The beverage world is crowded. Walk into any bar or grocery store and you’re hit with a wall of options—different brands, flavors, formats, and price points all competing for one thing: attention. And attention is what drives purchase. That’s where a strategic point of sale program comes in. Not as decoration. Not as an afterthought. As a sales system.
The Reality: You’re Fighting for Inches
Whether you’re on draft or sitting in a cold box, your brand has about 2–3 seconds to win someone over. At the bar, it’s your tap handle doing the heavy lifting. At retail, it’s your packaging plus your display. If you’re relying on packaging alone to do all the work… you’re invisible.
What a Strong Point of Sale Program Actually Does
A real point of sale program isn’t one piece—it’s a coordinated effort across environments. The best ones consistently do four things:
- Increase Visibility in Crowded Environments
- End caps, case stackers, pole toppers—these aren’t random formats. They’re designed to pull your brand out of the noise.
- If your product is buried in a cooler with 200 SKUs, you’re done.
If it’s pulled forward with a branded display? Now you’re in play.
- Strengthen Brand Recognition
- Your tap handles, signage, and retail displays should feel like one cohesive system.
- When a customer sees your brand at a bar and then again in a store, it should instantly register: “I know this one.”
- That recognition drives faster decisions—and more repeat purchases.
- Bridge On-Premise and Off-Premise Sales
- This is where most brands drop the ball.
- Tap handles → drive trial
- Retail POS → drive volume
- A strong point of sale program connects the two. It turns a first pour into a repeat purchase.
- Hold Up in Real-World Conditions
- Bars are messy. Retail floors are chaotic.
- If your display looks beat up after a week, it’s not helping your brand—it’s hurting it.
- Durability isn’t optional. It’s part of the strategy.
Why Most Beverage Brands Underinvest in POS
Let’s call it out. Most brands spend heavily on packaging and digital… and then treat POS like a last-minute add-on. They assume:
- The distributor will handle placement
- The retailer will merchandise correctly
- The product will “sell itself”
That’s not how this works. The brands that win at retail take control of their presence.
Corrugated Displays: The Workhorse of Retail POS
Corrugated gets overlooked because it’s seen as temporary. That’s short-sighted. When done right, corrugated displays are one of the most effective tools in a point of sale program:
- Lightweight and easy to deploy
- Cost-efficient for large rollouts
- Fully customizable (shape, shelves, headers)
- High visual impact where it matters most
And most importantly—they move beverages. The example above isn’t just a display—it’s a coordinated retail presence:
- Case stacker
- Shelf display
- Branded signage
That’s how you take over space.
Good Design vs. Wasted Spend
Here’s the difference:
Bad POS = cluttered, hard to read, forgettable
Good POS = bold, clear, impossible to miss
Strong point of sale program design focuses on:
- Clear visual hierarchy
- Readability from a distance
- Consistent branding
- Easy product access
If a shopper has to think about it, you’ve already lost them.
The ROI Is Straightforward
A point of sale program doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective. If your display helps sell even a few extra cases per store per week, it pays for itself quickly. And unlike ads, it keeps working:
- No monthly spend
- No algorithm dependency
- No guessing
It just sits there—selling.
The Bottom Line
If you want to grow in this industry, you need more than good product and good packaging. You need a point of sale program that works across every touchpoint:
- Tap handles that pull attention at the bar
- Retail displays that drive purchase
- Consistency that builds recognition
The brands that win aren’t louder. They’re more intentional. So ask yourself: Do you have a point of sale program… or just a product on a shelf?
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Jessica Pezzotti founded Custom Beer Handles with a mission to change the way craft breweries & beverage companies present their brand to the world. Her desire to disrupt the industry was rooted in a passion for branding and its relation to consumerism. Headquartered in Denver, Custom Beer Handles is now a leading designer and manufacturer of custom tap handles for craft breweries, wineries, coffee, and kombucha companies. The Taps Give Back Program that launched in 2018 donates a portion of the proceeds to charities and non-profit organizations on behalf of their clients. The on-tap phenomenon is just getting started and they are revolutionizing marketing for the craft beer and beverage industry. Last but not least, The Tory Burch Foundation selected Jessica as a 2018 Fellow, an elite program designed for women entrepreneurs nationwide. Cheers to that!