Modernizing a Prestige Champagne Brand

Overview

One of the client’s prestige champagne brands is widely admired. The brand team, however, wanted it to be widely desired, and wanted to know what it would take to make a heritage brand feel modern. I ran a week-long study with affluent consumers who love premium spirits, then brought an anthropological point of view into a strategic workshop with the brand team. That work shaped the brand’s new strategy.

The question

How does a heritage brand become modern? The usual routes to “modern” hadn’t gotten the team where they wanted to go. How does one build desire amongst affluent consumers who appreciate premium spirits?

The approach

I started by reframing the question. Modern isn’t a color palette, a soundtrack or a celebrity partner, though those can be expressions of it. Modern is a way of inhabiting life today, shaped by the conditions we live in. So instead of asking how a brand can look modern, I asked what it takes to belong in modern life.

Then I went to my affluent consumer panel. The week-long study, with affluent consumers who appreciate premium spirits, explored:

• What makes something or someone iconic
• When and how people celebrate, including the unexpected moments they mark
• An understanding of the brand’s character
• Rites of passage, and how thinking about them anthropologically can open up the moments a brand can belong to

Outcome

I turned the study into early insights and provocations, and they became a core part of the strategic workshop with the brand team. The anthropological thinking gave the discussion a fresh lens on modernity, on celebration and on what makes a brand an icon, and gave the team a range of strategic directions to react to and sharpen. Out of the workshop came a new strategy for the brand, shaped by my research and anthropological thinking.