Cognac analysis: Consumer Behavior and Preferences Unveiled

At what time of the year do people worldwide look for Cognac?

Well, apparently people always search for cognac right before Christmas. This can’t be a coincidence. It must be the Christmas present?!

An assumption would be: People get information or/and buy Cognac bottles. Sounds pretty logic.

If one now looks at three other, far bigger spirits, namely Vodka, Gin and Whiskey (‘Whisky’ is much smaller than ‘Whiskey’) it becomes quite clear that Cognac plays a relatively small role in the world spirit market. Gin is 2,6 times more interesting, Whiskey 3,4 times more interesting and Vodka even 4,5 times more relevant to people. But the Chrismas present assumption is perfectly proven, as people like to get drunk at Christmas and New Year’s Eve!

Interesting too see, how Vodka gets bigger and bigger over the years: The Vodka Christmas peaks are much higher than other peaks.

Which of the four Top Cognac brands is the most popular?

The 4 market players Hennessy, Martell, Courvoisier and of course Rémy Martin share 80% of the market (and the top 10 houses cover 90% of the world wide market). Hennessy is the market leader.

Now let’s have a closer look at the popularity of each brand and the development of the related worldwide awareness.

There are 5 things one notices:

1. Hennessy is the most sought-after brand, Martell at 60% less volume, Remy Martin at 26% and Courvoisier at just 13% of the Hennessy awareness.
2. Hennessy is totally stable and one notices peaks in the Hennessy graph, which indicate events, reactions, new products etc.
3. While Martell started out well in 2004, compared to 2009, the brand lost about 20% of global awareness. Later, in the second half of 2009, Martell created new volume again, probably through new products or by concentrating on Asia as a core market.
4. Rémy Martin seemed to overtake Martell in 2005/2006, but somehow then went down from mid 2006 and now  practically has the same awareness as Courvoisier.
5. Courvoisier seems to come out of nowhere at the end of 2004 (2002 the song Pass the Courvoisier Part II was released) and since remains stable.

In the US, Hennessy “grows” even more and keeps the three other brands at a far distance. Most of the people who search Cognac in the US come from Georgia and the state of New York.

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