What does a really great bar look like? Mitchells & Butlers director Susan Chappell (pictured left) and Revolution Bars sales and marketing director Kate Eastwood (pictured below right) will be joining celebrity bartender and founder of The London Cocktail Club JJ Goodman to discuss just that at CGA’s Insight 2019 conference in London on April 4.
CGA’s commercial director Graeme Loudon will set the scene, analysing the growth and demise of drinks categories, the increasingly vital role of ranging and pricing in winning in local markets and the emerging trends and disruptors shaping the market.
Chappell, Eastwood and Goodman will then discuss the practicalities and initiatives they are taking to keep their customers engaged.
The invitation-only conference is being held in the auditorium at 30 Euston Square, London, on the afternoon of Thursday, April 4, and will again be chaired by CGA’s vice president Peter Martin, who will introduce and question a full roster of guest speakers and panellists – as well as CGA’s own sector experts.
Karl Chessell, director of CGA’s food and retail unit, will map the fast-changing face of eating and drinking out in Britain – from cityscapes to market towns, the hotspots for new openings and sales growth, the black-spots for closures, and the spread of changing customer types, tastes and habits. He will focus on the need for new perspectives for location planning and consumer segmentation and reveal the rising stars in restaurants, bars and cafes. Molly Johnson-Jones from retail and leisure consultancy Stone & River will share the latest Brand Momentum findings. Now in its second year, this looks at key consumer metrics and supply trends for brands. The full list of which brands are moving up and down the tables will also be released.
Also on the Insight 2019 programme is Steve Holmes, the CEO of the Azzurri Group leading top high street brands Zizzi, ASK and Coco di Mama. He will be in conversation with Peter Martin, discussing what success on the high street now looks like and how data and multi-source feedback are playing increasingly important roles to delivering quality customer experiences.
Marcel Khan, formerly of Nando’s and Five Guys and now CEO of Thunderbird Fried Chicken, will be explaining the anatomy of a successful brand roll-out and how he is planning to take the newly invested Thunderbird street food brand to market. He’ll also be explaining how he has used data to keep those plans on track.
The food and drink market’s most influential communication experts – Ann Elliott, Mark Stretton and Mark McCulloch – are also coming together at this year’s conference to share their expertise and debate how businesses can cut through the noise to land their message perfectly.
The leaders of Elliotts Agency, Fleet Street Communications and Supersonic Inc, respectively, will examine how marketing, PR and social media play vital yet changing roles in communicating with both external and internal audiences – and how new techniques and media are constantly emerging and evolving.
“With so much change in the market, how operators, suppliers and investors can get an accurate fix on the big picture is a major challenge we will be grappling with,” said Martin.
CGA is the sector’s leading insight and data specialists, and its team will be on hand to demonstrate how it is using its full range of market measurement tools to distil the ever-growing mass of market data into meaningful and actionable insights – helping operators, suppliers and investors track, interpret and evaluate the ever-changing food and drink scene.
“We promise a challenging and engaging afternoon of debate and discussion. How market players can best use their own and external data to give them a competitive edge is going to be vital – as the art of analysis itself is constantly changing too,” said Peter Martin. “If customers want instant gratification, operators are going to need instant feedback. This is going to be the year that the market learns to love data.”
CGA’s Insight 2019 is a free event for operators but is invitation only. To request a ticket, visit https://info.cga.co.uk/insight-2019-0-2
Insight 2019 is supported by: CPL Online, Fishbowl, Merchant’s Heart Odgers Berndtson, Wireless Social & Zonal.
