Beverage Media Group

Digging Next Level Data

July 9, 2018 By Beverage Media Group

Analyzing baskets and behavior, 3×3 Insights provides more valuable data

By W. R. Tish

With today’s POS technology, so much sales data is available at the touch of a button that we almost take it for granted. Sales by product, category, time frame, price point, etc. But the data just beyond what’s evident can make a huge difference. 3×3 Insights (3x3insights.com) specializes in next-level data analysis, not just of sales but also purchase patterns. Information presented in the 3×3 DataBar enables merchants to proactively retarget customers with offers that drive more in-store visits and increase basket size.

CASE STUDY:

Which Pinot to Promote?

Consider this example: While deciding on stock purchases one month, a Retailer was given a deal on two Pinot Noirs from their distributor and wanted to pick one to discount and promote.

Using 3x3’s basket analysis technology, the Retailer saw a full view of how Brand #1 performed compared to Brand #2, as well as the market as a whole. Total sales of Brand #1 and Brand #2 were comparable; but the contexts of their sales were not. While the Brand #2 buyer, who visited the store five or more times a month and bought only one other item each time, Brand #1 buyers were often (44% of the time) first-time customers and had baskets close to $80 a visit.

Based on these findings, the retailer went forward with purchasing and promoting Pinot Noir Brand #1. The sale was incredibly successful in driving revenue. During the promotional period in 2017, the Retailer saw Brand #1 enjoy a 65% lift in sales compared to the same period in 2016, increasing the total revenue for the store by more than $10,000.

One Level Deeper

With the 3×3 DataBar, the Retailer was not only able to pick the right wine for the promotion, but also was able to more effectively price and position their products.

After learning that the Brand #2 buyer was a regular, the store managers knew that they could raise the price minimally without worry that the customer would shop elsewhere. They also repositioned products in the store to try increasing basket prices. With customers walking past other products commonly bought with Pinot Noirs on their way to their regular Brand #2, the opportunity to buy more increased.

Knowing that the Brand #1 buyer was usually a first-time customer, and that the brand was often bought with other high-margin wines, the retailer was also able to rearrange end caps and displays to increase purchases.

The case of picking the right Pinot is a single example of how richer, deeper data analysis can benefit retailers. On the highest level, comparing market share across different varieties of wine, liquor or beer help narrow down which categories you should be selling and promoting. Deeper down, you can compare the market share of specific brands across their categories and other details that will lead you to exactly the right product for promotion.

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Wine Buzz

July 2, 2018 By Beverage Media Group

Bubbling Up: A Pair of Prosecco Brands

Prosecco marketers are keen on parlaying the Italian bubbly’s recognition with refreshed looks and upscaled spinoffs. Gallo’s already widely-embraced LaMarca Prosecco is spinning off a DOCG Superiore, Luminore, at $29.99. Fuller-bodied, aromatic, rich with stone fruits and layered, Luminore is an upgrade worthy of an upsell. The release also marks the winery’s 50th anniversary.

Bisol, imported by Wilson Daniels, has relaunched their Prosecco Superiore (SRP $23.99-$45.99) and Jeio collections. Both lines feature new packaging, complete with more vivid green, founding year (1542) redesigned Bisol logo. Bisol has also introduced a new Prosecco Superiore DOCG SKU ($19.99) as part of the Jeio collection’s revamp.

New Vintage, New Style: La Grande Dame 2008

Since its inaugural vintage in 1962, Veuve Clicquot’s La Grande Dame has only been crafted 22 times. The latest, 2008, features the highest percentage of Pinot Noir ever—92%. Cellar Master Dominique Dermarville has made changes across the entire line, most notably a reduction in dosage for a drier, fresher, more mineral-driven profile. “This is the Veuve Clicquot twist: to combine depth and silkiness with lightness and elegance.” The 2008 GD is dense and complex with notes of fresh peach, currants and chalky, mineral-laced acidity.

Pulse Check: Pink Power Pumping

Merchants long in tooth and red in tongue may wax poetic about previous “It” wines that soared and sagged—à la White Zin, Merlot, Shiraz, Moscato—but rosé continues to defy market gravity. Signs it has only just begun to flex its muscle: Rosé-the-wine has become a sort of alpha pink, able to spread its pink halo to spirits (gin, vodka, cocktails galore) and other products (rosé deodorant anyone?). And the diversity within the category continues to impress—in stylistic range, points of origin and eye-catching packaging. To wit:

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Treasury Wine Estates: Banking On The Right Bank And Beyond

MDGE Winemaker Sebastien Long is French, but spent the last six years making wine in Australia. Which is one reason Treasury Wine Estates tapped him to direct their ambitious new project, Maison de Grand Esprit, a collection of luxury French wines made with a New World approach. “Young consumers want heritage and authenticity, but they value simplicity, too,” Long says.

Unicorn Partnering with top producers in Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône, Provence and Champagne, Long is crafting three tiers of wine: L’Être Magique ($25), La Mystèriale ($45) and—at the very top—Grand Esprit, a Saint-Estèphe ($100). “We are reinventing traditional French wine, while still showcasing regional expression,” Long explains, with wines that are more fruit-driven and less tannic or astringent than the past. Maison de Grand Esprit rolls out July 1st.

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Home Cookin’

October 3, 2017 By Beverage Media Group

With More People Entertaining At Home, Retail Guidance Is As Vital As Ever

By Jeff Siegel

The news has not been good for the restaurant business since the end of the Recession—lower traffic counts, depressed wine sales, and consumer irritation with higher alcohol prices. Many consumers who used to eat out are staying home.

“There are two reasons consumers opt to eat and drink at home over going out—convenience and cost,” says Brandy D. Rand, President U.S. for IWSR, a global data and analysis firm for the beverage alcohol market. “The rise of quality prepared foods at grocery stores is replacing casual and fast-casual dining because of how convenient it is,” says Rand. “The blurring of on/off-premise is a really pushing how people view food and drink decisions.”

Hence the opportunity for wine, beer, and spirits retailer to become a virtual sommelier for what some analysts are calling the Netflix, takeout, and couch crowd. They’re often younger than the Baby Boomers who know what they want for their Saturday night dinner and have been buying the same wine for years. These Gen Xers and Millennials—be it for hanging out, cooking or hosting a BYO dinner party—want to try something different.

And they need help to do so, says Suzy Bergman, Wine Buyer for Wyatt’s Wet Goods, a full-service retailer in suburban Denver: “They seem to be more adventurous in their cooking, and they want to be more adventurous with their wine.”

Keep these points in mind when selling to these customers:

They want wine because it’s part of the experience, not because they want to drink wine with dinner. In this, says Chris Keel, who owns Put a Cork in It in an upscale neighborhood near Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, they’re looking for a specific wine to go with a specific dish, so that pairing matters in a way it may not for older customers who just want a bottle of wine to drink with dinner—regardless of what dinner is. “They’re not looking for your typical California Cab.” says Keel.

Price is important, and probably even more so than for older wine drinkers who buy the same couple of Russian River Pinot Noirs every time they come in the store. One reason the stay-at-homers aren’t buying wine in a restaurant is that they don’t want to pay $12 for a glass of wine that costs $20 a bottle at retail, says Rand, noting the lack of transparency in on-premise markups. “So talking about value is a smart way to sell more premium products,” she says.

Know your alternatives. One reason younger wine drinkers are more adventurous is that they haven’t been taught to drink specific varietals from specific regions in the way older consumers have, say retailers. So Keel says they’re more open to trying barbera or grenache instead of pinot noir. And there is always the opportunity to pitch them on riesling with Thai and Asian food.

Merchandising matters. “The vast amount of choices available in a retail environment can be overwhelming,” says Rand, “so offer cues for food-pairing right on the shelf. Even better, merchandise by drinking occasion: have a small endcap for pizza-friendly wines, or best beers for BBQ. For cocktails, make it easy for people to make a classic cocktail like a margarita by offering the recipe on a tear pad and then cross-merchandise all the ingredients together: limes, agave nectar, tequila. Too often, the mixer section is far away from the spirits and the quality and selection is poor.”

And so does customer service. Rand says she can’t emphasize this enough—“Have friendly, knowledgeable staff on the floor to talk to people. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve needed a recommendation and couldn’t find staff in a retail store. Or worse, the person didn’t know enough to help. Most consumers walk in to a retail store and have no idea what they are buying. They are literally looking for cues and recommendations on what to buy to fit their occasion and taste.”

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Bonterra Hosts Sip for the Sea

October 2, 2017 By Beverage Media Group

Bonterra Organic Vineyards sponsored the Wildlife Conservation Society’s 5^th Annual gala, Sip for the Sea on September 28^th at the Central Park Zoo. The benefit, which raises money for the New York Aquarium featured sustainable dishes from top restaurants in New York in addition to Bonterra Wine’s extensive Organic portfolio. Guests were able to enjoy specially paired food while tasting through Bonterra’s many varietals and watching David Burtka and Katie Lee feed the Zoo’s Sea Lions.

David Burtka, Katie Lee, Ryan Biegel, and Sierra Boggess all helped co-host Sip for the Sea

Sea Lions were happily fed to help kick-off the event

Bonterra Wine was selectively paired with every food

Melissa Joan Hart and Trisha Portilla enjoying Bonterra Wine

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No One Asks About Resveratrol, But They Still Care About Wine As It Relates to Health

By Jim Clarke

The conversation on wine and health has changed. Think about it: warning labels, promotional restrictions and on-premise health notices are all still in effect, but vestiges of last century—now barely noticed, hardly ever debated. Thanks to 1991’s 60 Minutes report drawing attention to a slew of medical research, the healthfulness of wine (especially red) enjoyed in moderation is generally accepted by the American public as a given.

What is important to remember, however, is that since suppliers legally cannot mention health-related factors in their promotional materials or advertising, by default that shifts the conversation to the point of sale. And with today’s society as health-conscious as ever, that means the particular role wine plays in our diets and lifestyle continues to come up, albeit in diverse ways, not always directly related to alcohol.

“I get women saying that sulfites give them headaches, or that they’re allergic to French oak,” says Brittany Hastings, Estate Sommelier at Meadowood Napa Valley, a resort and spa right in the middle of the U.S.’s toniest wine region. “I don’t try to discredit their beliefs, but I try to find a wine to accommodate them.” In an age of dietary needs and intolerances, the customer is still king, whether science is behind them or not.

We’ve all had moments where we’ve wanted to explain to the guest who only drinks white wines “because the sulfites in red wine give me a headache,” that white wines typically have more sulfites, but that is no way to make a sale. (Incidentally, the effect of a sulfite allergy is typically hives, swelling, and nausea, not headaches.) It’s frustrating when guests are misinformed, but one can certainly empathize with someone who’s concerned about their health and well-being.

Healthy Vines + Healthy Minds

In fact, many visitors come to Meadowood for their Wine & Wellness program, launched earlier this year, which combines hiking, spa treatments, meals and winery visits. “It’s easy to market to people who are concerned about the environment and what they’re putting into their bodies,” says Hastings. “We go out into the vineyard and see exactly how things are made.” It’s the farm-to-table spirit applied to the wine world.

The approach to wine and health here is not so much scientific as intuitive: Hastings focuses her program on organic and biodynamic producers. Wine marketing emphasizes the benefits of sustainability and organics in terms of the environment or a wine’s flavor and purity, but Hastings says many of her guests have made the connection between agricultural techniques and healthfulness, just as they do with food. “Obviously those chemicals are going into the soils, and in the long term, into the wine, and straight into your system.” healthstyle2

Lifestyle First

In retail, customer concerns might go beyond what’s in the wine, to what the wine’s in. The demographic here hinges on those for whom an active lifestyle comes first, and wine gets fit into it. “Cans, collapsible bottles [Tetra Paks], even boxed wine,” do well at Mondo Vino in Denver, says owner Duey Kratzer. With such an outdoorsy population, Denverites are looking for wines that are easily transportable: “You can take them to the park or go camping with them.” Glass bottles are not only heavy, but delicate in those circumstances. And wine is getting taken along, not so much for health benefits as merely fitting into a health-conscious activities.

Specific dietary demands can affect sales, if in mysterious ways. Vegetarians, for example, apparently don’t drink as much. “I’m not sure why,” says Amanda Cohen, chef and owner at Manhattan’s vegetarian destination Dirt Candy, “but it’s definitely true and other chefs have reported the same. We actually get about half our guests who drink as much as I would expect, and a few who drink less, but the graph gets really skewed because there are about a third who don’t drink at all.”

Facing this reality, Cohen tries to maximize her wine list’s appeal to guests who are looking to enjoy themselves, rather than those who are “hung up” on particular health issues.

That means making sure the wines on the list pair well with vegetables. She explains: “Traditionally vegetables get paired with white wines, and I actually think that’s so limited. My heart sinks when I go to a restaurant that specializes in vegetables and their list is just a bunch of Rieslings and Gewürztraminers. I’ve found that Greek and Italian whites go great with vegetables because they’re a little less structured than French whites, and something like a Coda di Volpe has some saltiness that actually enhances the flavor of the dish.”

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Cohen says vegans aren’t necessarily even more reluctant to order wine, even though egg whites and isinglass (made from fish bladders) are common fining agents. The fact that she has many natural wines on her list also makes it easy to accommodate them. Other popular diets, like gluten-free or Paleo, also rarely run afoul of wine. The latter is based on our modern understanding of what our early ancestors would have eaten, and while there’s no evidence winemaking goes back to Paleolithic times, Dr. Loren Cordain, the diet’s creator, says it also can help people stay on the diet by giving them a place to indulge a little.

He also points out that, regardless of diet, “moderate wine drinking has been shown to have many therapeutic health effects.” Something to always bear in mind, in case your guests need a reminder.

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