Did I read that right? Is that a serious question?
You did and it is. Speaking at the recent Arena Savoy Lecture, Alex Demetriou, chief executive of Foodbuy, said people will happily pay £2.75 for a fifth of a pineapple that has been chopped up, rather than £1.25 for a full one. Because it is convenient and easy to eat. It is not just simply a chopped up pineapple. It is giving busy people an easy snack solution even though it makes no financial sense to buy it. As Demetriou added: “It’s our job to make the world convenient for our customers and make it easy for us to work.”
Well good luck to them, but what has that got to do with us over in the world of wine and spirits?
Everything. We need to be creating similar options for our customers that give them buying opportunities they may not necessarily know they needed until they see it. A reason to pay more if necessary because it helps make their lives easier, rather than just continue to give them what is easier for us to deliver. It is a lot more work and cost for a pineapple grower to peel, chop and package up a pineapple than simply sending it out as one. But by realising people are put off buying a pineapple in the first place as it is so much hard work to peel, slice and dice for yourself they have created a whole new buying and commercial opportunity.
You and your pineapples. Do you have any good examples in wine?
Kylie and the canny folk at Benchmark Drinks have just introduced the Kylie Mini 20cl version of her Prosecco DOC, ideal for when you want to celebrate, or enjoy a Prosecco at home but don’t want to crack open a full bottle. It works commercially too with each Kylie Mini at full price retailing for £6.20 each versus £12 for a 75cl bottle. A mini bottle idea but with maximum margins.
There are also not many brands that know their customers as well as Mirabeau, thanks to its omnipresence at food and drinks fairs and its thriving Instagram feed. It has seen and recognised how many people add ice, sparkling water and fruit to give their favourite rosé a boost, so has linked up with mixer maestros, Fever-Tree, to create the Mirabeau Rosé Spritz which is two thirds Mirabeau IGP Rosé with one third Fever-Tree raspberry and orange blossom soda. It is putting itself in its customers’ shoes and stretching an already booming category in another direction.
But we don’t want to lose the allure of a simple bottle of wine?
We don’t and we don’t need to. We just have to realise there are now so many options for people to drink and so many reasons why even the most loyal wine drinker might not want to open a bottle of wine every night.
Matthew Deller MW, chief executive of Wirra Wirra in Australia sums it up very nicely when he says: “We’re entering an era where alcohol must earn its place again, not through ubiquity, but through meaning. And that’s not a threat. That’s an opportunity. To create drinks, spaces, stories, and rituals that connect more deeply than ever before. The volume may be down. The stakes may be higher. But the glass? Still half full.”
We can’t take wine drinkers for granted any more. We need to give them more reasons to want to drink wine over anything else.
How do we do that?
It’s not just about the wine and what is in the bottle, can or whatever. It is the places people go to drink and the reasons why they go there. The tried and tested pub, bar or restaurant might not be everyone’s cup of tea any more. People are looking for reasons to leave the house, never mind what drink they have when they do so. We have just seen London host the first international Experience Week to mark an industry now said to be worth £134 billion. Bars aren’t places just to have a drink any more, you can go there to play mini-golf, go bowling, play bingo. Look at what the always innovative Scott Collins is up to with his new US-style Bloodsports bar, which is as much about his love for Americana, horror films, dive bars and classic US fast food as it is the chance to watch 14 hours of sport a day on its 30 plus TVs with all-day karaoke, pool, pinball and arcade machines. It’s what he calls “a one stop fun shop”. Oh, and you can drink there too.
Anything else?
How about wine’s answer to those freshly packaged pineapple chunks and the new Tiny Wine concept that does something very similar. It is offering fine wine producers and regions the chance to take their coveted bottles of wine and then divide them up into multiple 100ml test tubes of wine, thanks to Coravin, that can then be sold at a premium giving people the chance to access, and taste, a range of classic Bordeaux, or Super Tuscan wines they would normally not be able to get their hands on. It’s offering a solution to a problem we did not know we had or was possible to fix.
