Wine Club Satisfaction and Segmentation Study

1. PRESENTATION PREPARED BY:
Wine Club Satisfaction and
Segmentation Study
Merrill Research LLCC
April 2016
©

2. Copyright
Copyright of Merrill Research, LLC. 2016©
The purchaser of this report has a limited license to use the
report in its own operations. Purchaser is not given license to
share the report with anyone else without the express written
permission of Merrill Research, LLC.
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3. Table of Contents
• Introduction
 Background
 Research Objectives
 Summary of Key Findings and Implications
• Detailed Findings
 Target Audience
 Respondent Profile
 Types of wine clubs belonged
 Where wine is purchased
 Winery Clubs
 Number wine club memberships
 Overall satisfaction (Net Promoter Score)
 Satisfaction specific criteria
 Wine club tenure, bottles bought & price points
 Winery visitation
 Drivers of membership
 Segmentation
 Other Wine Clubs
 Number wine club memberships
 Overall satisfaction (Net Promoter Score)
 Satisfaction specific criteria
 Wine club tenure, bottles bought & price points
• Appendix (about the Author & Methodology)
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4. • Direct sales of wine to consumers (DtC) has grown
steadily over the past 15 years and continues to grow.
• According to ShipCompliant, online wine sales (in
dollars) increased by 8.1% vs 1.3% for all wine sales
(Gordon, 2016) between 2014 and 2015 in the US,
reaching 4.2 million cases shipped.
• For many brands, DtC sales represents 90%+ of total
sales. On average it represents about 25% of all wine
sales in the US (Source: 2014 Silicon Valley Bank Study).
• Most wineries have made it a priority to grow their DtC
channel because of the opportunity for more favorable
margins. Technological and legal changes are expected
to make this channel even more lucrative to most
wineries in the coming years. Continued consolidation
among wine distributors will increase dependence on
the DtC channel for all but the very largest wineries.
Background
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5. Background, continued
• Some wineries survey their wine club members, but many do not.
Regardless, there has been no benchmark for wine club member
satisfaction*—until now.
• Read how the industry stands up and how you may help focus your DtC
program to better leverage your strengths and increase both retention
and new memberships.
• Note: throughout this report we refer to two types of wine clubs:
“winery clubs” and “other wine clubs.” A “winery club” refers to a wine
club associated with a winery. An “other club” refers to a wine club not
associated with a winery (e.g., WSJ wine club).
*Contact Patrick Merrill (pmerrill@merrill.com) to
learn how we can obtain the Net Promoter Score
(NPS) for your wine club.
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6. Research Objectives
• The objectives of this study were to assess
the following among wine(ry) club
members*:
 Assess consumers’ satisfaction with wine
clubs, whether sponsored by a winery or
other wine organization (e.g., Naked Wines)
in order to provide an industry benchmark
 Determine factors that influence why
consumers join wine clubs
 Gauge specific perceptions of wine clubs on
these factors
 Determine what wine club consumer
segments exist and profile the segments
 Measure membership tenure, average
number of bottles purchased per year
through wine clubs and average price paid
for a bottle through wine clubs
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*See Appendix for the Methodology

7. Target Audience
• In order to participate in this
research, respondents were
required to meet the following
criteria:
 Age 21+
 Current member of a wine club
from which they receive wine on
a continuous basis
• Sample was supplied from our
Grapes & Grain™ consumer panel
of wine drinkers. The panel
consists of approximately 10,000
highly engaged weekly wine
drinking enthusiasts throughout
the 50 states.
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8. Methodology
• Online surveys
 Potential respondents were sent an e-mail invitation containing a link to the survey, and
were screened online. All respondents had to be a member of 1+ wine club(s), as defined
on the previous page and summarized below. Data collected in Q3 2015.
• Average interview length and surveys
 6 minutes average length and 574 completed surveys
• Incentive
 $100 cash sweepstakes
• Demographic profile is below. Note: A letter beside a % indicates the % is
significantly greater than the % in the column indicated by that letter (e.g.,
25%>14%).
Total 21-34 35-49 50-64 65+ <$150K $150K+ Caucasian Other Male Female
A B C D E F G H I J K
TOTAL (N) 574 78 145 247 104 285 164 506 55 312 262
Total % 100% 14% 25%B 43%BCE 18% 50%G 29% 88%I 10% 54%K 46%
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• EUR 460
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