new study of consumers

thought you guys might be interested in the following report of a consumer study commissioned by constellation brands.

http://winesandvines.com/template.cfm?s ... tent=53745

i personally have a lot of reservations about this. my general comment is about the division of the various segments of consumers. in general i have found that if you let someone else cut the cake, you will get the worst piece if any at all. in particular, i can't find myself in any of these segments - and i don't find my friends there either.

one clue as to why this is may be the use to which they intend to put this 'info'. they intend to work with retailers to 'help' them meet the needs of consumers more effectively - for example in how they organize their shelves. so the real intent is to out gallo, gallo. working against the gallo team i can remember their story - let us organize your shelves because we use scan data to apportion space based on scientifically mined data on consumer purchases. (excuse me mr. rep, are there any genuine, artisanal wines in this set?) the result of course is that consumers are 'helped' to find the products they already know - and the homoginization of wine continues.

but as i said at first, one huge problem is that i don't find myself in any of the segments - nor do i find most of the people who post here - nor my friends. my guess is that we purchase A WHOLE LOT OF WINE. is it that we aren't 'complient' - (what a great word that i've heard way too much of lately). we don't care about 'brands' and constellation now owns a large portion of the brands that traditionalists would purchase? is the real idea to turn the 'overwhelmed' into 'traditionalists' - which is where constellations strengh is?

i have lots of other thoughts on this; but should let others take a whack.

i personally have a lot of reservations about this. my general comment is about the division of the various segments of consumers. in general i have found that if you let someone else cut the cake, you will get the worst piece if any at all. in particular, i can't find myself in any of these segments - and i don't find my friends there either.

I can't find any segment that I would fit into either.

I don't fit in any categoty there either.

What I have the most problem with is, ''Joseph pointed out that the industry also needs to pay more attention to Traditionalist consumers, who tend to prefer established wine brands.''

What exactly makes a brand established? Popularity? Quality? Size of company? That is what stuck out the most for me.

Very few members of wine forums will fit any of the categories in this study which is made up of the purchases of 10,000 premium-wine consumers--defined as those who purchased wine priced at $5 and higher--over an 18-month period. The categories were identified in Constellations original screening in 2005, called Project Genome - understanding the DNA of the premium wine consumer; I'd love to know who thinks up the names for these consumer market studies.

The characteristics of the Enthusiast are here om slide 12. Note that 49% had not bought a bottle of wine over $15 in the last six months. That excludes me (and I would believe most of the forum members) right there.

NOTE: If the links above don't load then you will have to link to the Constellation home page (here) and click on the Project genome link half way down the page and then open the Presentation.

Mike

good points all. while the WORD 'premium' is used, the definition is dumbed down to where it includes the sheep most easily lead by people bent on 'branding'. by diluting the pool with these drinkers, the importance of serious wine drinkers in any resulting 'scheme of things' gets eliminated. on this definition of 'premium' an 'intelligent' person would be anyone who had had even one thought in the last 6 months.

The characteristics of the Enthusiast are here om slide 12. Note that 49% had not bought a bottle of wine over $15 in the last six months. That excludes me (and I would believe most of the forum members) right there.Mike

Mike, I suspect that those who do these things do NOT want us in there to skew their study away from where they want it to point. Now if they did, they would have a part that counted a % of us who has bought damn few that DIDN'T cost $15 or more.