Nothing like a good vacation to reset your thinking!

Coming off an inspiring two weeks away, I’d like to let you know that in the coming months of these Enolytics 101 weekly posts, I’ll be shifting the perspective a bit and focus on applications.

Applications, that is, of how the wine businesses we work with put our insights to use.

That’s a question that’s come up from readers several times: they’re starting to see how this consumer data thing works, but what do companies actually do with the insights once we deliver them?

There’s only so much that we can say, of course, and I do not mean this to be coy in any way. The thing is that our clients are investing in this research, and obviously we can’t just share the information that rightly belongs to them.

Today, however, I would like to share with you three lightbulb moments from a project we’ve been working on that looks at consumer behavior in the U.S. around wines priced at $100+.

1. Identifying the competitive set for the focus wine in the eyes of consumers. We queried the data to find which specific wines the consumer was scanning or searching during the very same session that they scanned or searched our focus wine. This was a bright lightbulb moment: the wines that the company thought are their competitors are not the same wines that consumers think are their competitors.

Application: Study the wines – both that are currently competitors, and similar wines that are up-and-coming – in order to refine communications and marketing strategy.

2. Geo-locating the consumer interest in the wine, and comparing that interest to the company’s own sales records in particular markets.

Application: Redirect sales and marketing resources toward the underserved and underperforming markets where there is already evidence of consumer interest.

3. Understanding the language that consumers use when they’re reviewing and rating the focus wine, and the competitive set of wines. As wine people ourselves, we know how easy it is to slip into industry and “taster lingo.” But that language is not the language outside the industry, and it is not the language of non-specialist consumers.

Application: Reframe the consumer-facing dialogue around the wine, which can even be done in a market-specific way since how consumers talk about Malbec, say, in Seattle is not how they talk about it in Miami.

We’re excited to see our client put their specific insights into practice in the coming months.

In addition, we now have more data to work with that can, we believe, be of use to you too, especially if your wines fall within this price category and are selling in the U.S. market.

How can we help? I’d be very glad to talk ideas through with you. Please be in touch with any questions or suggestions or etc.

Thank you for reading –

Cathy, co-founder of Enolytics

Cell: +1.702.528.3717 | cathy@enolytics.com