No, you don’t have to sell the mass-market brands that have razor-thin margins at best, but you can’t ignore what “the people” want. [level-members]
I was reminded of this earlier this week as I reread a Wine Spectator online column about their recent consumer survey. The article title says plenty:
What Do American Wine Consumers Want? Fruity, a Little Sweet and Not Expensive
So you can’t force them to drink wines that are aimed at a more rarefied and sophisticated palate, necessarily – though that depends entirely on the following you’ve built, of course. But as much as you can introduce them to great wines that you believe in passionately, you can’t force them to like what you like.
So while it’s shocking to me that less than half of consumers like rosés according to this survey – there are such great rosés out there now – it would be suicidal to open “Rosie’s Rosé Roundup” as a shop selling nothing but the pink stuff.
You should also pay attention to surveys like this (a little) and to what your customers are telling you week in and week out. (More than a little.) They will let you know what they do and don’t like and how far they’ll take your advice on what they should be drinking.
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