Ever been put off from ordering a cocktail because it's a more manly drink than you 'should' enjoy, or the fizzy, pink, umbrella-bedecked concoction packed with fruity flavour is a bit 'girly' for you?
You're not alone. Demonstrating how stereotypes in marketing can affect consumer choice, in a first of its kind social experiment, Burger & Lobster examined customer behaviour and choice when selecting a cocktail; 31% of male customers were put off choosing a particular cocktail such as a Cosmopolitan or Pina Colada because the name was too ‘feminine’. Whilst 11% female customers were too embarrassed to order drinks considered more ‘masculine’ such as a Negroni or an Old Fashioned. According to the research, more than a fifth (21%) of the UK don’t feel comfortable drinking certain drinks, considering them more suitable for the opposite gender.
To stop the stereotypes, Burger & Lobster has launched the ‘Mixed-ology’ cocktails range, five signature cocktails that are colourless and neutral in a bid to remove stereotypes, allowing customers to focus on taste rather than marketing when choosing a delicious drink, available in Soho and Bread Street restaurants this week.
Expert mixologist, Eduard Balan, partnered with Head of Bar at Burger & Lobster, George Pugsley, to shake up traditional cocktails and create a new Mixed-ology range using unique and innovative ingredients such as grape and elderflower cordial, kombucha and a peach aperitif liqueur.
The drinks offer a refreshing take on the classics, including a Mojito and Negroni. Using homemade tropical pineapple Kombucha for a take on a Piña Colada, to a tangy lime saccharum for a Margarita, the weird yet wonderful ingredients make for a tantalising cocktail range that will make everyone happy at the bar.
In the Soho restaurant, the five colourless cocktails were listed by numbers rather than their traditional names, therefore choosing a cocktail based on ingredients rather than a marketed name. No.1 was the most popular drink of choice across the board.
Conversely, in the Bread Street restaurant, customers were selecting from a traditional list to see if the name of the drink impacted choices. Only 5% of men and women chose the White Negroni in Bread Street, whilst four times more men and women chose the exact same drink in the Soho restaurant when the name wasn’t known. Demonstrating that the marketing of the drink had affected their decision on what to drink.
Keep an eye out for the Mixed-ology menu across London restaurants throughout 2020.
www.burgerandlobster.com
