One of the best ways to get people familiar with your brand is to give away samples. Providing your distribution channel and customers with samples of your product allows them to try new products they might not otherwise buy. Unfortunately, alcohol manufacturers and wholesalers cannot easily give away samples to bars, retail shops, or consumers.
Why? Well, if you give free stuff to a bar, you might be inducing them to purchase from you. And, that is illegal.
Isn’t it the point though? As the government sees it, this kind of inducement is bribery. It creates out of control drinking and organized crime in the alcohol industry. At least that’s what the laws purport to prevent.
The trade practice provisions of the Federal Alcohol Administration Act, and most state laws, prohibit manufacturers and wholesalers from giving anything of value to a trade buyer to induce that trade buyer to purchase specific products. This also means that a manufacture cannot give anything of value to a wholesale buyer.
The trade practice provisions of the Federal Alcohol Administration Act, and most state laws, prohibit manufacturers and wholesalers from giving anything of value to a trade buyer to induce that trade buyer to purchase specific products. This also means that a manufacture cannot give anything of value to a wholesale buyer.
The key to this prohibition is that the action has to be to the exclusion of a competitor’s products. The exclusionary piece of the prohibitions is very hard to prove. So, in practice, there are certain things that are simply illegal - the presumption being that it will cause the trade buyer to buy a brand to the exclusion of a competing brand. Giving samples away is one of these illegal actions.
There is an exception: you can give a trade buyer, who has not purchased that brand from you in the previous year, 3 liters of wine or spirits, or 3 gallons of beer. That is a very limited exception. So, the question is, how do you get wholesalers or retailers to know and promote your product without being able to give them samples?
You can offer education seminars to the wholesaler’s or retailer’s employees. They can sample your brands, and learn about them from you directly. Ideally this would result in more visibility for your product and more sales.
You can also offer tastings for consumers at the retailer’s or wholesaler’s establishment. This not only allows the trade buyer to sample and learn about your brand, but its customers as well. It allows the customer to try something new, instead of purchasing their standard favorites. Of course, some states only allow retailers to provide tastings, and do not allow the manufacturer or wholesaler to provide any product free of charge to the retailer for these tastings.
There is an exception: you can give a trade buyer, who has not purchased that brand from you in the previous year, 3 liters of wine or spirits, or 3 gallons of beer. That is a very limited exception. So, the question is, how do you get wholesalers or retailers to know and promote your product without being able to give them samples?
You can offer education seminars to the wholesaler’s or retailer’s employees. They can sample your brands, and learn about them from you directly. Ideally this would result in more visibility for your product and more sales.
You can also offer tastings for consumers at the retailer’s or wholesaler’s establishment. This not only allows the trade buyer to sample and learn about your brand, but its customers as well. It allows the customer to try something new, instead of purchasing their standard favorites. Of course, some states only allow retailers to provide tastings, and do not allow the manufacturer or wholesaler to provide any product free of charge to the retailer for these tastings.
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