Premium Wine Brand Research

Overview

A premium Napa Valley wine brand wanted to understand how luxury works in wine, how its brand is perceived, and who its audience really is. I co-led the qualitative research that gave Team One and the client a foundation for brand positioning, using anthropology to look at luxury wine in a new way.

The question

What makes a wine feel luxurious? How do affluent wine drinkers think about luxury, what role does wine play in their lives, and where does a premium brand sit in their minds?

The approach

I ran a three-part online study with luxury wine drinkers, combining at-home tasks, mobile ethnography of shopping for luxury wine in the moment, and a series of discussion groups on luxury and the brand.

Outcome

The final report gave the team a clear, human view of luxury in wine and of the brand’s place in it, with implications for brand positioning and audience development. It became the qualitative foundation for the next steps: positioning, target audience research and communications planning.

In the report, I:

• Built a framework for how luxury works in wine, covering everything from placement and packaging to ritual, myth and rarity.
• Uncovered the human tensions luxury wine resolves, from the pressure of choosing well to the question of what a bottle says about you.
• Created 6 segments of luxury wine drinkers, defining their values, their lives and how they define luxury.
• Analyzed the brand’s symbols and mythology to understand what makes it feel sacred and what holds it back.
• Advised on opportunity segments for the brand and supported the strategy around its target audience.