Last quarter I received an email about a startup garage duo, our very own Sarah and Kendra, conducting product testing/customer feedback on canned wine. I had never heard of canned wine, but my lineage of canned alcohol consumption led me to sign up for the product feedback session. Here are a couple of the major takeaways I had from that event.
1. There is way more canned wine on the market than I thought. The night of the tasting Sarah and Kendra had at least 12 different canned types. Many of the wines were what I would call "beach wines," like sparkling wines or roses, the type of wine you might want on the beach. Others were of the much more traditional varieties cabs, chardonnays, etc. The wines were from more than a handful of companies that were experimenting with different sized cans and packaging types.
2. The variety of canned wine packaging made it clear that different canned wine producers are going after different parts of the market. Going into the night, I assumed that canned wine was going to targeted towards young people who are doing some kind of activity that prevents them from having a class bottle of wine (hiking, swimming, pic-nicing, etc.). However, there were several canned wines whose intricate labels/packaging led me to believe that they are going after a more affluent customer, who is drinking the canned wine instead of a bottled wine for non-logistical reasons.
3. Canned wine isn't so bad. Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who knows they don't have a good palate, but I actually liked many of the wines. The cans are much easier to hold, open, transport and the wine tastes pretty good. I certainly felt less classy drinking wine from a can than from a bottle, but that's OK with me..... almost anything is a step up in class from Coors Light. :)
I think there is a great need to experiment with packaging in the wine industry! We have had the same bottle and cork for over 3000 years! It is inefficient, inconvenient and a pain for consumers.
ReplyDeleteYou can use cans in busy bars, where spilled wine is just not a great look too.
There was a big push for boxed wine a few years ago, but sadly there seems to be an assumption that if the wine is not in a traditional bottle, then it is targeted to the entry level/ lower quality spectrum.
Cork taint will ruin about 3% of wine in natural cork annually- that is like buying an iPhone, with a 3% chance that it will not work and you cannot get it replaced!
The saddest marketing corner that the wine industry has backed itself into is that it needs to be "classy". Wine can be classy, but wine can be fun, relaxing and also just a beverage.
Let's see how wrong I am in my endeavours to make wine less pretentious.
I've been surprised at how canned wines have been slow to overtake shelves! It seems like a great way to differentiate your product on the shelf: who doesn't recognize the Underwood cans?
ReplyDeleteI have to imagine there are also some efficiencies to be gained in producing sparkling wines in canned format, to preserve the carbonation like in sodas. Plus, it's a really fun way to make wine consumption more casual. Anyone else remember the craze around the $1 canned Trader Joe's wine last year?
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jesseszewczyk/trader-joes-dollar-wine-review