When, where, and why the bottle comes out

Duration

2 months (2018)

Role

Researcher

Tools

Paper, Google Workspace apps

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Under A Non-disclosure Agreement

Some of the details in this case study may be vague to protect the client's intellectual property.

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When Beam Suntory came to us, they wanted to understand a very specific moment: the cross-border shopper standing in a busy airport or border store, making a split-second decision about which bottle of whisky or cognac to buy, and why they're buying it here rather than at home. It's a deceptively strange research context. Everyone is a little out of their normal routine. Time pressure is real. The usual purchase logic doesn't quite apply. And yet millions of these decisions happen every year.

Challenge

Why do consumers choose cross-border outlets for premium spirits over local stores? What tips a window shopper into a buyer - product placement, a price perception, the weight of the bottle in their hand? How do ideas about quality, taste, and even health factor in when you're buying for someone else, or trying to impress, or just treating yourself because you're in transit and it's allowed?

Beam Suntory needed to understand the moment of truth - and it was a moment that existed nowhere near their usual retail environment.

Going where the decisions were actually made

We ran mini focus group discussions in Shenzhen and Hong Kong with consumers aged 28–45 who had recently made a whisky or cognac purchase at a cross-border store.

Rather than asking broad questions about alcohol preferences, we focused tightly on the cross-border moment: what was the occasion, who was the purchase for, what made this store feel right, and what almost stopped them.

The purchase occasion is the product

The research sharpened Beam Suntory's understanding of how to frame and position premium spirits in a cross-border context - a setting where the usual triggers of brand loyalty and habitual purchase don't apply in the same way. The moment of purchase in transit is different from the same product sitting on a shelf at home. The story you tell about it has to be different too.

The findings provided a foundation for more targeted in-store strategy and refined messaging for the cross-border segment - one of the higher-margin channels for premium spirits globally.