A bartender, a brand rep and a customer walk into a bar: an exploration of the expert middleperson in the Persuasion Knowledge Model

This research explores the relationship between liquor brand representatives and bartenders, its effects on the bartenders’ profession and subsequent theoretical implications from a Persuasion Knowledge Model perspective. Seven senior craft cocktail bartenders who act as both ‘agent’ and ‘target’ in the sale of alcohol were interviewed. As the ‘target’, they work with brand representatives who try to persuade them to purchase the brand’s product(s) for resale. As the ‘agent’, they then persuade their customers to purchase products. This study uses a grounded theory approach with a thematic analysis to examine the experiences of craft cocktail bartenders. Four themes emerged that were categorized as (1) passion, (2) purism, (3) storytelling and (4) personal branding. Findings were put into the Persuasion Knowledge Model, adding depth to our understanding of the model when someone with high topic, agent, and persuasion knowledge is both an ‘agent’ and a ‘target’. Results showed: bartenders’ high knowledge (topic, agent and persuasion) leads to both skepticism or trust in the brand representatives, depending on the level of knowledge the brand representative displays and whether or not that satisfies the bartender’s expectations; when a ‘target’ is an expert, ‘agent’ attitude is second to topic knowledge; bartenders use the same persuasion attempts as the ‘agent’ that are effective on them as the ‘target’; when bartenders felt validated, this aided in persuasion; when ‘targets’ are passionate, they respond more favourably to ‘agents’ they perceive as passionate; bartenders actively seek topic knowledge through internal motivations; and bartenders’ passion informs their persuasion attempts.