Tilt

2. Slashing Your Customers’ Costs and Risks

One of the most valuable exercises that companies can engage in is to uncover the costs and risks incurred by their customers. Sainsbury, the UK retailer, changed the wine category and wine consumption in its market by reducing customer costs and risks. Wine consumption in the United Kingdom has always lagged Latin Europe, especially France and Italy. The average UK consumer drinks between twenty and twenty-five liters of wine in a year, about half the quantity glugged by drinkers in the continental wine-growing countries. Many reasons account for the gap: Britain’s climate is not very well suited to grape growing, wine is not as deeply ingrained in the gastronomic culture as it is on the continent, ...