While
watching the Super Bowl yesterday, I was overwhelmed by the number of Budweiser
and beer commercials - it made me wonder, why doesn't the wine industry focus
on this large, captive audience too? I understand that it doesn't make sense
for many of the high-end boutique wineries to market to this audience, but what
about some of the bigger wine labels that produce wines at an affordable price
point?
After
researching this question, I came across an interesting article in the New York
Times discussing the recent rise in popularity of wine at football stadiums and
other sporting
events: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/01/sports/football/for-the-super-bowl-wine-enthusiasts-more-than-hold-their-own.html
According to
the article, wine
sales at football stadiums "have been steadily growing faster than
beer sales...a reflection of the changing preferences of younger fans and an
increase in women who watch the country’s biggest sporting event".
The article
notes that football stadiums are beginning to provide options beyond beer
and cater to a wider variety of palates and preferences. For example, Levi's
Stadium (home of the San Francisco 49ers), recently launched a program
called Appellation 49, which offers people seated in the stadium suites
access to vintages from more than 60 high-quality California wineries.
I think its
great that sports stadiums are beginning to offer wine as an alternative to
beer - this is a sign that people's perception of wine is shifting from an
overly formal, high-end drink to something that can be enjoyed in many
different casual contexts (such as sports events). While the wine industry has
already excelled at capturing the high end luxury market, I think there's
definitely an opportunity to expand and market wine as a beverage
that, just like beer, can be enjoyed in more casual settings like sports
stadiums.
Thanks! This was super interesting. Your comment about the shifting perspective toward wine as a more casual drink and the increase in women in the audience got me thinking about what the strategy would/should be at the concession stand. So I checked out the prices from Levi Stadium (which has of course been complained about and posted all over Twitter).
ReplyDeleteSpecialty wine (Gallo and some others): $25 per glass
Bottled beer: $13 each
("Cheap") wine: $12 per glass
I find a few things interesting here.
1) A glass of non-specialty (aka "cheap") wine is less expensive than a beer, which I was not expecting, and to your point Elizabeth, I think it reinforces that wine can be just as casual as a beer can now
2) Wine producers may not be marketing to this large captive audience via commercials, but I bet they put a lot of effort into securing that distribution, which along with generating revenue for them also is great brand awareness to be one of the 9 specialty wines named at every stand at the Super Bowl in "wine country."
3) When consumers see three price points, you almost almost see ~10% go for the top price point ("I want the best"), 20% for the lowest ("I want the cheapest") and the rest gravitate to the middle price point. IF someone is indifferent between beer and wine, it means they will be buying beer (I assume the margins are higher on the beer than the wine, so this would be great-- but I'm not sure). IF someone is not indifferent and they know they want either beer or wine, the $25 specialty wine price point makes $12 and $13 look like a great deal.
4) Not only do I love that they were calling the $25 wines "specialty" wines, but they also put the producer and varietal in a list under it, while the $12 wines were just "wine." Wonder how many people at that concession stand cared where the wine came from or perhaps listing it all out was just an attempt to signal high quality to justify the high pricing-- and of course, last but not least, from our previous blog convos, I doubt any of the happy fans would have known the difference between the $12 and the $25 in a blind tasting.
I couldn't figure out how to include the photo of the prices in a comment, so just check out the article below.
Oh yeah and I checked it out, those "specialty" $25 wines are like $13 - $22 a bottle at your local wine shop, so not even on the high end of wines we've seen in class.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2614743-levis-stadiums-concession-stand-and-wine-booth-prices-for-super-bowl-50
This is less academic, but I also found this in my internet searching about wine and football..
ReplyDeleteWine Pairings for Super Bowl Foods:
http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2014/01/best-wine-for-wings-pizza-guacamole-super-bowl-snacks.html
And guess what they said pairs best with the ever-popular pizza?
Barbera! .. did not specify whether traditional or modernist though ;-)
Thanks for bringing this up - I didn't realize wine sales were going on in this manner at the super bowl. I'd be curious to see what happens in the next few super bowls in Houston and Minneapolis. California is obviously a very wine-savvy market, but with so many people who travel to the Super Bowl location, wine sales might be just as important in those next markets.
ReplyDeleteAT&T Park, where the Giants play their baseball games, has several wine bars in it, and many of the stands sell wine as well. I couldn't find numbers on their sales, but I'd imagine that given the proximity to Napa and Sonoma that wine sales drive much more revenue than in other parts of the country. The Philadelphia Phillies' stadium, for example, only started selling wine this past year, and you can't bring the wine back to your seat. Very different experience, but less wine-focused customer base as well I'd assume.
I've seen this before at some professional sporting events, most notably PGA golf events and NASCAR races. I find that the packaging makes a big difference in whether the product can be sold successfully. In venues where I have seen wine sold successfully, it is normally sold in aluminum bottles, so easily transportable from the concession stand to the seat. Selling wine in this format seems to work, as opposed to individual pours into glasses that must be transported across the stadium.
ReplyDelete