The Wine Society
Articulating the customer journey for new and existing Wine Society members.
- BUSINESS GOAL -
The Wine Society is the world’s oldest wine club; founded in 1874, it was created and still operates as a co-operative, with each member being the owner of one share. In order to join, members pay a one-off fee of £40 for life-time access to a huge range of wines, events and free delivery.
After an incredible 150 years in business, TWS were aiming to future proof their business for the next 150. Amid a complex market picture, characterised by a general decrease in alcohol consumption, premiumisation of and therefore competition from other alcohol categories in spirits and beer, as well as the rise of low alcohol and adult soft drinks, TWS were looking for a way to increase appeal and market share amongst a younger cohort. They also had the goal of boosting conversion rates and spend through their purchasing funnel, in particular shifting regular buyers towards fine wines.
One Picture were brought on board to deliver a customer journey project, with the aim of drawing together an understanding of wine buyers’ behaviours, needs and emotions through the various stages of the wine purchase journey, with clear direction on how to tap into the moments that matter and confidently plan spend across marketing channels.
- THE SOLUTION -
We began by defining our sample by their confidence and knowledge levels when it came to wine, to gain a better understanding of how the wine buying journey differed between wine ‘enthusiasts’ and ‘novices'.
Using these segments, we then ran over 20 hours of interviews with consumers of varying ages, targeting both TWS members and non-members. These insights went some way to building an in-depth understanding of how wine drinkers were choosing where to buy, making decisions around spend, quality and varietal, and what factors and points in the buying journey had the greatest influence over those decisions.
Our qualitative findings were supplemented with a 15-minute survey of 800 consumers. This robust data set allowed us to size and prioritise different cohorts, attitudes and opportunities, including purchasing behaviours and market share, brand perceptions and awareness of TWS, as well as ranking prompts to purchase and informational needs.
- THE OUTCOME -
“This piece of work has the potential to genuinely transform our business. Thank you all so much for all your hard work on this - it's such a great piece of work! we're very excited by what this could deliver for us.”
ADAM MILLS, HEAD OF INSIGHT
Armed with these insights, we designed a visual customer journey map, divided between new and existing members of TWS. Each journey was further split into stages of the buying process – from awareness to post-consumption – illustrating opportunities, touchpoints, timespan and emotional fluctuations at each stage.
Throughout the journey, we highlighted core differences between ‘enthusiasts’ and ‘novices’ to ensure comms and messaging were tailored to the distinct needs of each group. We also provided stage-specific, tactical recommendations for the digital and marketing teams, demonstrating when and how best to appeal to their members to drive conversion.