Craft Distilling Customer Demographics

[Rickdiculous]

I am in the process of writing my business plan and working with an entrepreneurial advisor at our local bank. One of the things he thought would be good to include in my plan is an idea of the demographics for a craft distillers customers. Does anyone have some suggestions for developing these numbers, or some sort of framework you have developed which I can apply to my local population? Any ideas on where to do the research myself would be helpful as well.

Thanks,

Rick

[Viking]

You might try some primary research activities. Visit your local bartenders' guild, bars, restaurants (demographics may be embeded here) and find out who and what they and their customers are looking for. Secondary, you might try looking at national trend in this industry., still pretty new depending on where you are. local lenders, municipalities still not sure how to handle this industry. hope this helps a little

[cowdery]

Talk to other microdistillers and ask them to describe their customer base, then figure out how many people like that there might be in your marketing area.

[Sonja]

And, consider what it is you are planning to make and who your audience will be - and ask people who are doing things similar to what you plan to do. If you are targeting something in the $10-15 range vs. something in the $40-50 range per bottle, your audience will be very different. Geography has an effect as well - in some areas, people are VERY supportive of the local guy, and in some areas, not as much - so I would talk to artisans in other industries in your area too.

[Viking]

You could also visit your local Small business Development Center. They can assist you in gettting industry information. http://asbdc-us.org/

This is a no charge program. We cover marketing and business planning in our week long workshop. Check us out at www.artisancraftdistilling.com in addition to other aspects of the distillery business.

Cheers!

Allan

[Double G]

You might try talking to a liquor wholesaler.