Boosting sales with the six faces of the wine drinker

Related tags Wine

All right, you've got 10 seconds. What are you having to drink? Under such pressure it would be no surprise if you plumped for the obvious - a pint...

All right, you've got 10 seconds. What are you having to drink? Under such pressure it would be no surprise if you plumped for the obvious - a pint of bitter, a gin and tonic, a dry white wine. Yet, unbelievably, 10 seconds really is the average length of time people take to decide their order at the bar.

This is one of the more startling facts to emerge from a new report released by Waverley, the wine and spirits arm of Scottish & Newcastle. To get that figure, researchers actually accompanied consumers on a trip to the pub to assess their buying behaviour.

The results of this painstaking investigation, which also included interviews and focus group discussions, is perhaps the most thorough analysis of the attitudes and habits of wine drinkers ever carried out in this country.

Wine is very much a developing market in the UK. Its potential is widely recognised but the pub industry in particular has struggled to turn that potential into profits.

In the last 10 years, wine sales have, overall, soared by 76 per cent, but in the on-trade - and that includes restaurants - the increase is a mere 40 per cent.

Research suggests that more than 70 per cent of wine drinkers will default to an alternative drink when they go to a pub. For publicans this could mean, in the short term, loss of profitability, and in the long term an unsatisfied customer who could go elsewhere next time.

As a result, the off-trade, with supermarkets leading the way, accounts for five times as much volume as the on-trade, and the gap continues to widen.

Waverley's research, pulled together in a report titled Face Value, seeks to address this problem and other issues that may be holding back the growth of wine.

As marketing director Hew Dalrymple asks, "people will drink wine to relax at home, so why do those same people default to other drinks when they are in the pub?"

To begin to answer that question, Face Value attempts to improve our understanding of the consumer by mapping the research results against binary concepts such as traditional/ modern and premium/mass market.

For instance, the people interviewed placed wine in a broad area skewed towards the traditional and premium end of the map, a problem in itself if you are attempting to broaden the usage of the drink.

Moods and occasions were also mapped along the same axes to give an idea of where the potential growth of wine is going to come from.

To help licensees to get a handle on what this means for them, these moods and occasions were then translated into six different kinds of consumer, from the Classic Connoisseur, a whiskery gent nosing his claret, to Chardonnay Girl, a bright young thing on the razz.

If you recognise these elements among your target market, the Waverley research can give you some idea of which wines they are going to go for.

One of the surprising things to emerge from the study is that when they are at home only a third of wine drinkers will take a glass with a meal. So there is no reason why licensees should lock themselves into a rigid wine-goes-with-food mentality. If your customers drink wine to wind down after a hard day at the office they can use it in the same way in the pub. Yet 74 per cent of on-trade wine is drunk with a meal.

"Shifts in society mean that wine drinkers are becoming more flexible, informal and open to ideas," explained Hew. "That is why there is such a move away from Old World wines towards the New World.

"What people think of as 'a decent wine' doesn't necessarily come from France any more. It means different things to different people. Publicans have to ask themselves what their target market is, then cater for them."

The general quality of pub wines, however, remains an issue. "Too many outlets are still buying wines on the basis of the lowest price," said Hew. "We are desperate to get people away from vin de table.

"It is not that the consumer is looking for expensive wines, but they do want something decent and they are willing to pay an extra £1 or £2 a bottle for a wine whose quality they perceive to be three or four times better.

"At the very least, pubs should be stocking the basic grape varietals. There was a time when these were in short supply, but there is no problem in getting hold of good entry level wines now."

But there is a further challenge for the publican who wants to sell more wine. One of the built-in advantages the off-trade has is that consumers have to time to choose which wine to buy.

Following them on a trip to the supermarket, Waverley found that they could take as long as five minutes browsing the shelves, considering colour, grape and country, weighing up special offers and reading the labels.

In 10 seconds, how can the pub recreate that kind of procedure and put the customer in control?

"Unless licensees understand the decision-making process that people go through when they walk into a pub, the chances are they will default to drinks other than wine," said Hew.

"The perception of wine the outlet gives is crucial. If the environment seems appropriate, people are more likely to order wine.

"In a traditional pub there are no wine cues, nothing to suggest to the customer that there is a good glass of wine on offer. Modern venues tend to be well-merchandised with the right wine cues. It comes down to visibility.

"If there is a wine list on the bar or on the tables or on a blackboard, for instance, you believe there is more chance of getting the kind of wine that you are looking for. People will slow down, read the list and give themselves more time to choose."

Some 45 per cent of Waverley's sample either ask for or look for a wine list to help them decide what to drink. Only 33 per cent order simply on the basis of colour and type - the dry white effect.

Under the 10-second rule, branded wines can also have a role, offering instant recognition and reliability for less confident wine drinkers.

Other positive wine cues include:

a clean, modern, spacious and light environment
a mix of men and women customers
drinks served in tall glasses.

While much of this comes down to how the pub is managed on a day-to-day basis, for its part, Waverley is training its sales force to improve their understanding of wine drinkers and pass the knowledge on to licensees.

It is also working on matching different ranges of wines to types of outlet and has appointed Paul Waddingham to the new role of category manager to carry that task forward.

Hew's vision of the months and years ahead is that wine drinking can be moved away from those people usually thought of as wine drinkers and that wine can be made appropriate to a wider audience in a range of less formal occasions. The part that pubs can play in this is clear.

So, step aside Connoisseur, Chardonnay Girl is coming through.

The six faces of the wine drinker