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This article aims to address the paucity of research in relation to eating establishments and food marketing by focussing on the public house sector in the UK.

This research uses secondary data and a qualitative case study approach to investigate pub food marketing in independent public houses based in North Wales, UK.

The public house sector is a market in decline. Challenges in the market are identified, however, provision of food as part of the market offering provides vital opportunities for additional profit and sustainability. Successful pub food marketing includes: understanding customers; targeting and controlling future markets; e‐marketing; promoting the pub theme/environment; promotion of food “value”; community involvement; and employee training.

Although this is only one small sample of independent public houses, this research provides indications of the marketing issues related to food and dining out, for managers of pubs and other restaurant establishments generally.

The article provides a comprehensive list of marketing issues and solutions that will be useful to publicans and restaurateurs.

This research furthers knowledge and understanding in relation to the marketing of pub food and the marketing of eating establishments in general. Marketing of food is complex; it requires an understanding of the dynamism between the eating establishment, the tourist destination and community base together with an understanding of the combined food product and service offering, and the overall dining experience.

Whilst the traditional English public house still represents the largest part of the market, its share is falling with the introduction of themed branded establishments. The UK's pub retailers have over the past five years reacted to a developing society whereby attitudes towards leisure time, drinking, eating out, health and entertainment have changed. Through diversification, they have moved away from the traditional British public house towards branded outlets that are able to appeal to diverse consumer demands. The reasons for this diversification will be explored along with the brewers' response. Within this process of diversification is the matter of promotion and branding. The emphasis seems to be slowly moving away from the beer product of a particular brewer to a focus on the service providers' corporate image, name and reputation. In cases such as Whitbread and Bass, companies are introducing a hierarchy of brands that revolve around five issues: physical evidence, service delivery, process, people and quality. It is the customer's perception of these five attributes that will determine establishments' success. This paper critically analyses the reasons for success of pub branding with a link made between the nature of the “product” and customers' perception.

This article discusses the important role that branding can play in the development of Service Industry marketing strategy. It outlines the evoloution of the traditional British public house (pub), the implementation of branding on the pub leisure retail (PLR) industry and the effect it has had on smaller, traditional pub operations. It offers an insight into the leading pub leisure retail establishments and to the ways in which branding has been the key to their success.

The literature on the history of the pub presents an invaluable background to any study of the industry, the very special place it fills in our society, and the wider context of its role in British tourism heritage. Most authors acknowledge that the pub is changing with the times, although a mere glance through such comment bears testatment to the way in which the pub's enduring qualities have survived by gradual evolution and adaptation. Of more topical interest, newspaper articles draw the public's attention to the latest developments and trends in the entertainment and leisure spectrum, and comment on their implications for the community and specifically the public house. For the most part, these are of a nationally introspective nature and the pub is not portrayed as a tourist attraction in its own right This article contrasts the views of three stakeholders within the retail pub industry, namely, the tourist, the landlord and the brewer. It charts their views on the evolution of the public house.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the changing relationship between brewers and pub owners. The paper considers the acquisition of British public houses by brewers and the introduction of national brands supported by advertising. The recent separation of brewing from pub ownership has brought about different types of public houses and different methods of marketing the outlets and the products offered.

The objectives are achieved by examining a variety of written material relating to public houses and brewers in different periods as well as more modern sources to allow an assessment of the changing pub and the advertising techniques employed.

Brewers advertise their products. When they also owned pubs, the promise of these products acted as advertising for the pubs. Now that brewers own only a small number of pubs, the different techniques have to be employed to attract customers.

The paper suggests that managed and rented estates have evolved, with different ways of marketing themselves. This paper may help to develop a practical approach to their promotion.

The separation in ownership of brewers and pub owners is well enough known. The implications on group advertising have been largely ignored. This paper starts to address that gap.

The paper argues the need for an appraisal of the symbolic meaning of the “pub” and derivative managerialist concepts from the perspective of the consumers’ experience. Set against background developments of the “pub”, the paper explores the use of semiotics as a means of examining the symbolic meaning of pre‐modern, modern and post‐modern pub formats. The paper draws on extensive interviews with a stratified purposive sample of customers of pub formats in the north‐west of England to undertake a semiotic appraisal of the reason why consumers “think the thoughts they do” about managerial developments of this distinctly social phenomenon.

The public house industry faces a mature and difficult future. Branding of pubs is on the increase as operators try to gain a competitive edge. Pub food outlets have led the way in pub branding, now operators are trying to develop the more “traditional” pub into a successful brand. This research assesses the value of branding to the public house industry by looking at consumer awareness, attitudes and behaviours, geographical constraints, the pub product itself, operating issues and communicating brand values to customers. The paper concludes that it is possible to develop successful pub brands but there are a number of difficulties that need to be overcome and not all of the theoretical benefits of branding may be achieved.

The decline of the British public house (pub), well documented over the past three decades, is often linked to detrimental social and economic conditions in communities. The purpose of this study was to explore brewery responses to turbulent market conditions for the pub trade, with a focus on innovation through design.

A longitudinal, qualitative study was conducted over 12 months, with 4 months of close participant observation within the company, to explore the experiences of a design team located within a medium-sized UK brewery.

The “pubscape” emerged, extending and augmenting earlier models of the “servicescape”, driven by an entrepreneurial shared vision recognising the importance of design and innovation in delivering the modern pub.

A single case – one brewery – formed the basis for a longitudinal qualitative study, with the associated benefits and disadvantages typical of single case research in providing insights rather than measurable outcomes. Other cases and other research methods would allow testing of ideas, rather than exploration, and generate different perspectives.

The research indicates the value of adopting an entrepreneurial approach to address challenging trading conditions and shows the practical role that design can play in rethinking service offerings to fit consumer needs and aspirations.

New insights into modern pub management have emerged from this study, positioning design innovation as a route to delivering successful British destination pubs by innovating while retaining traditional brand values and local identity markers, using the “pubscape” as a specific way to envisage innovative servicescape environments.

For much of the twentieth century, British breweries made profits from producing beer and selling it to the public houses, and then, because they owned the public houses as well, made further profits by selling to the consumer. The government investigated this perceived monopoly, and required changes, as a result of which, in the 1990s, the brewers and the pub owners tended to separate, so that many pub owning companies did not brew, but had to rely upon profits derived from sales to the general public. This led to a far greater emphasis on customer satisfaction and so public houses have tried to attract particular sections of the market. At the same time, the public were becoming more specific in their desire for leisure entertainment. As a result, the nature of the public house changed. Some traditional houses may still exist, but in addition there are many others designed for different groups of people. This study tries to identify the main features of some of the pubs that are currently popular.

This paper evaluates the competitive environment of the licensed trade sector of the leisure industry. Porter's model for structural analysis is used to identify the competitive forces affecting the industry and as a framework for making some predictions as to the new directions likely to be facing the industry in the future. The five industry forces — threat of new entrants, power of suppliers, power of buyers, substitute products and competitive rivalry are discussed with relation to the current competitive environment. From this, the major new directions for the licensed trade are presented and their potential impact on industry competition discussed.