---
title: "Ready-to-drink research across six markets for a spirits company | antedote"
description: "Consumer research for a spirits company’s ready-to-drink strategy: a six-market survey with MaxDiff on drivers of choice, occasion mapping and brand fit."
url: "https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/evidence-for-a-ready-to-drink-strategy/"
author: "antedote"
---

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

To innovate in ready-to-drink, a brand has to know why people choose one drink over another, and when. For a spirits company, we built one survey across six markets on drivers of choice, drinking occasions and brand fit.

**Client**
Spirits company

**Industry**
Spirits

**Markets**
Six markets on four continents

**Kind of work**
Consumer understanding

**Our role**
A six-market survey to ground the client’s ready-to-drink innovation strategy

## 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.

Who we heard from

Legal-drinking-age adults who drink ready-to-drink cocktails or spirits, in six markets

## Related work

[View consumer understanding case studies](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/?work=Consumer%20understanding#library)

- Drinks

    ### [Finding where product development could improve a cup of tea](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/mapping-the-tea-drinking-journey/)

- Financial services

    ### [Knowing how to speak to affluent savers about retirement](https://antedote.com/explore-our-work/how-affluent-savers-think-about-retirement/)

**What we do**
[Strategic research](https://antedote.com/what-we-do/strategic-research/)

## Want to understand your customers better?

Bring the question, and we’ll talk through where to begin.

[Talk to us](https://antedote.com/talk-to-us/) · [hello@antedote.com](mailto:hello@antedote.com)

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