Markets Consist of Human Beings, Not Demographic Sectors—Cluetrain Manifesto #2

As a card-carrying member of the corporate drone life, I’mused to the fact that Dilbert resonates deeply, and frequently, and the notionthat a corporate project isn’t a project until it has a snappy name—becauseotherwise intelligible folks can’t grasp a project unless it’s called the“something, something.” Usually this isa descriptor for Sr. Manager’s so they can succinctly take credit for and referto the project when speaking to other Sr. Manager’s as an indication of thesuperior progress he/she is making in resolving some customer or company ill inhis/her department. 

Typically, the project has a strain of relativity to theissues at hand, and may speak to some larger societal aspect that we can draw aconnection to.

Frequently, the success of the project doesn’t matter asmuch as how much internal and external P.R. was generated. Perception is reality so issue a pressrelease.

Constellation Wines, the world’s largest wine producer,published a research study in the Fall called Project Genome, one the largestresearch studies ever conducted in the wine industry. Conducted in conjunction with Copernicus Marketing & Consulting(Who else would Constellation work with then Copernicus?), the study breaks outwine consumers into six segments. Asthe press release mentions, just as we are trying to map DNA, they are tryingto map wine buyers purchasing DNA. 

The six segments of wine buyers are listed as:

Enthusiast:  
12%of the population

Image Seeker:            
 20% of the population

Savvy Shopper:            
15%of the population

Traditionalist:  
16% of the population 

Satisfied Sipper:         
14%of the population

Overwhelmed:             
23% of the population

You can read the entire summary powerpoint, press releaseand other materials here:

On the whole, it’s hard to discount this research as themethodology appears to be sound. And,while this may be the largest research study conducted, it doesn’t appear tobreak any new ground in categorizing wine drinkers then what has been conductedpreviously—just on a larger scale. 

And, ultimately, what Constellation states as their goal forthe project is to help retailers and restaranteurs improve their product mixbased on their population of customers from the above category.

Here’s where I diverge on this research and why, ultimately,I believe this will be a project that looks good on the resume, but neveramounted to any seismic change.

Constellation wants the change to happen down the value chainwith retailers and restaurants—helping them to sell through more wine, moreeffectively. In essence, they areplaying into and supporting the growing category management function that saysthat the right product at the right place at the right time will sell through.

Put the onus on the retailer to raise their game. 

First, the research doesn’t address Generation Y, atall. They don’t fit into any categoryidentified cleanly, and Constellation seems to have played into the currentmarket with Baby-Boomer’s as their chief target to address.

Here’s the rub on both customer fronts, consumersincreasingly eschew modern marketing tactics and increasingly give credence toviral, or word-of-mouth influence models—and actually steer away from packagedmarketing, typical of what a Constellation may do in the channel for itswine. 

Secondarily, and most importantly, customers are nowmulti-channel shoppers—meaning they purchase from numerous stores. Just as Constellation publishes thisresearch, it’s highly likely that their so-called segments are dodging thesupermarket and going to buy wine elsewhere in an affinity-based manner—statusseeking. So, they can help asupermarket reach a traditionalist, who has really just decided to buy produceat the store and then head to the wine shop to buy wine for dinner because theyaspire to be an image seeker.

How the hell do you manage that?

The other thing that this research naively doesn’t addressis the entire state of the wine industry and the fact that there is an absolutepreponderance of wine labels and the fact that virtually all wine purchasedecisions are made at the point of purchase?

Seriously, how do you address the “savvy shopper” thatdoesn’t know what she wants and is demographically out of her element shoppingat a place that may not mesh with her socio-economic status?

The answer is, you don’t and can’t. 

The real answer is there isn’t a wine shop that exists thatsells wine the way people want to buy wine—in my estimation. And, that is, play to the affinityaspect. What does this wine do forme—what’s the story; the story of the winery, the story of the brand, how doesthe label grab me? Is the merchandisingsomething that tells me something I didn’t know, and is it organically createdor slick and “produced”

The other day we talked about winery tasting rooms and whywine absolutely fly’s through the tasting room—it’s because people areassociating the wine with the experience, to be shared now and later as thewine is enjoyed.

Taking the story into retail and restaurants, treatingpeople as individuals whose needs and whims change constantly and providingthem something to identify with will ultimately be a greater contributor tosuccess then helping get Rex Goliath into Publix because you know thisdemographic base shops there. They may,but they’re also down the road at the Costco looking for a perceived gem thatoffers something compelling in the form of a story—across all demographicboundaries. 

Markets do consist of human beings and ultimately,Constellation is missing a huge opportunity if they do not enable their channelcustomers to become better in-store marketers—for all people and the commonthreads that links us all. This isabout selling wine the way people want to buy and not the way that a companywants to sell i.e. taking the approach of market disciplinarian with having theperceived right product at the right place because usually it will be wrong.

To paraphrase a Walt Disney quote, he was asked if he wasafraid people would copy all of his ideas, and he said “Those are last yearsideas, we’re working on next year’s ideas.”

Wine marketers need to start working on next years ideas.