PG Web Extra: Beer & Wine Category Management

Chicago-based MillerCoors has been focused on helping retailers identify relevant shopper solutions that are engaging and make it easier for customers to plan for meals while increasing basket spend. Additionally, retailers are looking to disrupt the shopper through digital and social media as more and more consumers look to find real-time offers and recipes on their mobile devices.

This gave birth to the brewer’s latest promotion, “Get Grillin’ with Guy,” a partnership between the Miller Lite brand and Food Network celebrity Guy Fieri. The platform offers customizable retail solutions centered around beer and food occasions with a foundation of custom recipes that pair with or use Miller Lite as an ingredient.

“Our customers all want tailored solutions,” says Brad Stevenson, MillerCoors’ VP of grocery.

By leveraging the program tools, retailers can engage shoppers with new ideas for any grilling occasion. Retailers can include Fieri content on their own digital properties, select from his recipes and link to cooking demonstrations, grilling tip videos and other content that lives on GrillwithGuy.com. By leveraging their digital and social media assets, retailers are able to reach shoppers before they enter the store, while in-store displays remind shoppers that their store is a beer destination and inspire shoppers to try new recipes.

This platform can be customized for seasonal events, from summer grilling to fall tailgating. For example, a major national grocery retailer featured Miller Lite and Guy Fieri as part of its own summer grilling program online and in stores by leveraging program assets along the path to purchase. A digital awareness campaign engaged shoppers with an “Add to Grocery” shopping list component and landing page with a link to recipes and food pairings. Further, a large southwestern regional grocer launched a “Beer & Burger Days” program featuring Fieri’s recipes and offered consumers a chance to win grills and coolers.

Effective Promotions

Retailers that maximize the ad block space for spirits in their weekly circulars are most effective at driving beer and wine sales, according to data from Solon, Ohio-based ECRM. 

In ECRM’s latest rankings for retailers promoting beer and wine, for the year ending Nov. 29, 2014, Safeway and its banners dominated the field. Following Ahold’s Giant Food Landover in the No. 1 spot were Tom Thumb and Randall’s (Safeway’s banners in Texas), then Safeway’s flagship banner, Vons and Pavilions (Safeway in Southern California), and Carrs (Safeway’s banner in Alaska).

“This tells me that Safeway really promotes adult beverages,” says Dan Harvey, ECRM promotional business analyst.

Domestic beer had the greatest share of ad support, at nearly 39 percent, followed closely by wine at just over 34 percent, according  to ECRM data. Imported and craft beers ranked with 14 percent and 7 percent respectively, with hard cider (2.6 percent), sparkling spirits (1.6 percent), malt liquor (1.5 percent) and nonalcoholic beer (.03 percent) rounding out the list.

Predictably, the biggest ad spikes for beer and wine coincided with key celebratory holidays – Christmas, Easter, Labor Day and Thanksgiving – with lesser bumps around Memorial Day and the Super Bowl. Also not unexpected were the biggest manufacturer and brand shares of ad support: Anheuser-Busch and its flagship Budweiser brand, followed by MillerCoors.

Online Action

In a recent study, Boston-based online retail analysts Clavis Insight looked at beer offerings, encompassing 20 brands, sold at Target (87 SKUs), Peapod (51 SKUs) and Sam’s Club (70 SKUs).

Of the brands/stores analyzed Target have the greatest breadth of range, offering shoppers the widest selection of beers to choose from (25 brands vs. 17 at Sam’s and 18 in Peapod). Catering to the craft beer consumer, Target carries the most extensive range of specialty beers, though Clavis points to the inability to purchase alcohol online at Target as a missed opportunity to drive conversion.

Peapod performs strongest on content integrity, with 100 percent compliance on image, product details and descriptions, warnings and nutrition data. Conversely, Sam’s Club has the “most work” to do on content compliance; Clavis identified more than 10 percent of the product range missing product and nutrition data.

“Data suggests that all stores and brands need to drive greater customer engagement in the category (purchase restrictions may be a barrier here), as little or no brands are generating ratings and reviews,” Clavis reports.

Beer, especially craft, is one of the longest “dwell time” categories among male shoppers; Clavis advises online sellers to leverage and cater to this appetite for new products and engaging content.

Budweiser and Miller are the winners on search across all stores, according to Clavis research, occupying a greater number of the top positions against key terms.

Separately, Clavis also looked at FreshDirect and Safeway. Based in the New York metro area, FreshDirect has established a distinct business entity to handle alcohol sales, though it is fully integrated within the FreshDirect shopping experience other than the bill (appearing as two different charges on the shopper’s credit card or checking account when their order contains both alcohol and food).  But the whole order is delivered once for a single fee.

FreshDirect is popular among consumers of craft, regional and specialty beers; its top 10 searches are led by New York’s Brooklyn Brewery Lager and also includes Yuengling, Anchor Steam and Blue Moon Belgian White Ale. Ranking last out of 170 products found were Lagunitas IPA (India Pale Ale) and Smuttynose Variety Sampler, which were both “temporarily unavailable,” indicating the importance of minimizing out of stocks.

Meanwhile, at Safeway, mass-market beers dominated its top 10 searches, which included varieties of Corona, Coors Light and Budweiser.

Key to driving interest for online sales is compelling content – brand stories and promotional information – to complement product listings. “Manufacturers want to share this content, but retailers tend to lack the ability to house it,” says Danny Silverman, Clavis VP of business consulting services, noting that such information is important to “influence shoppers pre-shop and mid-shop, and how to bring them into the store.”