Illuminating Cultural Relevance in Champagne

Challenge

Helping a champagne vanguard explore drinker mindsets to inform a their 2025+ strategic platform development and drive growth through cultural relevance and desirability.

With champagne sales on the decline, a champagne vanguard sought our expertise to understand the downturn. Our client aimed to (1) understand the realities of people’s experiences drinking high-end alcohol beverages, and (2) understand how their brand and its associations fit in drinkers’ lives; so that they can better resonate with people. The challenge? Doing so while honoring their champagne roots and maintaining their core brand identity.

Approach

Our approach was three-fold. We leveraged our client’s past research to grasp the business context, champagne category, and their key drinker cohorts. We then conducted 3-day digital diaries with target segments to understand their: relationship with luxury and celebration, experience with high-end alcohol beverages, and the occasions and motivations of those high-end alcohol moments. We then followed up with our star participants via IDI and Friendship Pairs to delve deeper into their experiences with champagne and the brand. We closed with an IRL activation session with key stakeholders to build on our strategic recommendations as a global team.

Impact

Our client not only gained a richer understanding of what’s relevant to drinker’s experiences, but they also uncovered an immediately actionable strategic roadmap for activation, to accelerate cultural saliency and desirability for 2025 and onward.