Privacy regulations are changing how data is collected, and the beverage and alcohol industry is shifting to experience-focused marketing. A well-structured Voice of Customer (VoC) program at experiential events is now essential for staying competitive. This guide offers beverage and alcohol brands a clear framework to gather VoC data from events, boost revenue, strengthen customer loyalty, and support smarter business decisions in a regulated environment. Marketing executives and brand managers will learn how to turn event interactions into valuable insights that drive measurable results while meeting industry standards.
Why Voice of Customer Matters for Beverage & Alcohol Experiential Marketing
With stricter privacy rules and growing competition, relying only on standard marketing metrics leaves beverage and alcohol brands unaware of customer opinions and engagement levels. Capturing and acting on customer feedback in real time is critical to stand out and prove the value of marketing efforts.
Adapting to a Changing Marketing Environment
The beverage industry is moving from product-focused to experience-focused strategies. VoC programs play a key role in understanding customer journeys during events. These interactions offer unique chances to collect sensory and emotional feedback that digital channels can't match.
Experiential marketing creates personal connections through tastings, tours, and brand activations. These moments provide detailed data on consumer preferences, buying intentions, and brand views that online ads alone cannot capture. Brands use these insights to tailor follow-up messages, build loyalty, and encourage word-of-mouth promotion through community engagement and user-shared content.
Today's beverage consumers want genuine, memorable experiences beyond just trying a product. They seek to connect with a brand's story, appreciate its craftsmanship, and feel part of a special group. VoC programs capture these emotional ties and turn them into practical information for product creation, marketing plans, and customer retention.
Navigating Regulatory and Industry Challenges
Digital marketing for alcohol brands requires strict compliance, careful channel choices, authentic storytelling, and consistent performance tracking due to unique legal limits. These rules make structured data collection vital for maximizing returns while staying within guidelines.
Feedback tools must meet regulatory needs like age verification while ensuring ease of use and high response rates. Options like augmented reality experiences, virtual tastings, and interactive event content help achieve this balance without disrupting the guest experience.
The growing number of product varieties creates specific challenges for beverage distributors. VoC programs provide detailed feedback on individual products from events, helping brands manage diverse offerings and refine inventory or distribution plans.
Beverage and alcohol brands also serve varied customers, from large retailers to small stores. This diversity requires flexible feedback collection and analysis across different groups and touchpoints.
How to Build a Strong VoC Program for Events and Experiential Marketing
Creating a solid VoC program for beverage and alcohol brands means aligning event goals with data collection methods. Success comes from setting clear targets, using compliant approaches, and applying strong analysis to turn feedback into useful business insights.
Setting Clear VoC Goals for Your Events
Before starting a VoC program, beverage and alcohol brands need specific goals tied to their broader business plans. Common focus areas include:
- Brand Awareness and Perception: Measuring how events shape brand recognition and feelings among target audiences, including sentiment changes and effective messaging.
- Product Development: Collecting feedback on flavors, packaging, and new ideas from tastings to guide research and development priorities.
- Customer Growth and Loyalty: Spotting valuable customer groups, gauging buying interest, and crafting personalized retention plans based on deeper lifestyle insights.
- Event Operations: Improving logistics, staff training, and service quality with real-time feedback to enhance guest experiences.
Practical Ways to Collect VoC Data in Beverage & Alcohol
Effective VoC programs use multiple methods to gather feedback before, during, and after experiential events for a complete picture.
- Before Events: Use registration surveys to collect details on demographics, past purchases, brand preferences, and expectations to set a baseline for impact analysis.
- During Events: Gather real-time input via digital kiosks, mobile apps, QR code surveys, and interactive setups, focusing on taste reactions and brand presentation feedback.
- After Events: Send follow-up surveys to track changes in brand views, buying intent, and satisfaction. Include social media sentiment analysis for wider impact insights.
Advanced options like biometric feedback during tastings, booth engagement tracking, and voice sentiment analysis during tours offer deeper emotional insights that standard surveys might miss.
Maintaining Compliance and Data Quality in a Regulated Field
Alcohol brands face tougher compliance demands in digital experiences, making VoC design and tracking more specialized. Key considerations include:
- Age Verification: Use strong checks for all data collection, like ID scanning at events and age-gated online surveys, to keep experiences smooth for legal consumers.
- Data Privacy: Set clear consent processes for data use that meet GDPR, CCPA, and other regional laws, with transparent notices and opt-out options.
- Responsible Marketing: Ensure VoC-driven messages promote safe consumption and follow advertising rules, avoiding promotions to at-risk groups.
To protect data quality, regularly review collection methods, validate age checks, and monitor consent systems for ongoing compliance.
AnyRoad: Your AI-Driven Solution for Experiential VoC and Revenue Growth
AnyRoad is an experiential marketing platform designed to help beverage and alcohol brands collect, analyze, and apply VoC data from events. It turns interactions into revenue while gathering valuable first-party consumer data through engaging online and in-person experiences.
Key AnyRoad Features for Beverage and Alcohol VoC Programs
- First-Party Data Capture with FullView: Collect data from every attendee, not just the booker. Brands like Proximo Spirits saw a 69% increase in guest data and a 34% rise in satisfaction responses.
- PinPoint AI Feedback Analysis: Turn survey responses into clear insights by identifying trends and sentiment in thousands of open-text answers automatically.
- Atlas Insights Dashboard: Track metrics like brand affinity, satisfaction scores, and buying intent, with filters for location, demographics, and event type to plan better events.
- Purchase Conversion Options: Connect offline events to sales with cashback offers, punch cards, and sweepstakes sent via SMS for immediate action and revenue tracking.
- Compliance Tools: Built-in ID scanning ensures age verification, helping meet industry regulations while safeguarding brand trust.
Want to turn your experiential VoC programs into revenue drivers? Book a demo to see how AnyRoad’s AI tools boost returns from customer feedback.
Turning VoC Insights into Real Business Outcomes
The real benefit of VoC programs isn’t just gathering data, but using it to create measurable results. Beverage and alcohol brands need clear steps to turn feedback into actions that support strategic goals and increase revenue.
Guiding Product Development with Event Feedback
VoC data from events offers direct input for product teams. Tastings and demos provide specifics on flavors, packaging, and new ideas that shape research and development choices.
For example, Diageo raised its satisfaction score by 16 points using AnyRoad for ticketing and analytics, adjusting flavors based on feedback after a major investment in distilleries.
Sensory input from branded settings reflects both product qualities and emotional ties to the brand experience. This fuller feedback helps make better product decisions and lowers the risk of poor market reception.
Top brands create ongoing collaboration between event teams and product developers, ensuring customer input shapes product plans, flavor creation, and packaging updates.
Improving Events with Real-Time Input
Real-time VoC data allows brands to adjust experiential programs on the spot, making events more responsive and continually better during execution.
St. Augustine Distillery used AnyRoad to learn guests wanted takeaways like glassware, resulting in a notable increase in bookings for their enhanced experience.
Leiper’s Fork Distillery reached a 97 satisfaction score post-event and raised tour prices by 33% by acting on guest input via AnyRoad, while cutting reporting time significantly.
Immediate feedback helps spot and fix operational hiccups, like wait times or staff issues, ensuring they don’t harm overall guest satisfaction.
Strengthening Loyalty Through Personalization
VoC programs support detailed customer grouping and tailored marketing to build lasting loyalty. Brands use first-party data to segment audiences and send personalized follow-ups, creating strong advocate communities.
Rich data from VoC efforts reveals individual preferences, purchase history, and engagement habits. This allows for customized product suggestions, targeted event invites, and relevant communication that boosts customer value over time.
Selling to existing customers has a 60-70% success rate, compared to just 5-20% for new ones. Personalization based on VoC data offers a major opportunity for growth and retention.
Advanced personalization includes tailored content based on past event attendance, product likes from tastings, and registration details. This turns generic messages into meaningful interactions that deepen brand connections.
Proving the Value of Experiential Investments
Important metrics for VoC in alcohol marketing include conversion rates, engagement levels, session times, acquisition costs, customer value, and their ratio. Tracking these helps show the return on experiential efforts.
Absolut used AnyRoad data to support bigger budgets for premium events, increasing guest revenue per visit by 36% and opening new income streams.
Proximo Spirits found they lacked contact details for over 66% of guests before using AnyRoad’s FullView, gaining 69% more data and 34% more satisfaction responses to better measure returns.
Digital and event program success should account for compliance with privacy and advertising rules, as violations can undo positive gains.
Full return measurement covers direct sales links, brand awareness growth, acquisition costs, and long-term loyalty. Analytics tools connect event interactions to later purchases, showing clear marketing impact.
Key Decisions for Implementing VoC Programs
Setting up effective VoC programs involves weighing build-versus-buy choices, integration needs, and team readiness. Beverage and alcohol brands must assess these to ensure smooth rollout and lasting value.
Should You Build or Buy a VoC Platform?
The strict rules and complex data needs in beverage marketing make the build-or-buy decision critical for VoC programs. Creating custom solutions demands major tech resources, compliance knowledge, and ongoing support that many brands don’t have.
Building a VoC system in-house requires skills in privacy laws, age checks, and analytics that marketing teams might lack. Development often takes over a year, during which competitors using ready platforms can gain ground.
Platforms like AnyRoad provide quick setup, built-in compliance, and regular updates benefiting all users. They offer strong security and analytics without the need for internal tech development.
Owning a custom solution often costs more than a platform when considering build time, compliance, upkeep, and updates. Ready solutions let brands focus on strategy instead of tech challenges.
Ensuring Smooth Tech Integration
AnyRoad fits into existing tech setups, ensuring VoC data works well across business and marketing processes.
Strong integration lets event VoC insights shape wider business planning, sales predictions, and product creation. This approach maximizes feedback value across all areas.
Integration factors include data syncing, API options, automation, and unified reporting. Advanced setups allow real-time data flow and automated actions based on VoC input.
Preparing Your Team for Data-Driven Events
Effective VoC programs need company-wide commitment to data-driven choices and customer-focused event design. This often means cultural shifts, training, and new workflows.
Marketing staff must build skills in data analysis and feedback interpretation. Operations teams need training on data collection and quick response methods. Leaders must set clear rules for data use and decision-making based on VoC findings.
Change efforts should include stakeholder workshops, staff training for guest interactions, and feedback response plans. Communicating VoC benefits and role duties ensures full team support.
Assess current data skills, governance, and openness to feedback to spot gaps before launch. Addressing these ensures long-term program success.
Ready to shift your experiential marketing with VoC insights? Schedule a demo to see how AnyRoad supports data-driven event improvements.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Beverage & Alcohol VoC Programs
Even well-funded teams can face challenges with VoC programs in this industry. Knowing common errors helps brands tackle issues early and ensure success.
Overlooking Compliance and Legal Requirements
Regulatory compliance is the biggest risk for beverage and alcohol VoC programs. Ignoring local rules on data collection, age checks, and marketing can lead to penalties and harm to brand image.
Issues often arise from treating VoC as a general marketing tool instead of a regulated data activity. Age verification, responsible messaging, and privacy laws differ by region and must be built into program design.
Typical errors include weak age checks, missing proper consent for marketing, and poor data security. These can result in fines, legal risks, and reputation damage.
Success means tracking regulatory updates, auditing data processes, and setting clear incident response plans. Legal and compliance teams must be part of VoC planning and operations.
Avoiding the “Set and Forget” Mindset
Gathering VoC data without plans for review and action makes even advanced programs useless. Many brands spend heavily on collection tools but fail to turn insights into decisions.
This shows up as unused data dashboards, feedback that doesn’t change operations, and insights stuck in marketing instead of guiding company strategy.
To dodge this, set clear roles for data review, regular insight-to-action processes, and ways to share useful feedback with key teams.
Effective programs define response steps for feedback types, set routine improvement cycles, and create plans for addressing major issues from VoC data.
Preventing Data Silos for Full Insights
Keeping VoC data separate from other business and marketing information limits its impact and value. Isolated data stops brands from building complete customer views.
This separation blocks full customer profiles, reduces personalization, and lowers accuracy in long-term value tracking. Without connection, brands can’t fully map customer paths or improve touchpoints.
Breaking silos needs tech integration, aligned data management, and clear rules for sharing across teams. This creates unified profiles that guide marketing, sales, and product choices.
Securing Leadership Support and Alignment
Without executive backing, VoC programs may lack funds and priority to create real change. Leadership support ensures resources, focus, and teamwork across areas.
Weak support often means low budgets, conflicting goals that weaken programs, and no power to act on feedback. This reduces impact and return potential.
Gaining executive approval needs clear benefits, proof of value, and ties to company goals. Regular updates on results and strategic input keep leaders engaged.
Supporting Tools to Boost Your VoC Program Outside Events
While VoC programs focus on gathering customer input, related technologies improve overall experiential marketing and support smooth execution.
Complementary Tools for Beverage & Alcohol Marketing
Voice technology in beverage warehousing tackles issues like labor gaps, short product cycles, and varied offerings. Voice-picking systems guide workers with spoken directions for faster, hands-free operations, supporting event readiness.
Such systems achieve high accuracy, reducing errors and speeding up inventory handling, which is vital for events with diverse products and quick turnover.
These operational tools support VoC by ensuring events run well, leading to feedback that reflects true brand quality rather than logistical issues.
Feature | AnyRoad (VoC & Experiential) | Booking Platforms | Voice Picking Systems |
First-Party Data Capture | Comprehensive, AI-powered | Basic booking info only | N/A (operational focus) |
Experiential ROI Tracking | Yes | Limited | N/A (operational focus) |
AI Feedback Analysis | Yes (PinPoint) | No | No |
Compliance (Age-Verify) | Yes | Limited/Add-on | N/A |
Pairing operational tools with VoC platforms like AnyRoad builds a full marketing system. While support tools ensure smooth events, AnyRoad captures insights for strategic growth and revenue.
Ready to create a strong Voice of Customer program for better experiential results? Book a demo to learn how AnyRoad works with your current tech setup.
Common Questions About VoC in Beverage & Alcohol Marketing
How Can VoC Help Manage Multiple Product Offerings?
VoC programs offer specific feedback on products showcased at events, helping brands understand preferences across a wide range of offerings. Data from tastings reveals which items gain the most interest or satisfaction, guiding inventory, distribution, and development decisions. This helps brands focus on high-value products and optimize their lineup for better profitability and demand fit.
What Compliance Issues Apply to VoC Data Collection for Alcohol Brands?
Alcohol brands face stricter rules, needing age verification, responsible messaging, and clear consent for data use. VoC programs must build in age checks at every step, ensure marketing promotes safe use, and follow regional ad guidelines. Privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA add requirements for data protection and consent. Systems must block minors from content while keeping legal consumers’ experiences uninterrupted.
How Does AI Improve VoC Programs for Beverage Brands?
AI processes large amounts of feedback quickly, spotting trends, sentiment, and improvement areas in real time. Tools like AnyRoad’s PinPoint help brands uncover key feedback patterns, operational issues, and satisfaction drivers from event responses for faster, smarter decisions.
What Metrics Beyond Satisfaction Scores Should Brands Track for VoC ROI?
To measure full returns, track event-to-purchase conversions, engagement levels, acquisition costs, customer value, and their balance. Monitor brand awareness via verified follower growth, social interaction, and recall among attendees. Track buying intent, product rankings, and sensory feedback for development. Measure session times, repeat attendance, and referrals for event impact. Link event participation to sales for revenue proof, and check compliance metrics like age verification success for sustainability.
Conclusion: Maximize Your Experiential Marketing Potential
In a competitive and regulated market, beverage and alcohol brands must prioritize Voice of Customer programs for experiential marketing. The move to experience-driven strategies, tighter privacy rules, and evolving consumer needs make VoC a must for staying ahead.
Brands that actively collect, analyze, and apply event feedback see clear financial gains, stronger customer ties, and precise product updates. From Absolut’s 36% revenue boost per visit to Diageo’s 16-point satisfaction rise through tailored offerings, VoC drives real results.
Success takes more than data collection. It requires the right platform, strict compliance, team alignment, and constant improvement using customer input. The complex rules and data needs of this industry make specialized platforms vital for lasting impact.
AnyRoad offers the tools, compliance features, and AI-driven analysis to turn feedback into a competitive edge. With age verification, real-time insights, and tech integration, it helps brands gather key data, meet regulations, and grow revenue.
The future of beverage and alcohol marketing lies with brands that deeply understand customers, act on input fast, and refine events with data. VoC programs lay the groundwork for customer-focused strategies, building strong bonds, driving innovation, and proving marketing worth.
Ready to make your events a source of vital data and revenue? Schedule a demo with AnyRoad today to advance your Voice of Customer efforts and achieve strong results from every interaction.