The Brief
Diageo has an unrivalled global portfolio of spirits and beer brands including Guinness, Johnnie Walker Whisky, Smirnoff Vodka, Bailey’s and Gordon’s Gin.
Diageo’s long-term vision is to revolutionise how it sources, stores and uses data to fully exploit the total alcoholic opportunity at a national, regional, local and individual outlet level. Diageo wanted to adopt a more informed approach to its go to market strategy and category execution, with the ultimate goal of getting its core brands into the hands of the right people, via the right outlets, in the right locations.
With 25 year’s experience working with global drinks companies, Serendipity2 (S2) was set the key challenge to source, store and utilise both existing and new data to fully exploit the drinks opportunity at a UK, regional, local and individual outlet level.
Key strategic goals included:
a) A shift towards an execution-based approach considering wholesalers, retail customers, the outlet type, and end consumers.
b) Tailoring their approach, message, and “Look of Success” to specific outlets and environments.
c) Leveraging consumer occasions, motivations, and buying habits.
d) Structuring marketing, ranging, sales territory planning, and call optimisation to maximise sales across existing and prospective outlets.
Having built the universe of all Free, Tenanted and Leased outlets in the UK, S2 was also tasked with developing a segmentation model which would allow Diageo to rank and grade groups of outlets with the aim of identifying prime locations, environments, and individual outlets to boost growth.
Action
S2 adopted a structured approach, involving two key stages: a) Building a store-level universe for both on and off-trade independents and populating key data attributes using Diageo’s existing core data and external suppliers and b) Building a store segmentation and ranking each store by opportunity. Key areas included the following:
- The issue of data silos needed to be addressed, via the integration of internal and external data sources to form an understanding of both covered and uncovered outlets encompassing all on and off-trade pubs, restaurants, convenience and independent stores.
- The dynamic nature of the alcoholic drinks market presented a constant challenge, demanding agile strategies to keep pace with evolving consumer preferences and market dynamics.
- Crafting tailored approaches for individual outlets required access to granular data and insights.
- The conversion of data into actionable insights to drive execution and sales growth required sophisticated analytics and reporting capabilities.
Source data was cleaned, standardised, renamed, and reformatted to ensure internal consistency. The coverage and content of key data fields were audited using tools like PAF, focusing on names, segments, postcodes, and other variables. Further steps involved deduplication, matching, and merging of separate files. A consolidated single customer view (SCV) database of existing Diageo outlet coverage was created, followed by matching it with the outlet universe to calculate the sales gap opportunity based on segmentation type and the number of outlets.
New variables were then derived, fully populated with attributes suitable for segmentation, describing the location, performance, store type, and more.
Appending the new SCV with S2 external location data involved Mosaic Consumer Classifications, Consumer and Workplace Populations, Urban/Rural flags, Occasion, Lifestyle, Behavioural data, Road and Rail accessibility, Universities, Proximity, and Footfall Drivers.
Deploying MOSAIC consumer classifications at type level, category buying behaviours were mapped to the actual UK population, considering factors such as upscale versus mass market, affluence, lifestyle, and shopping behaviour. A scoring model was developed to calculate estimates for each of the three categories, integrating additional Diageo data such as sales, together with other attributes, to construct a ‘performance’ versus ‘potential’ matrix.
Using our Google mapping and analysis tool, MarketView, drive time and distance catchments were then calculated for different types of outlets, which focused on a category-based segmentation at a national, regional and individual outlet level.
Finally, the process culminated in the execution of the final store segmentation. This involved grouping similar types of outlets and distinguishing between them based on category buying behaviour and the demographic composition of consumers within the catchment areas. Detailed pen portraits were generated to describe each of the segments, aiding in targeted marketing and sales strategies.
The Result
The completion of the master database, store segmentation and performance vs. potential matrix signifies a significant milestone for Diageo as it journeys towards a more informed category picture across all outlet types and environments.
The output of the work now provides Diageo with the ability to execute far more effective sales and marketing activity and to evaluate category growth opportunities within both the On and Off Trade independent sectors.
These databases serve as a foundational framework that can be easily expanded upon, extending their usefulness across both On and Off trade sectors. Importantly, the model is designed to be adaptable and continuously updated as new outlet information becomes available.
The interactive 2×2 matrix performance vs. potential model also offers much more scope for future analysis and strategic decision-making, positioning Diageo for continued success and incremental growth in the ever-evolving alcoholic beverages market.
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