CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) has named Ron Montonera as Director of Sales & Marketing. In the newly created role, Ron has multi-faceted goals for the 30-year old beer, wine, and spirits rating and review company. He will continue to build the BTI brand by increasing the volume and impact of its beverage review services in both the wine and spirits categories. From a strategic perspective, he will take a proactive approach in understanding and servicing the changing needs of marketing in the beverage industry. He is especially focused on working with the trade in the development of marketing programs that create consumer pull using the BTI brand; “BTI is a pioneer in wine, beer and spirits reviews with a database rivaling the largest in the industry along with the distinct advantage of rapid turnaround time for its services. BTI finds itself in a position to showcase its well-established history and bring its name to the forefront without being a newcomer,” according to Ron. He also sees an opportunity to take the organization and its trusted reviews deeper into the social media arena.
Ron comes to BTI with a strong sales and marketing background. His most recent position was at Tastings Import Company as a Regional Sales Manager where he developed new territories in the Great Plains and New England markets. He has also held a position as a Sales Representative for a boutique wine wholesaler. His sales background is complimented by several years of retail and foodservice marketing experience including Douwe Egberts Coffee Systems as a Specialty Coffee Marketing Manager. Ron holds an MBA from Loyola University Chicago, but he claims his most influential business education was, “growing up in his father’s bar business where he mentored me in the true art of creating and securing customer loyalty.”
As a seasoned sales veteran, Ron thrives on building relationships and never passes on the chance to offer up an industry contact or suggestion to help others. In his new capacity, he is eager to offer BTI’s proven review service and sales tools to a broad range of established and new customers and help them succeed in today’s dynamic beverage market.
About the Beverage Testing Institute (BTI)
BTI is one of the world’s foremost authorities on alcoholic beverages. BTI was founded in 1981, as America’s premier independent alcoholic beverage review organization with a mission to create fair and reliable reviews of wines for consumers. In 1994, BTI began reviewing beers and spirits and founded the World Beer Championships and the World Spirits Championships, America's oldest international beer and spirits competitions. BTI regularly rates and reviews thousands of beverages every year and publishes them on Tastings.com.
Suppliers and marketers can have their commercially available wines, beers, spirits, and mixers rated and reviewed by BTI by going to: www.tastings.com/trade.html.