Grounding a spirits company’s ready-to-drink strategy in evidence

The question

A spirits company was building an innovation strategy for its ready-to-drink range around the people who drink it, with strategy sessions ahead.

Its industry reports described the market. They couldn’t say why people pick one ready-to-drink over another, on which occasions, where its brands had permission to play, or what a new drink would be bought in place of. The strategy needed one shared base of evidence on all of it, gathered the same way in every market.

Our approach

The survey was designed around the gaps in the industry data the company already had, so every question added something those reports couldn’t.

Drivers of choice were measured with MaxDiff, which makes drinkers trade flavor, price, brand, pack and other qualities against each other, as an innovation team must when it decides what to lead with.

One design ran in all six markets (the US, the UK, Australia, India, the Netherlands and Germany), with occasions mapped to what a drink has to do on each, and extra checks on data quality in one market.

What the team came away with

The evidence came in parts, each with its own job, planned back from the team’s strategy sessions.

A global report set out what the markets share, where they differ and what that means for innovation. A pack set all six markets side by side, and a closer look at one priority market gave its team more depth.

The innovation team could now brief from one base of evidence across markets, judging a new idea by what it asks drinkers to trade off, the occasions it would serve and whether one of the company’s brands could carry it.