Good Strategy Is Researched. Great Strategy Is Witnessed.

There is a quote that, as someone who has built a career on helping drinks brands to build winning on trade strategy through consumer research, fills me with dread. I am sure you will recognise it: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”  

I probably don’t need to tell you, but in case you have managed to avoid it, the quote comes from one of the great business pioneers, Henry W Ford, attributed to him during the period of great Ford Motor Company growth in the 1920’s. 

It is typically delivered from drinks stakeholders with a more than healthy dose of scepticism. Why invest in research to refine propositions and better meet consumer needs, if consumers themselves can’t articulate what those needs are? Oftentimes, there is a perception that those within the on trade know the answers more than consumers themselves.

And that is not without reason. The on trade sector, by nature, is one built on feeling. It’s where experience comes first and where gut-feel, rather than numbers, guides business decisions. It’s where things change quickly and where data is sparse and unreliable.  

As such, the need for a decision based on the courage of one’s own convictions often trumps more considered and data-driven strategy. I’m sure Ford would approve. 

However, Ford didn’t say anything about faster horses – it is a misquote, seemingly invented in a letter to Marketing Week in 2001. He may well have had that attitude (his customers could have a car any colour they wanted, “as long as it was black”), but the evidence is that putting customers second created an initial boom period – as the company was able to surpass competitors in production efficiency – followed by a longer-term decline in market share as competitors increasingly adapted to customer demands. Perhaps he should have listened to what his customers wanted after all.

At this point, you can probably guess where this is heading. Here comes the part where I, as a market research advocate, tell you, senior drinks executive, that you should dismiss all of your preconceived ideas about your customers and, instead, run extensive (and expensive) market research to confirm or deny your perceptions and develop strategy solely based on the viewpoint of the customer and the consumer. 

But that would be to disregard the genuine expertise, opinion and intuition that guides those gut-feel decisions, it would ignore the skill in spotting opportunities first-hand and it would run counter-intuitively to the need for agile, yet clear, decision-making. There is a place for this and, without the business context and ability to act upon customer research, any findings are worthless. 

Of course, understanding your customer is critical. So too is understanding consumption moments, need states and decision-making journeys. Getting inside consumers’ heads and understanding what makes them tick allows for better strategy and there are countless instances of where research has made a significant difference to businesses within the hospitality sphere. 

Be it the time when a brand moved from double-digit decline to growth following an in-depth analysis of personas and in-venue decision-making, or the time when return on activation investment jumped from 2% to 18% following in-the-moment analysis of execution and sentiment.

In my experience, there is one common factor of what good looks like for successful research projects in this most unusual and experiential of sectors. It is that, more often than not, they are undertaken in hospitality settings, gleaning insight from natural, observed behaviours and real-life friction points, rather than undertaken in front of screens based on claimed consumption moments and analysed and interpreted from behind a desk. 

They appear in a lingering look between draught tap handles, and how the most recognisable brand assets win out, or in the fumbled way in which a guest rushes through their martini preferences, lacking the conviction and confidence that signals a need for greater education. They are difficult to spot, but to the trained eye, they highlight something that vast data sets often can’t and open the door to unmet consumer needs and opportunities to exploit. 

Yes, the best on trade insights tend to come when the consumer is, well, in sight. Research works best where the action happens and the very best hospitality insights come when the consumer is in sight and the researcher is in-site.  

As Ford hypothesised (or not, as the case may be), consumers often can’t tell you what they want, but one can certainly deduce through observation. Elevating this through skilled, expert analysis forms genuine intelligence, valuable insights and game-changing strategies. 

And that is why I am so excited to be joining Wilde Toast, to bring best-in-class research to the world of drinks activation, to get in-and-amongst consumer decision making in the on trade and to extract the most valuable insights from the world’s largest network of bartenders for research. 

In an ultra-competitive landscape in which drinks brands are fighting for every percentage point of market share, every inch of on trade visibility and every iota of consciousness amongst target consumers and bartenders alike, the need for genuine research and market intelligence has never been more important. 

The stakes are high and acting on research based on what consumers actually do, rather than what they say they do can be the difference between rapid growth and decline in a fast-moving market. 

By venturing in-site, and with support from a crew of expert bartenders, briefed on how to spot genuine moments of inspiration, we are building a suite of research services designed to collect intelligence to power clear and actionable decision making.  

However, it is only when this, delivered with clarity and vision, is combined with a sharp instinct and ability to execute a strategy when growth is sure to follow. Yes, both intuition and research matter equally, but more than that, one without the other is useless. 

Think your On Trade strategy is working hard enough? Let’s find out.

Drop us a line and we’ll take a closer look at where your insights are really coming from and where they should be.