Almost everyone loves Champagne – at least, that’s what said in the frequent rounds of research conducted for Champagne Lanson. The champagne category is one of the most bizarre and complex product categories you can find. Though champagne is a premium, luxury category, over 70% of supermarket sales are now sold on deal, involving some kind of price promotion or other offer.
Unlike most supermarket categories where there are three or four major players, champagne producers are numerous: there are the Grandes Marques (the bigger brands such as Moet and Lanson), the much smaller boutique brands, retail-own label brands and even brands exclusive to individual retailers. The outcome is an incredibly complicated category that shoppers can find confusing. Unlike wine, which for years has been segmented by colour, country, grape and now by flavour, champagne is bundled onto shelves with little to no segmentation at all. In fact, the only obvious segmentation is that the more expensive bottles are sited on the higher shelves.
The end result is that many shoppers are perplexed when facing the champagne and sparkling fixture. A few years ago Champagne Lanson filmed people shopping for champagne and their dwell time was generally between three and four minutes. This was not the sign of a shopper carefully making their purchase decision, but of one completely perplexed by the range on offer with little or no help.
In this context, Champagne Lanson has worked with us at Mesh Marketing to develop a more category-led approach. The basis for this was the publication of our third annual Lanson International Champagne Category Report (private). The findings have been insightful. For example, while champagne is renowned for the classic celebration occasion (weddings, birthdays and so on) this only accounts for 50% of all champagne occasions. For many, champagne is their drink of choice for more informal social events.
In addition, the report highlighted the incredible rise of prosecco: plus 50% in the last year. This has mainly been driven by the supermarkets, which in the past 12 months have nearly doubled their volumes of own-label prosecco. The initial cry from commentators was that this growth was fuelled by people swapping from champagne to prosecco but the overall data doesn’t support this view. The fact is that the volume growth of prosecco far outstrips any declines in champagne. Additional research has indicated that instead, many people are trading up from white wine or switching over from more traditional aperitifs such as gin or vodka with tonic.
So what are the implications for champagne? Consumers tell us that in general, champagne is better quality, with greater heritage, history and craftsmanship than sparkling wine. But clearly there is more that can be done to communicate this and therefore justify the premium people pay.
There is an opportunity to communicate more champagne occasions and do more to help people select their champagne of choice based on taste (like wine). In implementing this more category led approach over the past few years, Champagne Lanson has led the agenda in educating shoppers about the different taste of champagnes, promoted broader champagne occasions beyond “celebration” and introduced new labels that are in tune with growing consumer trends. This has all combined to realise a significant increase in sales.
Toby Moore is director of Mesh Marketing
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