Illuminated Bottles—Refocusing Consumer Segmentation and Engagement for Smaller Wine, Spirits and...

Version 1.0 May 12, 2014

Smaller producers of specialty wines, spirits and beer are continuously striving to crack the code for successfully gaining and holding market share. The marketplace is extremely crowded and alcoholic beverages seem to be nothing more than commodities in the minds of most consumers. As producers endeavor to change this perception and differentiate their brands, they attempt to inspire people to try their products and “spread the good word” about their positive experiences. Unfortunately, many squander their resources trying to attract attention from the wrong people, in the wrong times/places, and in the wrong ways.

It's relatively expensive to gain this attention, so misfiring is costly and can often be fatal to a business. This is especially true for smaller specialty producers, as advertising and promotional resources are much more limited than those of mass producers. It's essential, therefore, that we, as specialty brand alcoholic beverages marketers, accurately identify our consumer segments in order to truly understand the respective interests, needs, preferences, behaviors, and social dynamics of the people in these segments. Gaining this

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By John Lenker, Founder & CEO, Lenker Consulting

www.lenker.com

© 2014 Lenker Consulting. A.R.R.

Illuminated Bottles Refocusing Consumer Segmentation and Engagement for Smaller Wine, Spirits and Beer Producers

http://www.lenker.com

http://www.lenker.com


understanding puts us in the best possible position to carefully craft our marketing messages to be appropriate, engaging, meaningful, and valuable. If a smart consumer (market) segmentation method can be successfully integrated into marketing initiatives, marketing costs will greatly decrease while sales will substantially increase.

Because of this, it’s crucial that we discard outmoded consumer segmentation practices, which have long outlived their usefulness and which now prevent us from seeing the marketplace clearly. Instead we must embrace something more illuminating. This paper examines how we, as alcoholic beverages marketers, might more meaningfully segment our consumers. Our aim is to provide more accurate criteria for mapping our consumer relationships, which is an integral dimension of smart marketing planning.

Audiences vs. Consumer Segments

Breaking into a crowded marketplace is an uphill battle—even with an impressive new product, product line or brand. This is especially true for smaller producers who must successfully attract, convert, satisfy, and retain their consumers with resources that are extremely limited in comparison with their large-scale competitors.

As marketers, it is therefore crucial that we meaningfully identify various segments of consumers within our different audiences. The reason we must do this is to better understand their respective motivations and purchasing behaviors. Step one is to distinguish between an audience and a consumer segment.

An audience is the broad, general grouping of people by practical purpose. A consumer segment is a sub-grouping of people within an audience, which is defined by a set of determinant characteristics. These characteristics should help marketers discover how to most successfully engage these consumers.

In the alcoholic beverage industry, producers must market to a range of practical audiences including importers, distributors, on-premise retailers, off-premise retailers, and retail consumers. Within these audiences, there are various ways to segment consumers so that we can better understand how to engage (“get through to”) them in our various consumer relationship development efforts.

While the focus of this paper is on consumer segmentation within the retail consumer audience, please note that there are also multiple segments within our other audiences. The principles discussed in



this paper can be extrapolated to also help guide marketing efforts to these other industry audiences.

01. The Conventional Consumer Segmentation Wisdom!The ultimate objective of traditional consumer segmentation is to formulate products and interactions that are perceived as meaningful and valuable to separate groups of consumers, thereby increasing sales. To this end, the alcoholic beverages industry has traditionally approached consumer segmentation in three ways:

1. Price Tiers 2. Persona Profiles 3. Category Knowledge

Here’s our proposition: As marketers of specialty-brand wine, spirits and beer, we have not been well served by any of these approaches to consumer segmentation. They simply don’t provide enough insight into consumers’ determinant characteristics to effectively guide our marketing strategies and successfully influence purchasing behavior. There is mounting evidence, which is surfacing in studies conducted by a wide range of entities, that finds serious flaws in all three approaches—especially when it concerns using persona profiles as a basis for consumer segmentation and research.

To understand why, we must examine each of these approaches in greater detail. But before we do that, let’s take a moment to review what it is that we’re really after. Ultimately, our goal as marketers is to get the right information to the right people at the right times so that they take the right actions. We propose that the three 1

traditional approaches to consumer segmentation simply don’t reveal the determinant characteristics that will help us meaningfully distinguish who the “right people” are. As a result, much of what we attempt in the marketplace is based on faulty thinking, which sends us in unproductive directions and which greatly reduces our potentials for maximizing profitability.

Now let’s take a closer look at where conventional wisdom—which is based almost exclusively on studies conducted before the dawn of the wireless era—has led alcoholic beverages marketing.

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01.01 Segmentation by Price Tiers

It’s common for alcoholic beverages marketers to divide consumers into segments based on price tiers. A price tier is the range of prices that a broadly-defined group of consumers is willing to pay for a product. For example, a recent study of consumers using mobile devices to find wine recommendations defined the three most 2

common price tiers in the wine product category as:

• Below $10 – 17% of the wine market • $10 to $20 – 56% of the wine market • $20 and above – 27% of the wine market

These are good statistics, but are these price tiers useful as a basis for consumer segmentation? Some experts have said yes: 3

“Price comes to mind as a particularly useful means to separate wine into different markets, each with its particular model of purchase behavior […] Research by Jarvis et al (2003) shows that consumers seem most loyal to price tiers.”

Lockshin and Hall seem guarded about the efficacy of this method, as can be inferred from their choice of language in describing Jarvis’s perspective—“seem most loyal.” Our belief is that we can not model purchasing behavior based on price-tolerance alone. The idea of categorically defining “the kind of person” who spends $10 or less versus “the kind of person” who spends $10 to $20 should seem arbitrary, because it’s impossible to generalize the determinant characteristics of the people in this category in any meaningful way. And while cost may be a contributing factor, it is not the “dominating” factor in a purchasing decision. As most of us already know from experience, taste is (Koewn and Casey) . 4



Research indicates that consumers often feel considerable anxiety when making a “blind” purchase, and that the desire to minimize the risk of choosing a product unpleasing to the palate outweighs their desire to save a buck. Consumers generally assume that products priced lower than other alternatives carry higher risks of being poor choices, and people are willing to spend more to avoid this risk. 5

Research shows that the average wine, spirits and beer consumer is primarily motivated by the fear of buying an unfamiliar product that ends up tasting bad. When guided solely by pricing information, they tend to err on the side of spending more rather than spending less. If, however, a particular product has been recommended to them by a trusted source (such as a friend, bartender, or other influencer), they will use this as the chief determining factor in making a selection—regardless of price. 6

The problem with using price tiers as a consumer segmentation strategy is that price tolerance—or “willingness-to-pay” —alone 7

doesn’t tell us enough about consumers to adequately guide our strategies for approaching, converting, and retaining them.

01.02 Segmentation by Persona Profiles

Borrowing a 90’s-era advertising theory devised by Angus Lenkinson, another common way marketers determine consumer 8

segments is by developing marketing personas, which are hypothetical consumer profiles illustrating characteristics of various market participants. In the wine industry, for example, there are six basic personas that are often used to define consumers. Because different marketers have developed their own persona names and associated profiles, we’ve applied our own labels to summarize the industry’s conventional wisdom:



• Too-much-to-take Jake • Maggie MBA • Doris Decanter • Frugal Fran • Roberta Parker • Blissful Bill

Trade groups publish extensive surveys that subdivide the market along lines of consumer age, income, level of education, and purchasing habits. When considered in 9

tandem with other sources’ information about demographic patterns (including adoption of technology) the resulting portraits lead to the creation of personas. While this may sound like a creative, informed way of differentiating between segments of consumers, our experience has shown that this approach is a flawed approach to consumer segmentation. In substantiating (for the purposes of this article) the perspective derived from our own experiences, we found that many other marketing experts agree.

In their 2006 article “The Personas’ New Clothes: Methodological and Practical Arguments against a Popular Method,” researchers Chapman and Milham point out that the personas model of consumer segmentation has several inherent flaws that negate its usefulness as a marketing tool. They argue that, in practice, these fictional personas are frequently in conflict with the statistics that informed their development due to subjective interpretation by marketing directors and other higher-ups at an organization: “The dynamic is less about

u n d e r s t a n d i n g c u s t o m e r s a n d m o r e a b o u t a s s e r t i n g power” (Chapman & Milham 2006, 3). Additionally, Chapman and Milham maintain that:

• “Using personas as a model for consumer segmentation leads to one of three outcomes:


Persona Example: “Maggie MBA”

Maggie is 26 and fresh out of business school in New York. She grew up outside the city in a working-class household,

but now lives with one roommate in Manhattan. She likes to read bestsellers, go to movies, and is up on all of the latest trends with the help of Twitter and her hip network of intellectual friends. Her wine knowledge is modest, but she has been enjoying it more and more since she and her college friends found some great restaurants with half-price-bottle nights near campus.

The stores and restaurants in her new neighborhood have some high priced bottles, which are technically out of her budget, but she indulges whenever possible anyway. She knows which of them have the best selection and isn’t afraid to ask her server or the salesperson for pointers. Often unique packaging, including innovative, non-traditional boxes and bottles, sways her selection. She is increasingly active on Cellar Tracker and Snooth where she shares her experiences as she builds her collection. Consumers like Maggie that view wine as a status symbol make up about 20% of all wine purchasers and 24% of sales. They are generally still in the learning stages, and prefer Merlot above all other varietals. About 60% of Maggie’s purchases are made in the grocery store.


1. “The persona creators allow personal bias to influence their consumer portraits,

2. “Those using the model mentally discount one or more personas as unimportant, or

3. “They will develop ‘individually idiosyncratic usage, in which the personas mean little as inferences and alternatives proliferate’ (4).”

• “The most serious limitation of the Personas method is that it is difficult or impossible to verify that personas are accurate” (2).

• “Development teams receive information about users from many sources: self-observation, friends, technology media … and so forth. They form impressions about customers and those naturally show variance from the precise data presented by personas” (3).

Because marketing personas are infinitely extensible, they represent an approach to consumer segmentation that is either over-generalized—resulting in a small number of meaningless portraits, or that is overly-defined—resulting in too large a number of portraits. The personas model suffers from what Chapman and Milham call the “curse of dimensionality”:

“As the specificity of a persona increases (i.e., its number of features, or dimensionality), the proportion of the population that it represents decreases (hence the ‘curse’) […] There is essentially no way to generalize from a well-specified persona to a population of interest, and thus no way to say anything about the [consumers] of interest. There is no way to distinguish which characteristics of a given persona are indicative of [consumers] and which are irrelevant.” 10

Consequently, tailoring a marketing strategy to fit the imagined needs of “Blissful Bill” or “Maggie MBA” does nothing to address the reality of consumer motivation and purchasing behavior.

Research conducted in 2010 by the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy, which studied the factors influencing a whisky brand trial in Sweden, supports this position. According to analysis 11

of the survey results, “there is no evidence that different gender and age groups have distinctive reasons to try a whisky brand. The absence of significant differences within gender groups […] and age groups […] shows that different demographic groups do not have a relationship with the reasons to try a brand” (Kapulski, Bogomolova & Lockshin 2010). While not addressing personas per se, this research deals directly with the demographic details of persona marketing, which distracts marketers from their true objective—to understand how consumers will react to and behave in response to



encountering our products and/or information about our products. The research cited above, coupled with the general backlash against persona marketing, suggest that this approach to consumer segmentation is a resource-wasting exercise in fantasy rather than a helpful tool for marketers, which should be grounded in reality.

01.03 Segmentation by Category Knowledge

The problem with developing consumer segments according to product category knowledge is similar to that of segmenting by price tiers. Simply stated: too many consumers fall into one segment.

“The majority of consumers […] consider themselves uneducated on the subject of wine, with 70.3% indicating a beginner or novice wine education level (more than three times the number of consumers at the ‘enthusiast’ level). 46.6% of mobile users within this group consume wine at least once per week, with 77.8% spending under $20 per bottle on average. These results align with the 2005 survey conducted by Constellation Wines U.S. (Caputo, 2008), where it was found that 74% of consumers have a basic knowledge of wine”. 12

With such a high percentage of people falling into the “beginner” category, it seems unlikely that an effective marketing strategy can be based on a category knowledge approach to segmentation. Statistics in other product categories are not dissimilar.

The hyper-fragmented vodka category is another good example of this. Because of the many competitors in the market, consumers “tend to actively seek out a product that has name recognition or a status attached to it” (Musonera & Hemley 2008). Those with very little knowledge (most consumers) are more likely to be attracted to familiar, mid- to lower-price products that taste good to their novice palates, while those with greater category knowledge may be more



attracted to unfamiliar mid- to higher-price products. These consumers are interested in a product that not only tastes good to their more refined palates, but also reinforces their identities as connoisseurs by expanding their brand repertoires. While true, this tells us nothing about how to actually reach or influence the people in these categories.

Key Insight: For consumers of wine, spirits and beer within a particular product category, category knowledge is likely to correlate with category interest level, which tends to correlate with price tolerance. However, this in no way indicates that those with extensive category knowledge only buy top-price products, or that those with limited category knowledge exclusively purchase mid- or lower-price products. It simply means that those with extensive knowledge have a more active interest in a product category, while those with limited knowledge have a more passive interest.

“Degree of product category interest,” therefore, is perhaps the most determinant consumer characteristic we’ve uncovered so far. Not only does it indicate how receptive consumers will be to our brand messages, it also indicates the price tier within our product lines to which they are most likely to be drawn—if they can be assured that they will like the taste of the product at that particular price point.

02. Illuminated Consumer Segmentation!As summarized in the previous sections, the alcoholic beverages industry has historically segmented consumers by price tiers, by persona, and by product category knowledge. Based on our research and experience, it’s clear that these strategies create insufficient consumer frameworks and lead to ineffective marketing plans.

While consumers may stick to particular price tiers for general consumption, the way they choose brands within these tiers has much less to do with persona than it does with proclivity (personal tendencies). And while category knowledge certainly does factor into the equation, it’s simply a byproduct of consumer interests and motivations. Therefore none of the traditional segmentation methods tell us anything meaningful about the determinant characteristics of consumers.



The only conclusion we’ve drawn from our examination of these methods is that there is a relatively small community of enthusiasts and experts within a given product category who are interested in regularly trying new brands and can appreciate the products that occupy the highest price tier. The majority of consumers (typically over 70%) simply want to find reasonably priced products that they 13

can rely on to leave them satisfied.

In light of this, the question must be asked: Now that we’ve reconsidered the value of the conventional wisdom, is it possible to find a consumer segmentation strategy that can actually inform our efforts to influence the purchasing behavior of consumers?

The answer is yes.

02.01 Two Meaningful, Overlapping Continuums

The remainder of this article outlines a smarter consumer segmentation strategy, which places consumers in table cells along two meaningful continuums. We believe this approach is more illuminated than traditional models because it identifies determinant characteristics that shed light on our efforts to predict consumer behavior. Armed with this insight, we’re much more likely to truly understand how to best engage individuals and win them over.

The horizontal axis of this table groups consumers by their level of interest in your product category.

The vertical axis groups consumers by their level of social engagement and influence.

The cells in this table transcribe into a Venn Diagram, which tells us everything we need to know about who we should be directing our marketing efforts towards and why. While it may not address every detail regarding how to engage consumers within each segment, it does provide the framework within which smart consumer relationship mapping and experience design strategy can commence.



02.02 Grouping Consumers, Horizontal Axis

There are three basic consumer groups that form the horizontal axis of our consumer segments table, according to general levels of “interest” in a particular wine, spirits and beer product category. These groups are:

Active Interest Consumers: Those who purchase within your category, are intrinsically motivated to explore the category and try new brands/products, are knowledgeable about the category, and have the highest price tolerance.

Passive Interest Consumers: Those who purchase within your category, have low motivation to explore the category or try new brands/products, are not very knowledgeable about the category, and have moderate price tolerance.

Non Interest Consumers: Those who avoid products in your category, are not motivated to explore the category, are not knowledgable about the category, and who have moderate to high price tolerance only when buying for the consumption of others.

02.02.01 Active Interest Consumers

The percentage of people in the Active Interest group—the enthusiasts or experts—can be estimated to be less than a third of consumers in a particular wine, spirits and beer category. In a wine-specific study conducted in 2008, a mere 12% of the 10,000 participants identified themselves as “enthusiasts”. Active 14

Interest consumers are those who are “really into” products within your category, and they come in all shapes, sizes,


Activ

e Interest Consumers

Passive Interest Consumers

Non Interest Consumers

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demographics, and backgrounds. Individuals in the Active Interest group generally share these determinant characteristics in relation to your product category. They:

• Have an above-average knowledge of the product category as a byproduct of their interest and motivation.

• Have an above-average price tolerance—at least, when it’s economically feasible.

• Are connected to sources of information that regularly provide product category insight.

• Have a tendency to purchase more frequently and from more varied locations.

• Care deeply about the nature and quality of their consumption experience.

• Consider the product category to be an important component in their overall consumptive lifestyle.

Beyond these six category-related characteristics, however, we cannot assume anything more about consumers who are actively interested in a given product category. We can’t even assume that they enjoy going to product category-related events, traveling to visit producers, or participating in any social “scene” that may exist in relation to the product category. We need to be extremely careful about predicting where and when we might best reach Active Interest consumers until we have explored the vertical axis (see section 02.03), which provides much more guidance.

02.02.02 Passive Interest Consumers

Passive Interest consumers are those who enjoy drinking products within a category, but who are really “not that into it.” This is a proportionally large group of people (around 70%) who know very little about the products they are consuming. Individuals in this category tend to gravitate towards well-established brands that they find both familiar and “reliable.”

The determinant characteristics of the consumers in the Passive Interest group are that they:

• Have an average to below-average category knowledge, which is to say that their technical knowledge ranges from complete ignorance to a novice level.

• Have moderate to lower price tolerance. • Purchase occasionally to regularly, but tend to stick to products

with high brand recognition.


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• Will drink a beverage within a category when it’s available if they’re “in the mood,” but may also choose alcoholic beverages in other product categories if available.

• Are more concerned with the flavor of the product than less discernible associated characteristics.

• Are more prone to buy based on an attractive, well-designed, confidence-eliciting label.

• Tend to look for whatever is most “top-of-the-mind”—especially when they’ve heard good things about a product or brand from someone influential. 15

Here’s a good example. According to a 2011 Mobile Wine Consumer survey of 120,000 respondents, the majority of wine consumers “consider themselves uneducated on the subject of wine, with 70.3% indicating a beginner or novice wine education level (more than three times the number of consumers at the “enthusiast” level).” 16

These people just want to have a good time and enjoy wine. Understandably, they’re not looking for wine that is oppressively expensive. On the other hand, at least 56% of them aren’t looking for “cheap wine” either. Why? Because wine perceived as being too 17

inexpensive is associated with being unlikely to satisfy their desire for good taste. According to Moneyland.Time.com, “in the wine 18

world, $15 is the new $25.” The source goes on to state that the “sweet spot” for wine buyers is now in the $15-$20 range, down from the $25-$40 range pre-recession. Not surprisingly, it cites a study revealing that these consumers could only distinguish between categorically “cheap” and “expensive” wines about 50% of the time.

Because there are so many options in the $10 to $20 range, high cost is not the chief pain that Passive Interest wine consumers experience. Rather, the chief “pain” is the fear of making poor choices when selecting wine for various occasions:



“Many consumers express high levels of intimidation when it comes to making wine purchases (Palmer, 2001). Consumers often doubt their ability to choose the appropriate wine for a particular setting, and fear social rejection if the wrong type of wine is selected.” 19

This intimidation and anxiety is universal when making purchases within any wine, spirits and beer product category. As a result, it is important to raise the confidence of passive consumers and reassure them that they can feel certain about their product selections. When passive consumers find products they connect with, it is significantly more likely that they will stick with the brands that offer these products because they are reliable, safe, and require minimal effort.

02.02.03 Non Interest Consumers

Oddly enough, even those who don’t like beverages within your product category are also a part of your market. While these people generally avoid products from your category, they may, on occasion, have reason to purchase within your category on someone else’s behalf. In situations where they’re called to do so, such as dates or gift-giving, Non Interest consumers

experience considerable anxiety because they fear selecting a product that will create a bad impression in the recipient’s mind. They have a strong desire to appear knowledgeable and gain recognition from their peers. 20

Somewhat surprisingly, this is the largest group of consumers within any given product category. Everyone in the drinking population has their favorite and auxiliary alcoholic beverages, so overall the market is extremely fragmented. As a result, most consumers are Non Interest consumers for one product category or another.

Key Insight: The majority of smaller producers’ production volume is in their premium-type products, appealing more to Passive Interest consumers, rather than in their super-premium-type products, which appeal more to Active Interest consumers. Why, then, do many smaller, specialty wine, spirits and beer producers put the majority of their marketing resources into reaching Active Interest consumers—who typically account for relatively low sales volumes? This rather than reaching passive consumers, who typically account for the critical mass of their sales volumes? Our opinion is that marketers assume that it’s the right thing to do because they lack a better reference point—even if it is the wrong thing to do in terms of gaining market share and fulfilling overarching sales volume goals.


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02.03 Consumer Categories, Vertical Axis

In addition to the horizontal axis of Active, Passive, and Non Interest consumer groups, there is also a vertical axis which must be carefully considered. This vertical axis defines people’s level of social engagement and influence as follows:

Tastemakers (TMs): People who hold tremendous sway over others and whose influence ripples through successive circles of followers.

Consistent Participants (CPs): People who populate the inner circles of Tastemakers in their various lifestyle- or interest-oriented communities. They’re engaged in “the scene” (off- and/or online) and involve themselves regularly in social interactions where they invest and reinforce their social capital. CPs have considerable social influence within their own circles and often act as Tastemakers for their Generally Unengaged friends, co-workers, and acquaintances.

Generally Unengaged (GUs): People who would rather stay home than go out, who tend to live vicariously through their CP friends, and who have very little social capital. Although not exclusively so, many who live in the late majority of the Diffusion of Innovation Curve (Everett Rogers) tend to live in the Generally Unengaged group. They tend to wait and follow the consumption 21

choices of Tastemakers and CPs (“early adopters”, in Rogers’ lexicon) once it’s proven to be successful.

02.03.01 Tastemakers

Tastemakers are those who set the consumption trends that others tend to follow, frequently creating situations and environments wherein they model consumptive behavior to those who subscribe to their influence. More than being “part of the scene,” these people define the nature of the scene in whatever arena of interest they have chosen to cultivate, nurture, and exploit.

The importance of Tastemakers is that they greatly influence the consumption behaviors of their subscribers/followers. Understanding exactly who a given Tastemaker influences is critical


Tastemakers

Consistent Participants

Generally Unengaged Consumers

Tastemakers




in determining why, when, and how to solicit a Tastemaker’s influence.

Generally speaking, most alcoholic beverages marketers put considerable effort into soliciting the influence of well known critics and bloggers (Tastemakers) within both the industry and the Active Interest community. While this kind of endorsement is certainly valuable, we must remember that the greatest volume of products distributed by specialty producers are premium vs. super-premium in nature, which tend to target Passive Interest consumers versus Active Interest consumers. Because critic-tastemakers have the most direct influence over Active Interest consumers, this approach is rarely the most effective use of our resources.

Key Insight: Because Passive Interest consumers are not “tuned in” to information diffused by Active Interest Tastemakers (e.g.. critics or bloggers), and because Passive Interest consumers make up the vast majority of the customer base, it’s reasonable to believe that specialty wine, spirits and beer producers should primarily be soliciting the influence of those who are “general lifestyle” Tastemakers.

Who are these “general lifestyle” Tastemakers? They include those who have gained a following because of their expertise in wider arenas, such as:

• Cooking!• Event hosting!• Party planning!• Travel!• Fashion!• The “hipster scene”!• Music, etc.!The influence of these general lifestyle Tastemakers is especially important when we consider their role in cross-promotional marketing, wherein brands will sponsor niche social events in an effort to create a subconscious affiliation in the minds of consumers between their product and a certain lifestyle. For example, Absolut Vodka has closely aligned itself with the realm of high fashion, whereas Skyy Vodka has ventured into the movie industry. 22

Because small producers must succeed by one distributor and one region at a time, it’s important to think in terms of regional social celebrities. Knowing which Tastemakers are key influencers in a



given geographic region is essential to addressing not only the “who”, but also the “when” component of the marketing goal (as referenced in the synopsis) of getting “the right information to the right people at the right times so they take the right actions.”

02.03.02 Consistent Participants

These people are a relatively small group of consumers consisting of those whose lifestyles are greatly defined by maintaining high levels of social engagement. People in this category are the primary subscribers to the influence of Tastemakers and consider themselves to be “part of the scene.” They’re “joiners”—they actively seek live and/or virtual interaction, define their identities in large part by being the ones within

their respective spheres of influence who are “in the know,” and enjoy being the “go-to people” for what’s hot and what’s not. They are not only “early adopters” of new products, but they also talk about their consumptive experiences with new/hot/trending products to their own followers and friends.

Like Tastemakers on a given region’s macro-level, Consistent Participants are proxy Tastemakers on the micro-level for their own respective circles of friends, acquaintances, and followers. It’s important to understand the psychology of Consistent Participants. Let’s illustrate the relationship between CPs and Tastemakers by using a real-life example. Oprah Winfrey, a long-time Tastemaker and cultural influencer, was named the most powerful celebrity of 2013 by Forbes.com. If Oprah were to throw a party, the majority of 23

those attending would likely be Consistent Participants. Those to whom these CPs would have bragged regarding their invitation to Oprah’s party would be other, less fortunate CPs, as well as those within their circles who are less socially engaged and therefore less influential (see Generally Unengaged below).

If, for example, Oprah were to serve (and rave about) a certain kind of wine at this party, it is likely that many CPs in attendance would soon be serving that product when hosting their own events. Before long CPs would be perpetuating this influence, both to other CP friends as well as with friends who are generally not socially engaged. We call this process “Trickle-Down Influence™.”

In today’s digital age, it’s important to understand that a person might not be very active in terms of attending physical events, but


Tastemakers




might be an extremely active participant in online communities and discussions. It’s essential to identify those Tastemakers influencing Consistent Participants both on- and offline.

02.03.03 Generally Unengaged

Our final vertical axis group consists of people who generally don’t seek out social activities in order to experience their consumption. It’s not that people in this group don’t socialize at all or don’t have social

relationships—they typically do. The distinction is that these people generally are neither interested in being influential outside of their own limited circles, nor in being “part of the scene,” whatever that scene may be. This includes engaging in online social interactions.

Their relative isolation notwithstanding, the Generally Unengaged do socialize regularly with their close friends and family. What’s important to understand is that they are socially disconnected in wider circles and therefore generally not active influencers. They do, however, take note when others “in the know” make product recommendations.

Key Insight: The important takeaway here is that someone who is Generally Unengaged on the vertical axis may also be either an Active or Passive Interest consumer in your product category. When you spend a dollar to reach and convert this consumer, however, the impact of that dollar is essentially limited to that individual’s immediate circle due to their limited scope of social influence. In spite of this, the common “wing-and-a-prayer” approach to most advertising and promotion efforts pleads ignorance of this reality.

So far we’ve examined the consumer groups that form the interest (horizontal) and influence (vertical) axis of our table. In the next section we’ll learn how the consumer segments formed at the intersection of interest and influence guide the prioritization of our marketing budgets, and the general direction in which our outreach efforts should naturally flow to maximize the potential for market adoption of our alcoholic beverage brands and products.




02.04 A Smarter Consumer Segmentation Strategy

In light of everything that has been said, what exactly are the market segments we should be targeting through our marketing efforts? The answer can be found in the following table, which uses our consumer interest continuum as its horizontal axis and the consumer social influence continuum as its vertical axis.

The numbers at each intersection represent a ranking of marketing dollar prioritization for that particular consumer segment, where 1 is highest priority and 9 is lowest. Therefore, our nine consumer segments for the alcoholic beverages industry are as follows:

1. Passive Interest – Tastemakers 2. Passive Interest – Consistent Participants 3. Active Interest – Tastemakers 4. Active Interest – Consistent Participants 5. Passive Interest – Generally Unengaged 6. Active Interest – Generally Unengaged 7. Non Interest – Consistent Participants 8. Non Interest – Generally Unengaged 9. Non Interest – Tastemakers

How was this ranking determined? The prioritization reflected in this table is based on our Trickle-Down Influence theory mentioned earlier, which aims to get “the most 24

bang for the advertising and promotions buck.”

02.04.01 Trickle-Down Influence

It’s important to understand that the monetary value of reaching a consumer in each segment is not equal. For instance, when Tastemakers are influenced with marketing dollars, they will in turn

Active Interest

Passive Interest

Non Interest

Tastemakers 3 1 9


4 2 7

Generally Unengaged

6 5 8


6 5

4

7

8

2

1

9

3

Tasetemakers


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Non Interest – Generally Unengaged


influence their constituents, who will in turn influence their respective social circles—thus extending the impact and value of the marketing dollar exponentially. On the other hand, when a marketing dollar is spent influencing a person who is Generally Unengaged, the impact of that dollar doesn’t (for the most part) 25

extend much further than a consumer’s small, immediate circle.

The dynamic of Trickle-Down Influence illustrates the importance of soliciting the influence of Tastemakers and Consistent Participants in the early stages of marketing initiatives. By doing so, resources can be concentrated and conserved. Clearly, the dollar spent winning over a Tastemaker will have a much greater impact than the dollar spent winning over someone who is Generally Unengaged. The 2008-2009 whisky brand study mentioned earlier 26

in this report highlights this point: Respondents identified how they were first introduced to a given brand of whisky in the following order of influence:

• Word-of-mouth (personal recommendation by friends, family or acquaintances).

• Recommendation by experts (store staff, bartender, writers). • Product sampling, usually combined with recommendation (at

someone’s house, at a bar, or received as a present). • Marketing communications (ads, websites, events). • Spontaneous purchase in a bar, store, etc.

The researchers concluded that “the most common factor influencing first time brand trial is product sampling combined with


Think of Trickle-Down Influence like dominos set up to fall off the edges of a wedding cake. The higher up the hierarchy of social influence that the first domino is tipped, the greater the cascading effect and overall impact of a single advertising/promotions dollar will be.


recommendation”—on average, this accounted for 40% of first time brand trial (Kapulski et.al., 2010). Clearly, social influence ranked above mass media, but this doesn’t indicate how the level of product category interest factors into the priority ranking shown in the table.

We know that social influence only accounts for one factor in determining the value ranking of our consumer segments. Level of interest in the product category accounts for the other factor—but perhaps in a counterintuitive way. The weight placed on the Passive Interest group is greater than that placed on the Active Interest group, but why? Because the revenue opportunity in the Passive Interest consumer group is much greater than in the Active Interest consumer group. This dynamic is illustrated by the relative sizes of these consumer segments represented in the Venn diagram on the following page. The arrows indicate the direction of social 27

influence described above. Note that segments 1 and 3 (Passive and Active Interest Tastemakers), have no arrows pointing to them: This indicates the point of direct solicitation in order to get the stream of social influence flowing. Once flowing, however, the number of arrows pointing to any given segment increases as people within those segments begin to be influenced by multiple other segments. This has a compounding effect in terms of brand recognition, heightening both a consumer’s desire to try a product and their motivation to seek out consumption opportunities.

When considering the limited marketing resources of smaller producers, it’s essential that any marketing initiatives initially target Tastemakers and their Consistent Participant subscribers. This concept is supported by many marketing experts outside the wine, spirits and beer industry, including Seth Godin, who has written extensively on the subject. However, remember that we must pay 28

particular attention to Passive Interest Tastemakers and Consistent Participants: These individuals have the greatest influence over those consumers who are likely to purchase and become loyal to most of your higher-volume, mid-level products.

Key Insight: The reality is that you can garner tremendous respect from Active Interest Tastemakers and their Consistent Participant subscribers, successfully sell them all your high-end inventory, yet still fail to reach critical mass in terms of sales volume. The reason behind this is twofold.



Not only is the Active Interest consumer group much smaller than the Passive Interest consumer group, they are also much less interested in your higher volume products because their interest lies in exploring the high-end of the category and expanding their brand knowledge.

The aforementioned whisky study reinforces this idea: “Every year about 20% of whisky buyers try a new whisky brand for the first time. This implies that 1/5 of the market is often engaging in activities that potentially result in expansion or change to their [existing beverage] repertoires” (Kapulski et. al., 2010). We posit that


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the vast majority of the 20% cited in the study are more open to exploring new brands and products precisely because they are more actively interested in the product category. The good news is that Active Interest consumers are open to trying your brand and recommending it to others if they have a good experience. The bad news is that this same group of consumers is likely to try your competitor’s brand soon after and go brand-hopping from there.

Does this mean that targeting Active Interest Tastemakers isn’t a priority? Certainly not, but it’s important to understand the motivation behind targeting Active vs. Passive Interest Tastemakers.

Key Insight: The purpose of reaching out to Active Interest Tastemakers is to build your brand’s quality reputation and start the trickle-down influence into the lower echelons of the marketplace.

The purpose of reaching out to Passive Interest Tastemakers is to build your brand’s sales volume in order to achieve critical mass in the marketplace.

02.05 Understanding The 9 Consumer Segments

The following is a cursory overview of each consumer segment.

02.05.01. Passive Interest - Tastemakers (PTs)

While the PTs in consumer segment one (CS1) are not considered “major players” in the community that naturally forms around your product category, they do hold sway over situations, people, and environments where your product is purchased and consumed. They have varying degrees of knowledge but are usually considered experts in some area other than your product category. While Passive Tastemakers may pick up some of their knowledge from Active Tastemakers inside their circles, the most likely way to get these consumers to advocate for your products is through direct solicitation of their approval.

Remember that stimulating Passive Tastemakers’ enthusiastic support is the key to beginning the chain of influence that will lead to solid penetration in the Passive Interest consumer market. This is Trickle-Down Influence at work.


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02.05.02. Passive Interest - Consistent Participant (PCPs)

Just like their PT counterparts, the PCPs in consumer segment two (CS2) are not active in the “scene” surrounding your product category. Instead, they are active in many related areas of lifestyle interest, which provide ample opportunities for your products to be consumed. They have varying degrees of product knowledge but, generally speaking, know little about your product category. It’s not that they wouldn’t be interested in learning more—they often are. Rather, they haven’t yet incorporated your product category into their repertoires of active interests (otherwise they’d be Active Interest CPs for your product category).

This group presents a great opportunity to develop loyalty. Once they try something and like it, Passive Interest CPs tend to stick to it because it’s a convenient and safe choice. What’s more, when a brand within a little-understood product category does an effective job of demystifying the product category, Passive Interest CPs are even more likely to remain loyal because they’ll associate that brand with the positive learning experience. It’s essential we approach this consumer segment on their turf, so to speak, and present consumption opportunities which are easily incorporated into their lifestyles. In other words, it would be a much better strategy to have a presence in a sphere where their attention is already invested, rather than trying to change their consumption behavior by asking them to show an active interest in a new topic like wine or scotch.

Key Insight: Remember that while Passive Interest CPs often take their cues from Tastemakers within their social circles, they also can take cues from each other and are, in effect, the de facto tastemakers within their own personal circles of influence. These people are therefore the workhorses when it comes to a grassroots effort to spread the word about a good brand. Securing their enthusiastic support is the key to continuing the chain of trickle-down influence that will lead to solid penetration in the other Passive Interest consumer segments.

02.05.03. Active Interest - Tastemakers (ATs)

The people in consumer segment three (CS3), ATs, are the proverbial big fish in the relatively small community ponds, consisting of enthusiasts within a particular wine, spirits or beer product category. They rule the local (wine, scotch, tequila) scenes and have a huge influence over the situations, environments, and people where


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wine, spirits and beer products are purchased and consumed. While their knowledge can vary greatly, they are generally considered “experts” in a product category by those who are “in the know.” These regional Tastemakers are in many ways the Active Interest CPs of more nationally- and internationally-recognized Tastemakers. They actively follow these major players and are much more likely than their Passive Interest counterparts to learn about products through industry publications. Getting exposure from this segment can be random and unpredictable, but it is mandatory that producers continue to court these consumers (while avoiding over-spending to reach them). Their influence will be felt as it trickles down into the other Active Interest segments and will eventually affect even those in the Passive Interest consumer segments.

02.05.04. Active Interest - Consistent Participants (ACPs)

Just like their AT counterparts, ACPs (CS4) are active in the local scene surrounding your product category. What’s more, they generally share strong social bonds with CPs in other related areas of lifestyle interest. It’s essential we approach these people when entering a new regional market. These are the people who will give us the inside scoop on what’s hot and what’s not in their region. What’s more, these people will usually respond favorably to any respect paid to them (in the form of solicitation of approval) because they likely consider themselves “up and comers” who are actively seeking recognition for what they know.

Key Insight: While ACPs enjoy exploring a wide variety of brands within their product categories of interest, it’s not uncommon for them to select their “old standbys” when they’re wanting something more familiar. When making recommendations, they’re more likely to point to one of these old standbys than they are to some new product they’re sampling. It’s necessary for small, specialty wine, spirits and beer producers to earn a place on their “short lists.”

Not unlike their Passive Interest counterparts, ACPs exert significant influence over each other and spread the word when they find something that they like. Here again, these CPs are the de facto tastemakers within their personal circles of influence. Having said that, these people influence only a fraction of the people that their Passive Interest counterparts do, because of their specialized knowledge. It’s smart to limit the resources expended reaching these


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consumers to be commensurate with the impact that is likely to result from their trickle-down influence.

02.05.05. Passive Interest - Generally Unengaged (PGUs)

Similar to their PCP counterparts, PGU consumers (CS5) drink beverages within a given category in relatively ignorant bliss. Unlike their PCP counterparts, however, they generally have no real interest in involving themselves in social activities—either on- or offline. Individuals in this group have relationships and spend time with friends, but they prefer to socialize in intimate gatherings rather than going out and mingling.

Key Insight: This group presents an even greater opportunity to develop loyalty than their Passive Interest CP counterparts because they have fewer opportunities to be exposed to and sample new products. Once these people fall in love with a brand, it’s often a long-standing love affair. As can be seen in the Venn diagram above, penetration in the Passive Interest Generally Unengaged segment is the ultimate goal of our marketing efforts because they are the primary consumers of the products that producers make and distribute in the greatest volume. Without these consumers you’ll never reach critical sales mass, let alone meet your ultimate volume goals.

Remember that PGU individuals may not be prolific influencers, but this does not mean that they are friendless cave-dwellers. In fact, these people are as likely to influence their NGU friends as any of the segments higher on the Non Interest chain of influence. While each individual may not hold sway over many people, taken together there are more direct connections between this segment and any other segment. We should certainly value the collective influence that this segment represents and continue to urge them to spread the word. Having said that, it’s a long, slow road to gain PGUs.

02.05.06. Active Interest - Generally Unengaged (AGU)

This is perhaps the most interesting consumer segment. People within the AGU consumer segment (CS6) are really “into” your product category, but also not “into” the social scene (be it related to your product category or otherwise). These consumers may subscribe to magazines and blogs related to a product category (and probably do), but are not interested in doing more than being on the receiving end of information. In short, they love the product category, love to consume information about it, and love to try a


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variety of brands, but they want to enjoy their consumption from the privacy of their own homes or at quiet tables in their favorite restaurants. These consumers are certain to be monitoring the flow of communication about products or brands in your category and will be “in the know,” but apart from their circles of close friends, they won’t share much about their consumption experience.

As is the case with their Passive Interest counterparts, consumers in the AGU segment generally exert little social influence, but are as likely as anyone to influence their Non Interest Generally Unengaged friends. Unlike those in the PGU segment, consumers in CS6 do not have a volume of collective impact that has a substantial number of connections between itself and the other Non Interest segments. Therefore it would be a mistake to allocate resources towards targeting this segment until everything else has worked, as their influence is not extensive enough to justify the expense in terms of ROI.

02.05.07. Non Interest - Consistent Participant (NCP)

Apart from one small detail—that they’re not into drinking within your product category—NCP consumers (CS7) are similar to their ACP counterparts. They’re active in the social scene, but they simply prefer to consume products outside of your category. What’s more, they likely share strong social bonds with CPs in other related areas of lifestyle interest. Because these people are unlikely to actively influence the drinking preferences of many consumers within your category, this audience is not a high priority.

While this segment doesn’t enjoy drinking products within your category, they are, as CPs, more likely to attend events where they are socially obligated to buy drinks for others (either while dining, or as host/hostess and housewarming gifts, etc.). It therefore makes some sense to target these consumers with a specific message: “You don’t drink our products and don’t know much about our category, but when you’re obliged to make a purchase, choose our brand. There’s a near certainty that the people you’re buying for are going to like it.”

02.05.08. Non Interest - Generally Unengaged (NGU)

This is perhaps the least interesting consumer segment as far as you, as a producer, are concerned. People who are NGU consumers (CS8) don’t drink beverages within your product category and aren’t active social participants. The only really interesting fact about CS8 is that


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there are more individuals in this segment than in all of the other consumer segments combined. Like their NCP friends, they may occasionally need to purchase products within your category for others, either as a gift or during a meal. They’re just not going to be in a position to do it as often. But taken altogether, if these consumers thought of your products on every occasion that they needed to purchase within your category, their impact would be quite significant. That said, NGU consumers should not be a priority with the scant marketing dollars that you, as a small specialty producer, likely have at your disposal.

02.05.09. Non Interest - Tastemakers (NT)

The consumers in CS9, NTs, have influence over their followers, but are not known by their followers to care about your product category. The only time it would ever make sense to target this consumer segment is if you have reached a stage of market adoption that required converting non-consumers in order to experience continued market penetration and growth. And because you, as a small specialty brand, are not attempting to reach volumes that could justify this move, it’s likely that converting these consumers would be of no interest to any brands other than those that are mass produced. Finally, the only means of getting the endorsement of this consumer segment is to pay for it, something that works well in mass media, but does not work well in the realm of trickle-down influence. The reason is transparency: Those down the chain understand that NTs have no real interest in the product category, are being paid for the endorsement, and therefore lack credibility.

03. Conclusion!Do you produce an amazing line of specialty vodkas? Brands like Absolut own the mindshare and market share of the masses. Not only are they well-established, but they’re also synonymous with their well-funded and innovative ad campaigns. According to Advertising Age, a leading global marketing news source, “Absolut […] has created the seventh most successful marketing campaign in the 20th century” (Musonera & Hemley 2008). You’ll never beat them at their own game because they will always outspend you in a traditional advertising and promotions battle. Does that mean defeat and failure? Certainly not. As long as you aim your resources at smart targets within the consumer base, you can win market share and mindshare in a much smarter way and fulfill your overarching


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business goals. The key is to understand how the battle lines should be re-drawn to favor your efforts over those of the larger, more universally-recognized brands.

9 Takeaways From This Paper!This white paper has taken a deep dive into the realm of consumer segmentation and has challenged the status quo regarding established consumer segmentation strategies. We leave it to you to decide how accurate and useful the perspective and insights we’ve shared here will be in the context of your business. It is our hope that these nine takeaways will benefit you in your efforts:

1. The ultimate goal of consumer segmentation is to create, offer and promote products and interactions that are valuable to separate groups of consumers, thereby increasing brand affinity, loyalty, and sales.

2. Most marketing and promotions efforts are focused on ill-defined consumer segments, which drain resources and provide little feedback about the efficacy of your messages—let alone ROI.

3. Price Tier and Category Knowledge segmentation provide minimal guidance because too many consumers fall into too few buckets.

4. Marketing personas don’t work because they are untestable, overgeneralized, and are too subject to interpretation.

5. It’s critical to build both a brand’s reputation for quality and a brand’s sales volume in order to succeed in the marketplace, and there are four distinct consumer groups that must be engaged first to accomplish both goals: 1) Passive Interest - Tastemakers, 2) Passive Interest - Consistent Participants, 3) Active Interest - Tastemakers, and 4) Active Interest - Consistent Participants.

6. A consumer’s degree of product category interest (Active, Passive, and Non Interest) tells us more about consumer purchasing tendencies than any other determinant characteristic.

7. The revenue opportunity in the Passive Interest consumer group is much greater than in the Active Interest consumer group.

8. A person’s level of consumer social engagement and influence is a major factor in determining their marketing dollar prioritization.

9. Following the flow of Trickle-Down Influence can exponentially extend the impact that our marketing dollars have on consumers.



About Lenker Consulting!Lenker Consulting is committed to you achieving your overarching business goals. To that end, we formulate marketing plans and facilitate their implementation such that your company, brands and products attract more attention, convert more prospects, maximize revenues, minimize expenses, and retain more customers.

The paper you’ve just read, concerning our new model of consumer segmentation, showcases just one of the tools we use to help you achieve these goals. While it describes the best framework for understanding consumer behavior based on interest and influence, the many practical aspects of getting people to try, then fall in love with, your brand and products is beyond the scope of this paper.

To put the ideas presented here into action, please contact us and we promise to do the following three things for you:

1. Give you the clearest picture you’ve ever had of the market opportunity before you.

2. Help you properly determine and achieve the maximum average lifetime value for your consumer relationships.

3. Conceive of and help create best-in-class consumer experiences at every point of consumer engagement and interaction.

Your situation, needs, and goals are unique. Lenker Consulting understands that and takes the time to engage your business both individually and holistically in order to bring your company to its highest level of achievement and success.

Learn more at www.lenker.com/WineSpiritsBeer

Thanks for investing your time in reviewing the ideas presented in this paper. I hope that it has stimulated thinking that will benefit you and your company as you strive for excellence and success in your future.

Sincerely,

!John Lenker, Lenker Consulting - Founder & CEO

!! of !30 32Lenker ConsultingIlluminated Bottles


Endnotes!


Lenker, John C. Train of Thoughts: Designing the Effective Web Experience. 1

Indianapolis, IN: New Riders, 2002. Print. !

Back in 2002, John was the first to introduce the notion that the job of those involved in persuasive communications is to get the right information to the right people at the right times so that they take the right actions.

The Mobile Wine Consumer: Survey Results, Analytics & Trends. Rep. Hello 2

Vino. Print.

Lockshin, Larry, and John Hall. "Consumer Purchasing Behaviour for Wine: 3

What We Know and Where We Are Going." Colloquium in Wine Marketing 2003. Academy of Wine Business Research. Web.

Ibid.4

� According to: Barth, Sean and John Salazar (2010) "Wine Tourism and Consumer 5Behaviors Related to Wine Purchases," Journal of Tourism Insights: Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Article 2; as well as Lockshin, Larry, and John Hall. "Consumer Purchasing Behaviour for Wine: What We Know and Where We Are Going." Colloquium in Wine Marketing 2003. Academy of Wine Business Research. Web.

Ibid.6

Anderson, Eugene W. "Customer Satisfaction and Price Tolerance." Marketing 7

Letters 7.3 (1996): 265-74. Kluwer Academic Publishers. Web. 2 Jan. 2014.

Jenkinson, A. “Beyond segmentation.” Journal of Targeting, Measurement and 8

Analysis for Marketing 3.1 (1994): 60-72. Palgrave Macmillan. Web. 2. Jan. 2014.

In the "Maggie MBA" example, statistics about "her" purchasing habits are drawn 9

from: Fernandez, José, Ed Lemay, Leslie Joseph, and Jennifer Marples. Project Genome Home and Habits Survey 2008. Constellation Brands. Web. 07 July 2011.

The word “consumer” here has replaced “user”. While Chapman and Milham are 10

writing specifically about persona models in relation to software design and their intended users, we feel that the meaning of their argument translates neatly into the realm of marketing and advertising. Full citation for their article: Chapman, C.N. & Milham, R. The personas' new clothes. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) 2006, San Francisco, CA. October 2006.

Kapulski, Natasha, Svetlana Bogomolova, and Larry Lockshin. "Incidence and 11

Factors Influencing Brand Trial in the Whisky Market." ANZMAC 2010. Proc. of ANZMAC 2010 - Doing More with Less, Christchurch, NZ. University of Canterbury, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.


Vino. Print.

Ibid.13

Fernandez, José, Ed Lemay, Leslie Joseph, and Jennifer Marples. Project Genome 14

Home and Habits Survey 2008. Constellation Brands. Web. 07 July 2011.

Note that sometimes “influential” doesn’t mean that the influencer has the 15

credibility of being knowledgeable, but simply that the person enthusiastically endorsed the product or brand based on their own recent personal experience.


Vino. Print.

Ibid.17

Author: Brad Tuttle18

Olsen, Janeen E., Karen J. Thompson, and T. K. Clarke. "Consumer Self-19

Confidence in Wine Purchases." International Journal of Wine Marketing (2007): 40-49. Print.

According to: Ambaye, Michele. Understanding Consumer Decision Processes 20

for Wine Purchases via the Internet, Stage 1: Literature Review. Working paper. Pau Cedex: Pau Business School, 2011. Print; as well as Olsen, Janeen E., Karen J. Thompson, and T. K. Clarke. "Consumer Self-Confidence in Wine Purchases." International Journal of Wine Marketing (2007): 40-49. Print.

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th edition). New York, NY: Free 21

Press

Musonera, E., Hemley, D. “Evaluation of Global Competitive Marketing 22

Strategies in Distilled Spirit Industry-Vodka,” AIB-U.S. Midwest Annual Conference, in conjunction with the 44th Annual Meeting of the MBAA International, April 2-4, 2008.

"The World's Most Powerful Celebrities." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 23

Values calculated June of 2013.

There are elements of this theory used in viral marketing, and is a more practical 24

version of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point.

Even the Generally Unengaged will participate in family gatherings, holidays and 25

other common social events within the contexts of which others will be witness to and potentially influenced by their consumptive behavior.

Kapulski, Natasha, Svetlana Bogomolova, and Larry Lockshin. "Incidence and 26

Factors Influencing Brand Trial in the Whisky Market." ANZMAC 2010. Proc. of ANZMAC 2010 - Doing More with Less, Christchurch, NZ. University of Canterbury, n.d. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.

While the sizes of these circles are not to scale, and are not founded on any 27

specific data, they do provide a good visual guideline that we believe is useful in building a model for consumer segmentation.

See Seth Godin’s book, The Purple Cow.28


Illuminated Bottles Lenker Consulting ! of !32 32

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