Background

Diageo had a two-fold issue in an international airport in Canada:

• First, sales had dropped significantly in over previous years
• Second, they had launched a campaign to deal with what they believed was the issue (lack of knowledge about duty free limits by locals) and wanted to know if it was effective

The campaign was built on the premise that the reason for the sales decline was because consumers were not aware of their duty free purchasing privileges.

Our Approach

To assess whether the campaign was effective, we broke it down into the following set of questions:

• Was the campaign being noticed?
• Did travelers understand it?
• Was it having a positive impact on sales?

The RIGHT Answer

Interviewing travelers and store staff/managers, we learned that the sales issue was likely structural:

• Removal of flights, changes in traveler profile, and currency shifts had made it less beneficial to buy in Canadian airports.

The campaign itself was well-remembered, but not effective at driving sales because it was based on the false assumption that it was lack of awareness and knowledge that was responsible for sales declines. In fact, most travelers were aware of the duty free limits!

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