sales demographics

[Naked Spirits Distillery]

I was curious if there was an avenue to find sales demographics for liquor sales. Everything I have found is either out of date or only focused on the big producers. Specifically, I was curious about:

-percent of sales by the drink vs. package

-how far people travel to purchase liquor

I am looking to prove or possibly disprove my assumption that the majority of liquor sales occur close to home. My belief is the huge majority of my marketing budget should be spend in a tight radius to my tasting room(metro area), and that the further I get from my tasting room the less relevant my label becomes.   

[Glenlyon]

The worn out adage often touted is "Win your backyard." Its the best way of looking at that problem and you are right about the laws of diminishing returns. All people are creatures of habit and if their habit is to stop by the local liquor store on the way home - it's going to be challenging to get them to come to your place. People need a compelling reason to act - we often get people who say they've driven by our signs a hundred times before they chose to stop. What caused them to stop? Whim? Word of mouth? Advertising? Thirst? That's why we often open around community events like a culture crawl. That gives people implicit permission to stop in. Once they stop and realize they like the products and the environment, they will come back - with friends. 87% of your target market will drink - however only a small percentage of those people will want to go out of their way to drink your liquor. Those people will be older, wealthy and careful in their choices.

[The Crafty Cask]

I'd love to hear any hard stats you do find on this. We're launching our Driving Tasting Room Traffic and Conversions course in early 2020 based on that same theory of "win your backyard" first before branching out further. I haven't seen a ton of hard data to disprove this approach but would love to see whatever you find!

[Naked Spirits Distillery]

2 hours ago, The Crafty Cask said:

I'd love to hear any hard stats you do find on this. We're launching our Driving Tasting Room Traffic and Conversions course in early 2020 based on that same theory of "win your backyard" first before branching out further. I haven't seen a ton of hard data to disprove this approach but would love to see whatever you find!

Win the backyard is my thought. My distributor is statewide, but I want them to focus on a radius around my city so I can control tastings and events. As odd as it sounds I do not want them selling in the whole state yet. I don't have hard facts to back anything up for my argument. My theory is the further I get out of my city the less relevant my label becomes until I reach a scale that makes sense to move beyond my borders. 

[Glenlyon]

So here is proof of your argument - this year we created a very tasty creamy vanilla beverage. Locally, its a sensation, we sell shitloads. However, once we extend beyond a 60 minute drive time, there is zero interest in the product. For us to expand beyond that limit would require another concentrated marketing push, but the further we get away from the distillery the harder it is to get people interested. So, your theory is valid. 

Here's how we figured out our 'backyard'.  We got a map, pin pointed the distillery and then created a series of radiating rings at different milage. 1 mile, 2 miles, 5 miles, 10 miles, 100 miles. Geography soon limited our potential, but that method gave us a very real view of what we were up against. So, we started with radio. I think radio was effective, but very slow. We've taken a pause after a year, in favour of another highly targeted media - significant posters at key tourist choke points with corresponding ads in local yearly tourist guides. We also do a bit of newspaper and local foody magazine ads, but we're pretty choosy. Advertising adds up quick. Social media of course is important, but not a total solution.