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Home > Blogs > Uncorked > Archives > 2006 > December > 18
Monday, December 18, 2006
Restaurants want to sell you more wine — and they’re learning how
Research conducted through Cornell University and the University of Houston has come up with some strategies for restaurants to sell more wine. See if you agree. A summary of the research can be found at this Wines & Vines piece. And there’s also this news release from Cornell. The full report is available for download from Cornell’s Center for Hospitality Research; free registration is required.
Here are the highlights, courtesy of Wines & Vines:
1. More recommendations equal more wine sales. Promoting five wines increased sales of the promoted wines by 39%, without “cannibalizing” other wine sales.
Suggested wine and food pairings are effective, but only in small doses. More than three wine recommendations “and people give up,” according to study co-author Collin Payne, Ph.D., a research psychologist at Cornell.
Tasting portions sell: Two-ounce tasting portions increased sales by 18-47%.
Promotions can cannibalize: Between 69-87% in sales of promoted wines came from other wines that patrons would have ordered anyway. The authors recommend promoting higher-margin wines, mid-priced or above, and avoiding margin-cutting price promotions.
Hmmm. “promote higher-margin wines.” Does that mean what I think it means?
What do YOU think of the recommendations?
As an aside, one of the study’s authors is Glenn Cordua, founder and director of the Wine and Spirits Institute at the University of Houston, who also happens to be one of the chief organizers of the wine competition for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, for which I served as a judge last month. I spent some time talking with Cordua, who has founded and operated several restaurants. The guy knows the business (and his wines too).
Thanks to WineBusiness.com for tipping me off to this story.
And as always, thanks for reading — and cheers!
Mark Fisher
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