land in-venue, or tech that strips out theatre.
Craft with impact. Build creative and experiences that make people feel something in the venue. Not just an ad. Not just a poster. A reason to choose, talk about, and return.
Connect every dot. Use an integrated marketing strategy to connect supplier activity, venue execution, staff advocacy, paid media, CRM/loyalty, and social proof. The story should be consistent from first impression to first sip to the next visit.
What a “belonging” strategy looks like in the on-trade
If you want a practical shift from transaction to connection, here’s the playbook.
- Design for the on-trade experience (not the funnel).
Ask one question: what should this place feel like on a busy Friday?
Then build marketing that protects that feeling:
- Keep menus simple and fast to access (QR as an option, not a barrier)
- Reduce friction without removing human interaction
- Use tech to support staff, not replace them
- Make the “moment” the product: arrival, first round, ritual, recommendation
- Turn supplier brands into part of the venue’s story.
Move beyond “we stock it” to “this is why it belongs here”:
- Create a signature serve that fits the venue’s personality
- Give staff a short, memorable story to tell (3 lines, not a brand deck)
- Build visible cues that add theatre (glassware, garnish, menu callouts) without turning the bar into a billboard
- Run activations that guests feel, not just redeem (tastings, pairings, limited drops, creator nights)
- Stop worshipping QR codes (and start protecting atmosphere).
The problem isn’t QR. It’s QR-as-default.
- If the first interaction is “scan this,” you’ve already made it transactional
- If ordering becomes silent and self-serve, you’ve killed upsell, discovery, and charm
- If loyalty requires a 7-step sign-up, you’ve traded relationship for compliance
A good rule: if tech removes conversation, it’s costing you money.
- Build one integrated journey: supplier → venue → guest → repeat visit.
This is the missing “joined-up” system most teams never get around to:
- Supplier brand story and assets (what we’re saying)
- Venue theatre and staff prompts (how it shows up)
- Paid media to drive intent locally (who sees it)
- In-venue capture that doesn’t feel grim (how we keep in touch)
- CRM/loyalty that rewards ritual (how we bring them back)
- Reviews + UGC loops (how we prove it to the next person)
That’s integrated marketing strategy in the on-trade: connect the brand experience from the supplier to the glass.
- Measure what actually matters (and report it simply).
Stop over-indexing on “campaign clicks” and track:
- Repeat visitation rate (where possible via WiFi/CRM/loyalty, or proxy via time-based cohorts)
- Footfall and sales mix without discounting (protect margin)
- Rate-of-sale for featured serves (not just “did we list it?”)
- Staff advocacy adoption (how many actually recommend it)
- Review sentiment shifts (language like “vibe,” “service,” “atmosphere,” “we’ll be back”)
- CAC vs. cost-to-return (re-engagement cost should drop over time)
If you can’t measure repeat, measure signals of repeat: saves, follows, email/SMS engagement, review velocity and sentiment.
The reality: the on-trade doesn’t need more data. It needs more connection.
The uncomfortable truth is that the on-trade isn’t struggling because it lacks clever tactics. It’s struggling because the experience is being flattened into a series of transactions, often in the name of “efficiency.”
Bars, pubs, restaurants and cafes win when they feel alive. Supplier brands win when they become part of that story. Everyone loses when the guest feels processed.
Trunk works with on-trade operators and food/drink brands to connect strategy, creative, performance, and in-venue execution into one joined-up system, because that’s how you grow footfall and fandom.
If your marketing feels transactional, it’s not because guests don’t care.
It’s because the industry keeps giving them nothing to care about.
