Making sense of the rural/urban divide for a beer company
The Challenge
A major beer company was early to recognize the growing differences in how American life and identity are shaped in rural vs. urban places. They asked WG to build a foundational insight model to guide how they market and innovate across their portfolio in rural vs. urban markets.
The Approach
Across a carefully selected range of 10 urban and rural locales, WG identified Local Storytellers—people who embody the culture, history, and identity of the places we wanted to learn about. Our Storytellers immersed us in their worlds, revealing the true heart and soul of life in each locale. Layering in rich secondary data from attitudinal and demo-population studies, we brought their stories to life and created a clear framework of how different places create different context, identity anchors, and needs.
The Opportunity
This framework has been a breakthrough for the company, particularly in the ways in which they think about portfolio strategy for different locations, as well as how to activate local marketing with much more targeted insight and focus. Our work has been shared company-wide to inform a wide range of opportunities across business operations.
