CONSUMER PROBLEM

In a world where work is done over email and dating is done over a text, the young generation of wine drinkers are seeking moments of real connection and authenticity, shunning mainstream choices, and looking for brands that understand them and encourage them to be themselves.

BUSINESS CONTEXT

Meanwhile, our client was struggling to meet its fair share of the super and ultra premium cabernet and chardonnay wine segments. They sought to fill their pipeline with 2-5 consumer-ready concepts to grow their share through innovation in a key couples-driven need state.

APPROACH

Our biggest challenge was painting a picture of a target our client had little connection with—the budding wine enthusiast who prefers to experiment rather than settle on tried and true choices. To bring in alternative perspectives and further dimensionalize the consumer, I examined macro trends agnostic to the wine industry, pulling out-of-category observations to bring each to life for our clients to internalize and draw inspiration from. And to further hone in our frame of reference, I performed a competitive analysis to understand who our consumers were turning to today.

To complete the picture of our consumer, we held 12 in-homes across two markets to understand our consumer’s context, core motivations, attitudes, behaviors, usage, and the role of wine in key occasions. What we uncovered was a moment between couples much less romantic and intimate than originally thought—instead, it was a shared moment of positivity, forward-looking to the days ahead— encouraging and calming.

From these learnings, we developed key platforms for ideation. To ensure deep empathy for our consumer amongst the cross-functional team, I developed a multi-media immersive experience comprising video compilations, real consumer collages, and live, physical vignettes meant to allow our participants to literally step into the shoes of our consumer’s context. This laid the groundwork for the custom designed ideation featuring tailored exercises and stimulus for a group of 25 cross-functional team members.

OUTCOMEs

Our day-long session generated over 60 ideas, each of which were lightly evaluated against estimated volume potential and passion amongst the organization. Ideas with the highest potential were developed into full concepts for consumer testing.

RESPONSIBILITIES & KEY ACTIVITIES

Category Audit
Competitive Analysis
Business Assessment
Stakeholder Interviews
In-Home Ethnographies
Trend Analysis
Mind Mapping
Ideation Design & Facilitation