Overview

The spirit’s category has seen a surge in premiumisation, with consumers increasingly willing to pay more for products they perceive as superior. This presents opportunities for brands to drive profit by offering products that deliver on those elevated expectations. But what makes a premium spirit feel worth the higher price?

Our client, a major spirits conglomerate, wanted to uncover the psychology behind this shift:

• What leads consumers to pay significantly more for a premium spirit?

• Which unconscious factors shape these decisions?

• How can brands unlock growth by tapping into these motivations?

Approach

We explored four spirit categories across four markets using ReTrack™ to identify the unconscious factors that influenced the decision to pay more for a ‘better’ spirit.

By reliving recent purchase experiences, ReTrack™ allowed us to uncover what truly drives behaviour and perceptions in this space - going beyond what people claim matters to reveal the deeper motivations behind spending more on certain brands.

Output

By uncovering why consumers are attracted to premium spirits and how they trade up we gave our client clear direction on how to unlock growth in the category:

• Portfolio strategy: Identified strengths and opportunities within the current portfolio to inform brand strategy and positioning.

• The “magic ingredient”: Pinpointed a factor that consistently boosted initial appeal and deepened brand affinity.

• Launch success criteria: Provided a clear recipe for creating successful new premium brands by defining the elements a new premium product must deliver to succeed.

• Product optimisation: Showed how to align existing products with the motivations that matter most to consumers.

• Investment focus: Provided a clear perspective on where to concentrate marketing spend to maximise the appeal of premium spirits.

These insights gave our client a practical springboard for creating successful new premium brands whilst strengthening existing ones.