How the Exclusive Glas is Conquering the World of Beverage

(PressKit for International Campaigning, Rastal GmbH)

Samuel Adams, Carlsberg, Absolut, Ramazzotti and many more, a branding-trend from Germany conquers the world of beverage. More and more drinks have their own exclusive, very special drinking glasses. Special in form and function – but why?
Is it just a matter of taste? Or what really makes us buy a drink? Just thirst? Or maybe even more because it’s a particular brand? Enjoy Coke or Pepsi, Vodka or Rum, Averna or Ramazzotti …

… or a certain juice? Every kind of drink and every culture possess their own brands. Numerous beverage-brands are branded into our brains and are part of our mental map – whether we know it – consciously or subconsciously. And the right glass out of which you enjoy your favourite drink supports that ‘right’ feeling. Or as Professor Frank-Martin Belz, responsible for the economic aspects of brewing and beverage at the University of Munich-Weihenstephan, states:  “Our eyes judge food and drink much faster, than our brains are able to calculate the price.” That is why the German family-lead enterprise RASTAL invented decades ago the ‘Exclusive Drinking Glass’ – a special glass for each special drink or brand; and why this idea of the exclusive glass is now spreading throughout the world. And why RASTAL-Designer Carsten Kehrein meanwhile achieved numerous design-awards for his glass-creations which are used as Exclusive Glasses for pubs or even for promotions, for serving as on-packs on crates and many more purposes.One example is Samuel Adams: Beer lovers ordering a glass of Samuel Adams fresh from the barrel today get a beer brewed according to the German Purity Decree, served in a glass whose unconventional curved lines provide a better sensation. This was, of course, absolutely intended by its originator. First, the glass, for whose conception even a sommelier was consulted, allows optimal appreciation of the sensory characteristics of Samuel Adams. Second, the visual differentiation from other beer brands justifies at the same time the higher price positioning. “Look, I can afford to treat myself to a glass of expensive Samuel Adams’ is the unspoken message that since then has been sent out from tables in American bars.

Worldwide the spirit companies like Ramazzotti, Absolut Vodka or Jim Beam use glasses to help build their brand recognition, which means strong branding support in an intensifying competitive market. For example, look at the vodka segment, which had been threatening to drift into insignificance as solely a cocktail ingredient. While rum and vodka brands asked RASTAL to develop tailor-made, exclusive cocktail glasses, the number one brand in the vodka segment in the USA, Absolut, had some time ago commissioned the development of a range of Exclusive Glasses. And indeed: Vodka ‘straight’ is in; not knocked back, however, but sipped. Best of all from tall stemmed glasses. Meanwhile the trend in the States regarding vodka is moving more and more toward super premium with prices for a bottle up to around forty euros. These vodkas are much too good (or, rather, much too expensive) to be used for mixed drinks, and much too expensive to be served in a water glass.

German breweries have known this principle for decades. In Germany nearly every brewery has its own drinking glass -unique in form, function and sometimes material and colour. Others, such as the Pilsbeer market leader Warsteiner, have even had different drinking glasses designed for different purposes: one for upper-class hotels and one for the ordinary beer pub. Sometimes during promotions people buy the glasses of their favourite brewery to also use at home. They are very proud of this new aspect of their individual life-style, and the producer or brand shown on the glass profits from the classical ‘reminder’effect every time the glass is used.

That’s how marketing should work

“Concerning marketing theories, this is how modern marketing should work”, confirms Professor Belz: People are bored of being given messages to ‘do this, do that’. They want to communicate with a brand – enjoy the world created by a brand; and an exclusive drinking glass communicates its brand values to them and makes it possible for them to communicate their own style preferences to others.

And brands prove their value. For example, the world’s second biggest brewery concern, SABMiller, also followed German beer-market practices when launching its Pilsner Urquell brand in the USA: it commissioned an independent test institute, specializing in wines and spirits, to classify the beer according to its sensory qualities. And, great! Pilsner Urquell received top grades. And to serve its marketing purpose, SABMiller, in cooperation with RASTAL, developed an Exclusive Glass which emphasizes the sensory virtues of the brand. An Exclusive Glass, advertising and beer dinners (for direct contact to customers) – all these activities for the launch of Pilsner Urquell have only one aim: to prove the claim ‘worth more – therefore costs more’ is justified.

Strategy and Technology

There is a lot of strategy and technology involved in the design of these glasses. RASTAL’s chief designer Carsten Kehrein has already been rewarded with various international design prizes for his unique ideas for new conceptions of drinking glasses: whether it’s shatterproof glasses or stacking glasses you can stack into each other to save space; or whether it’s event glasses you can use for various drinks from a long drink to beer or unusually formed glasses or a glass-series you can use for promotions. Kehreins ‘World of Glass’ is changing every year, driven by the beverage industry’s ideas and needs. “In times of more and more restricted advertising-landscapes for various kinds of drinks, the importance of the glass as an ambassador of its brand steadily increases”, Kehrein says.

New glass-production and printing technologies support this trend. So RASTAL works together with twenty of the most important glass-producers worldwideto always be able to offer the best solution for every requested type of glass. The company has even had its own machine developed for printing special environmentally friendly colours on glasses of irregular form. How many glasses are created for a series depends on the needs of the client: Just several thousand glasses for special events or promotions or as gifts are possible on the smaller, individual machines as well as orders of several millions of glasses as RASTAL, for example, produced for Warsteiner on the mighty production and printing lines. Shining neon-UV-colours, hot-and-cold-colours and blacklight designs are possible as well as simple prints of the whole Pantone range to exactly replicate the colour of the corporate design of the company. There are also techniques which produce glass-on-glass looks such as stamps in the glass. There are tumblers as well as goblets with prints or patterns in their base.

The new varieties of the last decade have even caused a new trend in Germany: Branded glasses of consumer’s favourite brands are successfully sold in malls and in all other places where beverages are sold.
Miriam Leunissen-Weikl