Setting the bar high in better understanding customers’ needs

Room 3 | 1:45 pm - 2:15 pm | Thursday, May 9, 2024

So much of market research focuses on end consumers but in alcohol, bartenders play a critical role, whether through designing menus, recommending a brand or encouraging a consumer to try something they might not otherwise. Bartenders are pivotal to a brand’s equity in alcohol.

Beam Suntory wanted to understand what bartenders are really looking for, focusing for this research in London, a hotbed of bar trends, and ultimately on what they should be providing as a brand to help. Beam Suntory was also keen to challenge a few myths that exist in the industry about what brands should be providing bartenders.

To achieve this, Beam Suntory partnered with Borderless Access to get inside the hearts and minds of bartenders, to spend time walking in their shoes and understand what it is that brands can do to help bartenders delight their customers. Borderless Access has taken an agile, near-to-real-time, multimedia approach to get a rounded view of the bartenders’ world.

This approach enables fast access to test hypotheses and concepts in an iterative way that builds on learnings with deep understanding, significantly reducing the time typically taken versus a project approach to do the same.

Key takeaways:

1. There can be big gaps between what the media says and the reality on the ground, which we’ve been able to see and hear with our multimedia approach.
2. Having real-time access to speak to the most relevant people (in this case, bartenders), listen to what they have to say and understand their needs, provides a real advantage and ability to focus on what is most important in a better and much faster, more agile way.
3. It is critical to understand all stages of a decision-making journey and in this case, to listen to and partner with those who rely on your brands (or alternatively, competitor brands) for their income and living, as they will tell you how you can best help them, because ultimately by helping them, they will help you.

Case Study Consumers Joint Presentation