Customer Insights - Blog 3

As many people in the business school know, I am currently starting an alcohol company along with Dan Singer, Jason Schieck, and Aimy Steadman. The company is called BeatBox Beverages. (Check out our facebook page here! )

http://www.facebook.com/BeatboxBeverages?fref=ts

We as a company know how important music is to the millennial generation. Music is connecting people all over the world, and it really plays on our desires to share memorable experiences with each other. I attribute the rapid rise in popularity of mega music festivals to our generations need to share everything with everyone. We feel connected to random strangers through music. Part of our company’s foundation was to enhance these memorable experiences with music through an alcohol product.

So, this bares an interesting question. How exactly is music connected to alcohol? I think we all can agree that some of the most fun we’ve had at a concert or music festival has been after we put down a beer or two, but I am wondering beyond this. As an example, here is an article from December 2011.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2011/12December/Pages/loud-music-makes-alcohol-taste-sweeter.aspx

This article claims that loud music makes alcohol taste “sweeter”, as evidenced by a sample of 80 people who drank different strength alcoholic beverages while listening to loud music, listening to a repeating news story, and listening to nothing. The study found that those listening to loud pop music consistently rated all varieties of the alcohol beverages they were served to be sweeter than the other groups. Other studies have shown that as the volume of music in bars go up, the number of purchases of alcohol also goes up.

Another thing I want to explore is the concept of increased brand awareness of alcohol products through music. Down the line we would like to pursue some kind of deal or partnership with someone heavily involved in the music industry, and finding out what kind of value that provides will be important.  A recent article found that 25% of songs referencing alcohol from 2005-2007 also referenced a brand name. What impact does this have on purchasing decisions?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111020024129.htm

There are also several websites that try and pair the alcohol you drink with a certain type of music. I wonder if there is anything to that? Does vodka go better with a certain genre? Do people associate different products with different types of music? I imagine they do, but for our brand what would we be associated or want to be associated with? My guess right now is the electronic music scene given our bright neon packaging and the BeatBox name, however there may be other genres we appeal to as well. This will be important as we look to focus our marketing efforts on certain fanbases of music.

I also want to dive into the rise of these music festivals and see how BeatBox could get involved. It has been amazing to watch festivals like Bonnaroo, Coachella, ACL, Ultra, and Electric Daisy Carnvial go from moderately well attended events to selling out in weeks and adding multiple weekends. ACL, Coachella and Ultra will all be two weekends this year, with 3 day passes costing upwards of $300, yet they still sell out! What is it about these festivals that have caused them to grow so fast in popularity? How can we as an alcohol company build on that or make sure we are marketing to this group of people? How can we incorporate this into our branding? Who is the type of person that spends this kind of money to go to a music festival and how much alcohol do they typically consume? What type of alcohol?

There are so many ways we can incorporate music into our brand. I hope to use this paper to dig deeper into just how alcohol and music are connected, and how they are both impacting our generation in a variety of ways.