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

The question

A spirits company wanted a consumer-led strategy for its ready-to-drink range, with one shared base of evidence for the strategy sessions ahead.

The industry data it already had described the market. The company wanted to understand the people behind it: why they choose one ready-to-drink over another, on which occasions, and where its brands had permission to play.

Our approach

One design ran across six markets on four continents, built around the company’s existing industry reports so the survey filled the gaps they left.

For drivers of choice we used MaxDiff: drinkers repeatedly picked the most and least important factors from small sets, from flavor and price to brand and pack. Repeated choices like these made people weigh factors against each other, instead of rating everything as important.

A close look at each person’s latest occasion recorded its setting, what else would have suited and what the drink replaced, so the team could see which drinks the category competes with. Brand questions covered which brands people see as suited to each type of drink and occasion.

We checked data quality in each market, during and after fieldwork, before interpreting the comparisons.

What the team came away with

The company had a global report on what markets share and where they differ, with implications for innovation.

A second pack set all six markets side by side, and a third looked closely at one priority market. Planned back from the strategy sessions, the work was built so innovation teams could start from one body of evidence across their markets.