TakeAway: 70 million millennials’ (loosely defined as those born between 1980 and 2000) taste for adventure, quirkiness and convenience will drive the market in the coming decade.
They are taking up wine at an earlier age than Gen X-ers and will buy wine just about anywhere – including the corner convenience store.
Moreover, 20 million of them have yet to turn 21, meaning they will become an even more powerful force.
Experts say millennials, as opposed to other generations, have no fear of asking for wine advice, but a lot of them seek it from Facebook friends and on Twitter – which is leading winemakers to invest in social media.
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Excerpted from AdAge, “Millennials: the Great White Hope for Wine Industry” By E.J. Schultz, December 6, 2010
Wine marketers have only recently started zeroing in on the market, as opposed to other lifestyle brands which have been tracking the generation for many years. The most recent player is 7-Eleven, which convened a focus group of millennials before launching its latest line of proprietary wines about two weeks ago. The brand, called Cherrywood Cellars, is priced at $7.99 to $8.99 to lure young adult drinkers whom the convenience store chain says might be watching their wallets more closely than Gen X-ers and baby boomers during the economic downturn.
Although beer remains the beverage of choice for millennials, accounting for 42% of their alcoholic drinks, wine captures 20% — up from 13% for Gen Xers when they were a similar age 10 years ago, according to Nielsen. Drinkers tend to shift to spirits and wine as they get older. If that trend holds, wine will account for 26% of all alcoholic drinks consumed by all U.S. generations in 10 years, up from 24% today, while beer will fall from 41% to 38%, according to Nielsen.
The test for marketers is to gain loyalty from young drinkers whose tastes are only now emerging. For some wine companies, that means putting members of the generation in charge of their brands. At Treasury Wine Estates in Napa, for instance, a 26-year-old is a member of a team of 20- and 30-somethings planning the national launch early next year of Sledgehammer, which is targeting the male millennial market. Marketed as a “no-fuss” wine, the brand “eschews really traditional wine speak” like “this smells of cherries and berries and that type of thing.” But the wine will also seek to subtly educate the new generation of wine drinkers, possibly using booklets of wine facts presented in a way that’s “funny and sarcastic.”
Some companies have formed special millennial divisions, such as The Wine Group, maker of Franzia, whose Underdog Wine Merchants unit is enjoying big success with Cupcake Vineyards. The brand was the 14th-best-selling wine for the four-week period ending Oct. 31, with sales jumping 250%.
Still, marketers risk overplaying their hand if they reach out too aggressively to the generation, known for its suspicion of overt selling tactics. For instance, some industry executives are noticing a backlash against trendy, edgier wine labels.
Edit by AMW
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Full Article:
http://adage.com/article?article_id=147474
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