In the end, the market is just another word for “consumers.” As such, any successful business enterprise has to be tailored to their needs – that’s the theory, at any rate. A Symrise study on the spirits market paints quite a different picture.
Spirits encompass a broad spectrum of products ranging from “hard” spirits to mild liqueurs, from popular mixers to grandma’s alcohol-based "health tonic", from classics like herbal liqueurs to products intended for consumption on very specific occasions. But is all of this variety really what consumers want? What do the manufacturers of alcoholic beverages really know about consumer desires? How do consumers feel about the selection of alcoholic drinks? Symrise has addressed these questions through an innovative study.
Research aimed at understanding consumers
Symrise maintains a worldwide sensory consumer science network in which not only the company’s own consumer and trend research departments, but also agencies, external research institutes and universities contribute findings and exchange information. This approach was also applied to the study on spirits, which pursued a clear practical aim: the results needed to provide concrete starting points for developing new, truly consumer-oriented products. The first step was to analyze existing data, highlight trends and fashion cycles in the spirits market and study the reasons given for product consumption. The next step was to prepare a questionnaire to be answered in face-to-face interviews with consumers. The resulting data were processed to create a description – from the consumer’s perspective – of the spirits market both at the point of sale and at the point of consumption, i.e., at the liquor store and at the bar.
Consumers are overwhelmed
The results of the survey were unambiguous: consumers are clearly overwhelmed by the unmanageable number of options available. They were barely able to take in all of the choices, let alone making the “right” choice – they simply didn’t know the products well enough. For consumers this meant that the large variety, while well-intentioned, was a burden. The price point was an additional factor: an innovative variety of chocolate or a new flavor of yoghurt priced at one euro or less does not constitute a major investment. The risk with spirits, however, is disproportionately higher. What this means, then, is that overwhelmed consumers will ultimately fall back on the products that they know. New products? They simply gather dust on the shelves.
Innovative methodology for surprising ideas
This doesn’t have to be written in stone: greater consideration would have to be given to consumer expectations when developing products, and a coherent concept description would need to be combined with a balanced marketing mix. Consumers have to understand the product story, which means that the story has to be presented to them at the right place, using the right methods and in a comprehensible manner. Doing so would create an opportunity for the consumer to make the corresponding purchase decision. Using this theoretical insight as a basis, Symrise then took an approach that was both innovative and investigative: participants from the trendy restaurant scene, the music industry, event management and advertising/Internet agencies worked together in what were referred to as “freak groups,” where they contributed their ideas on development in the spirits market. The resulting ideas were then reviewed by experienced technicians, lawyers, account managers and the category management to determine feasibility and marketability.
Inspiring beverage ideas that consumers understand
The concepts that came through this process were fleshed out and put to an additional test – now it was time for consumers to have their first turn. They evaluated the concept descriptions, and formulated what bothered them and what they liked. The results were used to fine-tune and rethink the concepts, which were then tested again. Only after they were coherent and comprehensible to consumers were they put into practice. The project has now been concluded, and Symrise is introducing the results step-by-step throughout Europe. As widely disparate as the final concepts may be, they do all illustrate one point: that product innovations can translate to successful sales – and that this will allow the spirits market to maintain its variety in the years to come.
