Humble Grape

Market

Target market

Our target market is those aged between 25 and 55 who work or live in and around London.

The accessibility of pricing, media endorsement and authenticity of product appeals to the younger generation of foodies and wine drinkers, while the vast selection of high quality wines at accessible prices appeals to the traditional diner and affluent wine connoisseur.

With wine prices ranging from £20 to £300 per bottle, and with our range of small plate food offerings and sharing platters to full mains such as rib-eye steak, the in-bar spend per head (excluding additional retail sales) ranges from £25 to £120 depending on the clients who visit.

Creating an offering which is accessible and appealing to both segments of the market – democratising wine – we believe is key to creating the atmosphere and in-bar buzz that makes us unique.

Traditionally, the wine offering has been secondary to food when making a restaurant choice, but the landscape is changing and quality handcrafted drinks and spirits are becoming central to a social experience. We consider ourselves to be the only brand in the UK that offers such vast selection of artisan wines to their customers, along with a high quality food offering.

Most of our customers have a basic level of knowledge about wine and are interested to learn more. However, they range from those who know nothing about wine (or who don’t care too much, they just like the brand) through to those have a cellar packed with the best Bordeaux and Burgundy.

Our target demographic is London based for now but transferable to other cities in the UK further down the line. Before exit, we plan to have piloted several out-of-London sites to prove the concept is viable in other cities such as Leeds and Manchester. Given the success of brands targeting a similar demographic to ours and the flexibility of our offering, we’re confident our offering will work well in all affluent neighbourhoods and city locations.

Characteristics of target market

The value of the restaurant market is set to reach £52 billion this year, the branded segment outperforming the wider eating out market. The UK restaurant landscape is changing as consumer preferences shift towards premium foods and wines in an informal setting.

At the same time, an increasingly saturated market and greater consumer sophistication has driven demand for better and more interesting places to dine and drink, and the more experimental consumer is particularly driven by experiential elements. Whilst consumers are spending a lower proportion of their disposable income on purchasing material goods, there has been a shift in priorities to focus on leisure, entertainment and hospitality.

This market is becoming more aware and less tolerant of the 4x retail markups on wines necessary for other restaurants to make a profit in a prime London site.

The modern-day wine drinker cares about how products are sourced and how they are made. They care about the impact of farming on the environment and are increasingly against big brands and mass production.

They are health conscious and concerned about additives and chemicals in mass produced wines and increasingly focussed on quality for price.

Furthermore, the traditional approach to wine no longer appeals – customers prefer to hear human interest stories behind the wines than details on clonal varieties and Robert Parker points. And they value quality of experience as much as quality of product.

Marketing strategy

Our brand image and ethos is strong and fresh and appealing to the press and consumer. Our tone of voice is approachable and fun and easy to relate to. Our sites are unique and there’s been strong demand from journalists wanting to write about them, visit or publish stunning photographs of our striking interiors.

Our offering is unique and timely for the evolving landscape of the industry. We’ve hit the market at precisely the right time when sustainability, company ethos and authenticity are at the forefront of the consumer’s mind.

Our brand and offering is extremely attractive from a marketing perspective because each of our sales channels directly feed into and complement one another. Our goal is to reach new customers, deliver an excellent experience, up-sell retail wines, wine club/bank and wine school and ultimately create a customer for life – an ambassador for our brand and our company ethos.

We will do this via three main marketing channels:

1) In-bar and local marketing
– pavement wine tastings, food markets, strong and unique window displays, enticing visual merchandising displays and point of sales promotions.
– Regular events such as Shop price Mondays, Tasting Tuesday and Icon Wine Fridays to encourage repeat visits.
– Delivering an outstanding experience, so each customer will want to leave a review on a review site, return every week and tell all their friends.

2) Digital –
– Online and mobile . We are in the early stages of working with a leading digital agency to rebuild our web and mobile platform, to enhance online sales and bookings. We will use cutting edge customer-centric tools to analyse customer databases.
– Social and email. We are looking to build a loyal audience. A number of our events have sold out from one email. We’ll continue to generate email opt ins and social engagement.
– PR. We plan to maintain momentum, building buzz before and during each launch and continually engaging the press.

3) Partnerships with retail sites and restaurant booking platforms.

Competition strategy

Most wine bar brands in London have been trading for decades, such as Balls Brothers, Davy’s and Jamie’s and were born from the old-school approach to wine. They are still widely successful given their site location and lack of alternatives for customers.

There are a several ‘new wave’ wine bars, such as Vinoteca, Vagabond, Planet of the Grapes and Bedales – all of which are popular and successful, proving that there is a significant market for such an offering. However, we understand that we are the only brand to directly import all of our wines, meaning we can offer higher quality product at a lower price than our competitors. And we consider ourselves to be the only bar to have successfully integrated the in-bar and retail offering.

Also as proven by the media buzz around our brand and excellent reviews, our customer experience is unique and differentiated.

Our staff are trained daily on wines and love working for Humble Grape. We have a dedicated in-house wine trainer and our staff are trained daily on wines by the glass, on our producers plus with the winemakers themselves.

Also we’re soon to launch an in-house accredited wine school so we can deliver Wine and Spirits Education Trust qualifications direct to our staff as part of their professional development. This will not only further enhance customer service but will also continue to aid out recruitment and staff retention rates, which we believe to be excellent, in a typically transient industry.

Plus we've just begun working with a notable head chef, to further upgrade our food offering to be competitive with the top ten informal fine dining concepts in London. And we plan to import cured meats and cheeses.

Consumers increasingly care how the products they’re buying were sourced and the quality of the ingredients contained in them. Our brand and products are perfectly positioned to create a competitive and more current offering to that of the traditional wine bar or wine retailer.