Ther Perfect Wine for One
How Fine Wine Partners reinvented the wine bottle.
The Challenge
Whether you’re an inexperienced novice or a seasoned wine drinker – there are barriers to enjoying a bottle of wine as often as you like: cost, waste, moderation & exclusivity to name just a few.
The Brief
Fine Wine Partners asked us to first define the opportunity, then the proposition for a more accessible wine solution. Which we did through seven stages of the product design process all the way through to 3D Printing prototypes, branding, naming and even copywriting for launch.
We have been trying for some time to find new ways of increasing wine occasions and making wine exploration easier, by partnering with How To Impact and tapping into their considerable design thinking expertise we have been able to bring this new format to life, benefitting from their huge energy and ability to work at pace to deliver the best consumer outcome.
The Solution
Opportunity Spotting: The Perfect Fit
Initially, we mapped opportunity areas for Horizon 2-3 development through analysis of macro trends, U&A data and primary consumer insights. This defined six new insight platforms and starting ideas. Size of Prize analysis determined the biggest opportunity as ‘Perfect Fit/’The One’: the perfect wine size for solo/moderate drinking and more accessible sharing/ exploration occasions.
The 'Perfect-Fit' Opportunity
How to create a range of wines in ‘perfect fit’ formats for solo or moderate drinking occasions without making me feel like I have to compromise
User-Centric Insights & 'DVF' Loops
We followed a consumer- and customer-centric approach to proposition development, to fully understand the barriers from consumer, trade & industry perspectives. There were multiple, weekly touch-points throughout the journey where we met with wine drinkers in their homes and wine-bars, interviewed wine education experts, talked with bottle-shop owners & workers and maintained an ongoing dialogue with an online community of bullseye consumers.
Prototyping
The prototyping maxim of ‘fail early, fail cheaply’ helps avoid unnecessary cost... so, we started with flat sketches amd moodboards, using consumer input to guide our selections... then moved into formal prototyping mode using 4 rounds of 3D printing to test in-hand appeal and impact in-store, resulting in acrylic moulds that allowed us to test pouring.
Brand DNA
We developed a clear sense of the desired brand benefits, attributes and rules for delivery as we developed consumer insight and explored concepts. This evolving brand positioning was qualified through consumer & retailer feedback. ‘Flights’ was a great fit as a brand name: - it refers to the ‘voyage’ of discovery we wanted consumers to take - a flight’ is the name for a formal wine tasting tray - and allowed us to reference the geographic diversity of our brands...
Naming Development
A rival wine company launched a sub-brand range of ‘Flight’ wines shortly after we’d developed our brand and before we were able to contest TM - forcing us to circle back and re-think our options. We held a naming ideation workshop, using lateral thinking tools and stimulus to extract 80 different names.
Design & Identity
We created a raft of design ideas for the 4 shortlisted candidates and brought them to life for qualitative testing with bullseye consumers. This allowed us to crystallise design/branding rules of engagement and recommended design look & feel with greater certainty.
We named the new brand ‘3 Chapters’ to highlight the unique format innovation of three different wine bottles in one ‘edition’, as well as the journey of discovery through the 3 wine choices.
The Result
3 Chapters was released on pilot in December 2016 through Camperdown Cellars in Sydney, Heinemann Duty Free and St Hallett Cellar Door.