At one UK bar, ordering a beer or a whiskey is a strategic decision. The prices constantly fluctuate based on what other clients are ordering, as if each drink were listed on the stock exchange.
The concept for The Drink Exchange was created by entrepreneurs Miles Jarvis and Chris Dunkley. While studying at college, Jarvis and Dunkley began looking for a way to make a pub experience more attractive to customers, increasing their stay time, and making each order a form of entertainment. The question was: how to make ordering a drink an experience rather than a routine transaction?
Jarvis and Dunkley’s answer was to transform the menu into a financial market. Using software connected to the bar’s sales system, each purchase modifies the price of drinks in real time.
If many customers start ordering whisky, its price increases. If rum loses demand, its value decreases. All market behavior is reflected on screens visible to consumers within the establishment, so that they can follow price changes before placing their order.
One of the most anticipated moments of the evening occurs during “market crashes.” At certain times, the system simulates a market crash and the price of beverages plummets for a few minutes. Screens announce the change, customers react immediately, and the atmosphere is transformed into a race to take advantage of the best deals before prices rise again.
Beyond the pricing system, The Drink Exchange understood that people do not always make purchasing decisions solely based on necessity. They often do so because of the excitement, anticipation and the feeling of having found a unique opportunity.
The proposal shows that innovation is not always about creating a new product. Sometimes, it is enough to rethink the way people interact with a product or service to transform a daily purchase into an experience capable of generating conversation and turning a business into something difficult to forget.
Source: The Drink Exchange.