Piloting A Place For Tap Beer On Restaurant Tables For Lion
Problem
Tap King was launched via the off-premise market for at-home draught beer consumption in winter 2013. Our challenge was to discover whether the Tap King format could be a commercially viable proposition in the RECA channel and how this on-premise experience could help drive reappraisal of the format at home and increase trial and conversion.
Methods
Our approach followed user-centric design principles of establishing and proving/disproving hypotheses of desirability, viability and feasibility (DVF) over 2 stages
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We segmented the RECA market, focusing on small bars without draught beer offers and casual dining where Tap King could create a heightened on-table experience.
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Recruited and managed an ecosystem of trial venues, to test early hypotheses with rough Pretotypes, employing a lean test & learn methodology to unlock key staff and consumer insights, identify the strongest opportunities for the TapKing format and eliminate segments within the channel with low desirability or viability – all with minimal investment.
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Learnings from our first round of in-market testing defined the ideal target consumers, group dynamics and occasions for the TapKing RECA experience, identified parameters for venue targeting within the channel, and refined the service proposition including Table Stand design & functionality, glassware shape & volume, PoS placement and menu hierarchy.
Outputs
Early iterations of our rough pretotpyes allowed us to move to a fully functional industrial design prototpye that brought the optimised service experience to life in a second in-market trial that helped tighten the business case and full executional rules of the new on-table experience.
Impact
A successful prototyping and in-market trial means that the new Tap King stand will be developed for full commercial launch, and we now have helped define the structure of all future test & learn projects.