Millennials Are Changing Everything
The Millennial monsoon is beginning to be in season and those who are not ready will dearly pay the price–just ask a cab driver.
This generation, like any target audience has unique idiosyncrasies that show up now and again. All generational bubbles are disruptors, but millennials are moving the cheese of more than technology.
When millennial-targeted products do break the tradition barrier, it is with a sonic boom that shatters all sorts of glass ceilings and boxes. I saw one the other day, a can of wine. Forget the box wine, screw tops or synthetic cork alerts, this is 100% can of rose. Even worse, Whole Foods declared 2016 the year of the can wine. But what this tradition-killing trend says that you need to be on your game and incredibly flexible to survive in this new market.
The sarcastic tone of the advertising around can wine not only is unapologetic, it slaps at the traditionalists. For can wine producer The Drop, it’s website, it says, “The Drop has no time time for tradition.”
I’m a wine lover, but I’m not a snob, so I will try the can wine. You should never judge a wine by its cover, although research shows we think expensive wines are better than inexpensive wines if we know the price (in blind tests, we don’t do so well). But I think for this generation of experience over possessions, there is no better experience than opening a bottle of wine a cork screw, decanting it and then pouring it into Riedel stemware and swirling it a bit before tasting.
However, I also know that convenience wins in the marketing world. It will just make the wine cellar look a little strange. What’s your industry’s wine in a can?