Wine needs a message for the iGeneration
The wine industry is always worried about something, especially here in California. (Maybe it’s because we live in earthquake country!)
The theme is almost always some version of “The sky is falling.” Back in the 1990s it was phylloxera: it was going to wipe out everything. Didn’t happen; the wine industry not only survived the bug, it emerged better than ever. Growers tore out sick vines and replanted, using better rootstocks and clones, often reconfiguring their vineyard orientations, and more precisely matching variety with terroir. It was another happy instance of “Every cloud has a silver lining.”
The latest gloom and doom? The Wine Market Council’s fear that craft beer and spirits will turn younger consumers away from wine. But it, too, has a potential silver lining.
One can’t dispute the facts the WMC cites–facts underscored by anecdotes. My younger friends, those in the so-called iGeneration (born after 1995, and 61 million strong), really love their craft beers and whatever cocktail they’re into. But when it comes to wine, meh. It’s all pretty much the same to them. Try as they might, they can’t really understand why one wine costs ten times the price of another, when they seem to taste pretty much the same. Their social lives are centered around noisy bars, house parties and clubs, not the sedate dinner table. One of wine’s central messages—often promoted by its loyalists—is lost on them: that wine is the intellectual alcoholic beverage. Intellect, schmintellect: it’s not that they’re not thoughtful, but they want to laugh and dance—carpe diem!–and beer and spirits are way better at promoting a party than wine.
Among my younger friends also is a surprisingly high number of people who don’t drink. Whether it’s because they’ve had drinking problems in the past, or for health or religious reasons, I don’t know and don’t ask, because it’s none of my business. But even the WMC survey found that more than one-third–36 percent–of the population abstains from alcohol.
These are all formidable findings, but I remain optimistic about wine’s future in the U.S. For one thing, people’s drinking habits change over time. Wine has never been the preferred booze among young people: it’s always been beer and spirits. When the iGeneration gets older, there’s no reason not to believe they’ll discover wine, the same as their forebears did. Even some proportion of non-drinkers will realize that a glass or two of something won’t hurt and might even make them feel better.
The WMC survey also points the way towards opportunities for the wine industry to better market itself. There’s nothing wrong with the meme that wine is family, life and celebration, but these terms have to evolve, in order to appeal to younger consumers. Consider the contemporary meaning of “family”: The Norman Rockwell scenario of mom, dad and two kids sitting around the nightly dinner table no longer holds true for tens of millions of adult Americans. Families now are just as likely to be single parents, or same-sex parents, or interracial parents, or childless couples, or people living alone with a cat or dog. They’re just as likely to be Vietnamese, Mexican or Somali as they are to be of European descent (at least, here in multi-ethnic Oakland, which is the face of what America is going to look like).
So wine has to figure out a better way to present itself as the alcoholic beverage for everyone. Beer’s managed to do that for decades. So have brandy and cognac, and even sparkling wine to some extent, which is why its sales are surging. The spirits industry, led in my opinion by vodka, has done an amazing job over the last twenty years promoting itself as exciting and cool, especially with this current surge of celebrity mixologists.
But wine? It persists with the same tired message that you have to be old, white and rich to drink it. It’s time for wine to glam up. The good news is that a younger generation of wine marketers has arisen. Born with an easy comfort around computers and social media, literate in the changing demographics of America, and armed with an urban sensibility, they understand the challenge of appealing to the new consumer.
Steve, I agree with many of your points about the ridiculousness of all the sky is falling nonsense. Also, the numbers rattled off in that report summary are interesting (if maybe a little confusing). I was surprised that Millennials supposedly rely on reviews more than any other generation. I say supposedly because without reading the actual report and survey, the word “reviews” might be misleading as from where such info is coming. I am also surprised you didn’t mention that little tidbit…
Oh, and all your younger friends in the iGeneration are not actually loving “their craft beers and whatever cocktail they’re into” (just yet) because they’re underage…
The bigger picture message I took away from that article is that the alcohol beverage pie is getting bigger, and more people are eating pie and like different flavors of pie… mmmmmmm pie.
Back when I actually believed that volunteering in local political activities might be worthwhile, I attended a meeting sponsored by our local guy (who, by the way, was also an investor in a local wine and food shop that was upping the ante in terms of specialty foods and thus we became friends that way) and learned that “the sky is falling” is the order of the day for these folks.
That is how they rally the troops. I am still interested in politics, but I leave the day-to-day activities to the true believers because they are the ones who respond to dog-whistle politics.
So, when I read AGAIN that we are losing the next generation of wine drinkers, I tend to yawn and move on. I cannot see the craft beer emergence as anything but good for the wine business in the long run. Anything that encourages understanding of small differences and specialty niches in food and alcohol is good for wine in the long run because there is no beverage that has more niches, nooks, crannies, differentiation than wine.
Every consumer who revels in differentiation in beer is someone who might someday revel in differentiation in wine. Nothing wrong with commoditization in wine or beer or spirits, but the more informed our palates become in one area of consumption, the more likely it is that the owners of those palates will have a tendency to look for and try to understand differentiation in other categories.
Kyle is right. The sky in not falling. It is getting bigger and more interesting.
“One of wine’s central messages — often promoted by its loyalists — is lost on them: that wine is the intellectual alcoholic beverage.”
Let’s take a different slant on that.
Rather than being an “intellectual” beverage, wine is a food-pairing beverage.
Wine — especially Cabernet and Merlot — is historically positioned to accompany a steak.
Begging the question: how frequently do Millennials cook and eat Western European-style steak or other cuts of beef?
In our multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic urban society, they are more likely to be consuming “ethnic” cuisines. (Some vegan.)
Do they pair with Chardonnay and Cabernet and Merlot, the signature wines of Napa and Sonoma?
You don’t need accompanying (substantive) food to quaff a can or bottle of craft beer. Chips and dips suffice.
Almost every culture makes beer. So one can find an “ethnic” beer to pair with any “ethnic” cuisine.
But not every culture makes wine. Or wine grape varieties championed by California wineries, and merchandised by mainstream retail “touchpoints” — namely, “grab-and-go” grocery stores and convenience stores.
Jancis Robinson, M.W.’s thoughts on contemporary food and wine pairing:
Excerpt from Jancis Robinson, Master of Wine website
(posted December 31, 2001):
“Matching Food and Wine: The Paradox”
Link: http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/jr406.html
Am I the only person in the world with a cellarful of red wine and a preference for white wine food?
Here’s the paradox. To judge from what’s in our glasses, the world’s wine drinkers increasingly choose red wine in preference to white. But to judge from our plates, we’re less and less interested in the sort of food that red wine has traditionally been drunk with.
. . . modern eating patterns show a distinct move away from chewy dark meats towards fish, pasta, vegetable dishes and, of course, the ubiquitous chicken. Yet according to traditional food and wine matching advice, all of these are better washed down with white rather than red wine.
Maybe the time has come to tear up traditional food and wine advice. . . .
AND SEE THIS RELATED ARTICLE . . .
From Jancis Robinson, Master of Wine website
(posted December 31, 2001):
“How Our Taste in Wine Styles Has Evolved”
Link: http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/jr415/layout/print.html
“Wine — especially Cabernet and Merlot — is historically positioned to accompany a steak.”
Erratum:
Wines such as Cabernet and Merlot are historically positioned to accompany a steak.
Remember back in about ’97, when Darryl Roberts and Rosina Wilson founded Wine X Magazine, aimed @Generation X? The wine industry was pulling its hair out believing it was going to lose an entire generation then, to beer and cocktails, and they almost did. But along came Wine X, which wrote reviews based mostly on the looks and bodies of hot actors and actresses, and voila! The Xers began drinking wine, albeit high alcohol, fruit-bomb wine because they were being weaned off of sweet ice tea and sodas.
The industry pandered to those tastes, which are still with us today. Now we have Generation i. What to do, what to do? Here’s an idea (that’ll cost you, wine industry; just make out the check to me): How ’bout putting chips (no, not oak chips) onto every glass and in every bottle, and when an i(er) orders that wine, one will receive a text or better yet, a sext; and we all get off.
A minor nit to pick but your comment;
“…so-called iGeneration (born after 1995, and 61 million strong) really love their craft beers and whatever cocktail they’re into”..
If they were born after 1995 they are not yet of legal age to drink.
That doesn’t mean they haven’t been drinking but the age group you describe has hardly graduated past Mickey Big Mouths and Boone’s Farm (or the modern equivalent)
My 24yr old daughter couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about until I dropped a 2005 Bordeaux on her. Enlightenment comes easier if someone else is buying
Echo the comments of the others re: the drinking age. Also, would echo and add to Mr. Stephenson’s excellent observation that enlightenment comes easier if someone else is buying – this is not just for the “iGeneration” but for most generations.
Face it, most folks do not sit down to a 2005 Bordeaux (or a 2005 ToKalon, or a 1982/1961/1985/1986 Bordeaux or “fill in the blank” with an expensive wine) every night, nor do many people who buy and drink wine ever get out of the $5-$20 Trader Joe’s/Safeway/BevMo/Total Wine price range… And this is the fact that the wine industry, in general, needs to get. Most wine over the $25 price point is sold to a high end clientele that falls in age between about 40 and 70 (and I’m generalizing as some fall out of that range) and who have a fairly large disposable income.
While generalizing, there is nothing that most Napa Cabernet makers (or most Sonoma Zinfandel makers, and/or Sonoma/Napa Pinot makers and Sonoma/Napa/Mendocino/Lodi/Santa Barbara/Paso winemakers in general) can do to cater to anyone except the high end clients who buy their wine. Even if they have a Tasting Room, experience dictates that folks visit, buy once, have the best intentions, but never purchase again – they may buy a case and that’s it – they are caught up in the moment of buying that great wine. When they get home, it hits them they paid at least twice what they paid for the semi-nice bottle from “fill in the blank” with name of store… This is why wineries hawk wine clubs – but even then, most folks who sign up, cancel within one year – why, price is too high…
When the iGeneration is at my point in life (bordering on the “old, bald, getting fat generation” and headed toward the “doddering old fool generation”), they will want to purchase the nice wine they like.
So, yes, the sky is falling and it is a tempest in a teapot. Let’s focus on how it will be so hot in California Wine Country in “fill in the blank” with a number of years from “one month to 50 years” that grapes will not grow and “Oregon will be the New California Wine Country!”
Richard,
“. . . most folks who sign up [for wine clubs], cancel within one year – why, price is too high…”
The intrinsic “added value” of the three-tier distribution system: economies of scale on warehousing and transportation.
Not “door [winery] to door [your home]” delivery, but next-best “door [winery] to store” delivery.
It costs around $1-plus a pound to ship a three pound weight bottle of wine via ground transportation. So that mixed case coming from a winery is around 36 bucks. Similarly coming from a wine store located out-of-town or out-of-state.
It is the incremental transportation charges that silently irk wine enthusiasts/wine collectors.
Many wine collectors see visiting wire stores as their weekend hobby. So they overlook the “opportunity cost” of spending a few leisure time hours driving round trip to an out-of-town wine store to do a little shopping and carry home their shipment.
~~ Bob
rGeneration maybe the next name for iGeneration: When a person gets too old or sick to drive him/herself, he/she could command a robot to follow the order and perform the task. Regardless of era or generation, the common traits of humans at each age group remain eternally scrutable. What age were the majority of us at when we reached both financial means and something else, which may be unerring for you, like layers of sophistication – especially with regard to the comprehension of flavors at the cerebral or philosophical level – to become high-frequency wine consumers? Bill Stephenson had a great point in his last part.
Wine Market Counsel just did another survey, another mundane survey. But some people paid larger-than-life attentions to it, which makes one believe that they live in the constant fear of losing market share at iEra and with iGeneration. Consequently, they tune in incessantly every voice from outside with the fear of missing the kind of panacea out there that guarantees them to remain perennially profitable. In the process, they lose the time and energy to build up the internal powers of their own.
If you wish you could be like the cool kids, then you’re not cool. Cool permeates from the inside of you, the kind of force and charm that draws others to you. If you’re James Bond, you define cool.
Alan,
“Here’s an idea (that’ll cost you, wine industry; just make out the check to me): How ’bout putting chips (no, not oak chips) onto every glass and in every bottle, and when an i(er) orders that wine, one will receive a text . . . ”
Better yet: print a Quick Response barcode on the back label, which can be read by the webcam built into smartphones. Now a winery can REALLY “tell its story.”
~~ Bob
Bibliography:
“Wineries Connect with QR Codes in WBM’s August [2011] Issue”
Link: http://www.winebusiness.com/news/?go=getArticle&dataid=90631
“Packaging: Wineries Getting Hip to QR Codes”
Link: http://www.winebusiness.com/blog/?go=getBlogEntry&dataId=87208
“Technological change in the wine market? The role of QR codes and wine apps in consumer wine purchases.”
Link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212977414000039
Kyle,
I have a comment awaiting “moderation” (while an embedded http://www.sciencedirect.com link clears the vetting process).
While on that same website, I came across this 2012 study:
“Millennial Wine Consumers: Risk Perception and Information Search”
Link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212977412000038
By Thomas Atkin and Dr. Liz Thach, M.W. (Sonoma State University business school professors)
Quoting the abstract:
“Marketing managers in the US have long been concerned with how to reach young consumers most effectively and how to present important information. This research demonstrates how the information search and risk reduction strategies of Millennials differ from older consumers. Findings from a survey sample of 409 US consumers suggest that if unsure about making a wine selection, MILLENNIALS ARE MORE APT TO SEEK INFORMATION FROM friend/family and SHELF TALKERS than elders. Elders were more willing to ask questions of store personnel and wine stewards. While brand is very important to both groups, Millennials rely less on geographical cues such as region of origin to determine wine quality and pay more attention to medals won, label imagery, and alcohol content. The differences in the importance of and usage of these various information sources are helpful for wineries to prioritize their marketing appeals to the Millennial segment.”
[CAPITALIZATION added for emphasis. — Bob]
SHELF TALKERS are invariably reproductions of favorable reviews.
~~ Bob
LET ME TAKE ONE EMBEDDED LINK OUT OF THIS COMMENT (ON REVIEWS) AWAITING “MODERATION” IN ORDER TO GET IT INTO CIRCULATION SOONER . . .
Kyle,
I have a comment awaiting “moderation” (while an embedded www[dot]sciencedirect[dot]com link clears the vetting process).
While on that same website, I came across this 2012 study:
“Millennial Wine Consumers: Risk Perception and Information Search”
Link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212977412000038
By Thomas Atkin and Dr. Liz Thach, M.W. (Sonoma State University business school professors)
Quoting the abstract:
“Marketing managers in the US have long been concerned with how to reach young consumers most effectively and how to present important information. This research demonstrates how the information search and risk reduction strategies of Millennials differ from older consumers. Findings from a survey sample of 409 US consumers suggest that if unsure about making a wine selection, MILLENNIALS ARE MORE APT TO SEEK INFORMATION FROM friend/family and SHELF TALKERS than elders. Elders were more willing to ask questions of store personnel and wine stewards. While brand is very important to both groups, Millennials rely less on geographical cues such as region of origin to determine wine quality and pay more attention to medals won, label imagery, and alcohol content. The differences in the importance of and usage of these various information sources are helpful for wineries to prioritize their marketing appeals to the Millennial segment.”
[Bob’s aside: CAPITALIZATION added for emphasis.]
SHELF TALKERS are predominately reproductions of favorable reviews. ~~ Bob
On the role of WINE REVIEWS in “moving the needle” . . .
Excerpts from Wines & Vines
(February 9, 2015):
“Wine Consumers Thirsty for Other Beverages;
Sobering data from Wine Market Council paints wine drinkers as fickle”
Link: http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=145997
. . .
In August 2014, ORC International surveyed a representative sample of all U.S. adults adjusted to current Census Bureau demographic data to segment consumers into non-drinkers, beer and spirits (but not wine) consumers, all wine drinkers, and high-frequency wine drinkers. They obtained 2,920 completed surveys.
The surveys determined that 36% of the population are abstainers, 27% occasional drinkers, 24% non-adopters (don’t drink wine) and 13% high-frequency wine drinkers.
By generation, 41% of baby boomers drink wine, followed by 29% of Millennials, 18% of Gen X and 12% of older people.
The survey of 1,001 high-frequency wine drinkers was conducted by Illuminate Research of Seattle, Wash., with a sub-segment of 321 high-end wine buyers. The respondents were provided by the Survey Sampling International panel of U.S wine consumers and focused on the wine-drinking population.
[Bob’s aside: Around one-third (321) of “high-frequency wine drinkers” (1,001 obtained surveys) were deemed “high-end wine buyers.”]
. . .
One of the most interesting questions was whether high-frequency wine consumers pay attention to REVIEWS. The highest number (31%) considered them somewhat important, while 13% said they were extremely important and 16% said not important at all.
More to the point, 63% of high-end wine buyers consider REVIEWS extremely or very important, which only 22% of other buyers do.
Among the frequent drinkers, Millennials depended most on REVIEWS, with 56% considering them very or extremely important, with figures dropping by age. Forty-two percent of Gen Xers said REVIEWS were important, 21% of baby boomers and only 15% of those age 69 and above felt REVIEWS were important.
[On the subject of where reviews might be seen . . .]
Younger consumers are tied to SOCIAL MEDIA, and the study found that 62% of Millennials and 40% of Gen X consumers use Facebook, 38% and 21% Twitter. Still, 46% of Gen X and 25% of Millennials don’t use SOCIAL MEDIA.