I thought Jessica was Cameron Hughes was an awesome speaker who
got me thinking a lot about my generation. She argued that when millennials buy
wine, they opt for boxed wine, or other unrefined mediums – they’re not buying
what she’s offering. That point surprised me. Are millennials really not
interested in bottles? It got me
thinking: if you replicated the Cameron Hughes model, but branded it for millennials
would that work? I think it would.
We know from the cases we’ve read that millennials are
increasingly drinking wine. Wine sales in the US are approaching $62 billion,
and millennials are consuming over 40% of it. The studies reveal similar things
about what millennials want from wine. We want stories, and we want varieties
and regions that we haven’t heard of.
I read a Wall Street Journal article that references this
trend, and opens the article quoting a sommelier in NYC who says, “so many
millennials are interested more in the narrative of the wine rather than the
wine…a lot of mediocre wine is sold on the basis of a story.” The content may
be right, but to frame millennials behavior with condescension misses our
generation.
There’s a reason why we prefer exploring with wines. A lot
of us grew up around wine. It’s in our supermarkets. Our parents drank Old
World, imported wines. But France and Italy aren’t exotic for us anymore. Syria
is. Wine is a way to open our world, and to differentiate ourselves from older
generations, as we grow into adults ourselves.
The face of Cameron Hughes does not feel like the face of my
generation. Baby boomers may gravitate towards him – 78% of the wine drinkers
in that generation are white – but we want a trusted source that is different
from the old guard. And we want to understand it. I learned from a Wine Opinion
survey that 72% of us have posted something about wine on social media, 85%
have met someone for a glass of wine in the last month, and 43% have visited 4
or more winery tastings in the last year.
All of this is to say, I think millennials want to buy
bottled wines in the $15 - $20 price range, but I’m not convinced we understand
how to market to this generation. We need to embrace the diversity that
millennials want to experience in wine. And we need to look at is not as the
misguided tastes of untrained palates, but as a way to redefine what grapes and
what regions get airtime.
Totally agree with you and had the same feelings and reactions to the numbers she showed about Cameron Hughes Wines' consumers. I don't convince myself as she was that the fact that millennials are not consuming their wines is age or purchase power issue. It's hard for me to believe that when we turn older we will start preferring wines with that value proposition. I totally agree that millennials want something else, something different, and that us would be willing to pay more for bottles if the value proposition were attractive enough. But the marketing challenge is huge. How to find what millennials.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest challenges that the Chilean wine industry is facing now for example is that in the domestic market the per capita consumption is been stable for years. The main reason: millennials are preferring other liquors. There has been numerous efforts from the different main companies in the country to launch wines specially for this target market, but to this point none of them has succeed. As I worked in Market Research I faced the challenge of trying to understand what millennials want and expect of this category, and what value propositions could be attractive enough for making them pay. The main challenge for us was that Chilean millennials are very traditional when talking about wine, as wine is an important part of the culture and we all have grown up in "wine drinking" families. But at the same time we want something different and innovative.
This is just an example of my own experience. But to your point I totally agree that we haven't figured out how to market wine to our generation, and is a very interesting challenge to generate innovative solutions designed specially for what this generation wants.
I've been wondering also about Millennial purchasing behavior and how this may be evolving (and even more so for the post - millennial generation, the "z"'s?).
ReplyDeleteMy thought is that Millennials and post-Millennials will purchase more $20 and less wine -- and that this behavior will continue well into their lives, not just a limited time until they make more $.
Will they value luxury goods as much as prior generations? Or will they be, instead, focused on freedom (save more, so they can work less, retire early)?
Are they even more aware than prior generations of how societal and cultural pressures, marketing, etc. influence our purchases and drive us to spend on luxury -- and are they or will they increasingly reject that?
Except for the ultra rich, just maybe, I feel we are already seeing a change in fashion trends, travel trends, and other forms of luxury purchases. I see more searching online for lower prices, searching for "good enough" items.
With this in mind, does the wine market evolve to a point where most are just looking for the best $20 bottle rather and the upper tier continues to shrink?
Ali, I couldn't agree more! I was just reading an article on WWD that discussed that although the overall retail climate is challenging, there are some brands that have emerged as winners. They have been able to sustain growth by developing an intimate, emotional, and authentic connection with their customers. Companies like Patagonia are benefiting by staying true to their mission and communicating a genuine narrative to customers. Wendy Liebmann, CEO of retail strategy consultancy WSL commented, "If you want to build legitimate loyalty, it's not enough anymore to say, 'Here I am, I'm fabulous,' or 'Here I am, I have a good price.' You have to build a legitimate connection with a community. [When looking at Tom's or Patagonia, for example], that approach has been built into the DNA of the companies since the beginning - it's rooted in their ethos. And it's true, it's not a marketing campaign."
ReplyDeleteI think Cameron Hughes is taking a very old-school approach with traditional marketing methods, which I don't think will allow them to resonate as a brand with millennials. Consumers today are looking for ways to express themselves through brand purchases, and they're looking for brands whose stories and values are aligned with their own. I think the winemakers that will succeed in selling to millennials through the distributor channel are those that create compelling and authentic narratives and have a strong set of values.