Whyte & Mackay:
Quick Insights, Quality Spirits
Key recommendations to drive off-shelf brand awareness and growth opportunities
Whyte & Mackay Strategic Initiative: Driving off-shelf brand awareness and growth opportunities
Whyte & Mackay, a prominent player in the alcoholic beverages industry, wanted to gauge consumer perceptions of a new strategic initiative and explore avenues for driving growth. Turning to us, they wanted to leverage BoltChatAI’s unique capability to precisely target their audience, and get the instant insights they needed to quickly validate and optimise their initiative.
At BoltChatAI, we’re leading the charge in empowering brands through advanced AI-driven consumer insights. Our agile and cost-effective qualitative research platform is enabling brands to make more informed decisions, extract quick actionable insights, and gain a deeper understanding of their market and customers.
About Whyte & Mackay
Founded in the shipyards of Glasgow in 1844, Whyte & Mackay has evolved from humblebeginnings to become a brand celebrated globally for its distinguished and quality whiskies.
With a legacy spanning nearly two centuries, Whyte & Mackay has a long and rich history. Some of their bottles were even recovered by underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence from the shipwreck of the SS Regina, which had been sunk in Lake Huron in 1913!
These days, the company’s whiskies are deeply rooted in tradition, while ever-adapting to the dynamic landscape of the global spirits market.
Research Challenge
As part of their ongoing strategic development, Whyte & Mackay utilised BoltChatAI to gauge customer perceptions among a specific target audience regarding a new initiative. The focus was on understanding product purchase drivers, price point expectations, and primary triggers/barriers to purchasing within the German market.
Bolt was tasked with finding a specific audience in the German market, with our AI moderators conducting the chats and delivering an AI generated insight report all within 24 hours.
When it comes to speed, we’re not called Bolt for nothing…
“Our project with Bolt enabled us to quickly get valuable shopper insights into a market that quant data was not giving us direction. The verbatim comments from shoppers are invaluable to help with future NPI direction.”
Connor Smyth
International Category Controller, Whyte & Mackay
Approach and Solution
Through precision custom targeting, our AI moderators interviewed 10 target users in the German market.
Using custom screening, Bolt conducted 10 AI-driven qualitative interviews with single malt whiskey drinkers and shoppers in Germany (18+), including visual stimulus of example products as part of the interview. The conversations were then analysed and key takeaways were summarised by our systems and delivered to Whyte & Mackay within 24 hours.
Outcome and Business Impact
Understanding consumer reaction to gauge purchase intent
The research output identified key triggers, barriers, and occasions for purchasing, alongside insights into the impact of sustainability, packaging, and personalisation on purchase intent and price expectations.
These qualitative insights empowered Whyte & Mackay to target incremental commercial opportunities within the product space, providing valuable consumer feedback for future strategic directions.
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