For foodservice distributors, understanding the drink menu of their target customers is paramount—and necessary for success in today’s competitive market. But a critical concern is that of accessing accurate, up-to-date market research to supplement their sales approach.
This is where alcohol market research comes in. Through comprehensive analysis of the customer beverage habits, companies can propel their sales forward and capture their target market. But there are a few things that companies must consider when commissioning this type of research. Here, we outline the top 10.
1. Know your target market: Before any alcohol market research can be conducted it’s essential that companies accurately define their target market. Are they looking to target college students? Office workers? Knowing the exact demographics will help carry out more effective alcohol market research.
2. Gather comprehensive data: With the target market established, companies must decide which type of data they wish to analyse. Often, alcohol market research will focus on items such as beverage preferences, trends, pricing structure, and consumer behaviour. But to get the full picture, companies should also delve into complimentary topics such as restaurant tech, in-depth menu data, and sales prospects.
3. Review current state of the market: Companies should regularly review the status of the drink market and take the necessary steps to stay ahead of their competitors. This includes performing ongoing market research, tracking the latest beverage trends, and keeping a log of successes and failures.
4. Educate the sales team: Once the research is completed, companies must educate their sales team with the strength of the data so that they can effectively market their products. This includes conducting sales pitches to demonstrate the power of the available insights and providing analytics-driven solutions for customer problems.
5. Consider customer data enrichment: As consumer tastes continually evolve, acquiring and integrating customer data can be a powerful way to better target your market, as well as enhance internal systems. This includes collecting demographic insights, analysing reviews and feedback from satisfied consumers, and aggregating customer data.
6. Know competitor information: Keeping an eye on the competition is an important part of any alcohol market research. This may include tracking alcohol consumption trends among rivals, parsing pricing strategies, and monitoring other key items such as product availability and response rates.
7. Focus on customer engagement: Companies should also look at ways to increase customer engagement to identify the best product opportunities. This can include traditional measures such as customer feedback surveys, loyalty programs, digital marketing initiatives, and social media campaigns.
8. Utilise technology: Technology can be a great aid in helping companies to conduct alcohol market research. Through digital tools businesses can track performance and control quality, as well as explore wider opportunities to expand operations, such as streamlining production innovation.
9. Analyse performance metrics: To help increase ROI, companies must be able to accurately assess the performance of their research strategies. This should include using specific KPI’s, such as the response and conversion rates.
10. Develop strategic plans: Companies must also market their research strategies in a way that’s tailored to the consumer. Strategic plans can help align the overall direction of the business, while increasing the effectiveness of research campaigns.
When companies consider these 10 points, they’ll be closer to making successful decisions when conducting alcohol market research. From defining their target market to putting strategic plans in place, companies can remain competitive while building brand loyalty with their customers.
