Learn how globally awarded winemaker Australian Vintage used consumer insights to re-position one of its key brands.
The challenge
Australian Vintage (AV) is an Australian winemaking business that boasts a dynamic and award-winning portfolio of global brands, including McGuigan Wines, Tempus Two, and Nepenthe.
AV prides itself on bringing innovative products to market and being ahead of the curve on key consumer trends. AV believes in making good wine that truly is ‘good’ — good for those who make it, good for the land on which it is produced, and good for long-term prosperity.
In early 2024, it was identified that one of the key brands in the UK portfolio, McGuigan Reserve, was underperforming in its ‘mid-price’ segment. McGuigan faced two challenges: recent wine tax changes had led to price increases across the category, and the brand was also encountering growing competitive pressure from new market entrants. These factors, combined with cost of living pressures, caused many consumers to reconsider their brand choices, resulting in McGuigan losing market share.
After analysis, the AV team identified that in this new environment, the McGuigan brand’s packaging and positioning did not convey the premium attributes needed to justify its higher price point and maintain its market share.
The solution: Using insights to inform a label refresh
AV set out to refresh the labelling for the range in order to retain loyal customers and attract new ones to the brand through:
- Reinforcing credentials – Reminding customers of McGuigan’s rich winemaking heritage and expertise and framing the ‘mid-price’ products within the McGuigan range using portfolio design and colour cues.
- Enhancing appeal – Creating a distinctive and attractive label design that would appeal to the mid-price segment and stand out on the shelf amidst a growing list of competitors.
- Increasing premiumness – Creating a more premium look and feel to align with consumer expectations and justify the higher price point.
- Preserving retail ranging – To sustain sales and market presence, create a clear, compelling, and differentiated shelf presence with key retailers.
Glow was engaged to help test the appeal of several alternative labels before AV invested in the relaunch. AV had previously worked with Glow on multiple consumer insight projects.
The AV team designed and drafted the label test survey, engaging the Glow team to provide feedback on methodology, questionnaire design and logic flow.
The Glow team then built the draft survey in-platform and tweaked questions and logic in a collaborative process with AV to ensure it was optimised for purpose and the packaging stimulus was sympathetically presented.

The outcome
The survey included over 300 UK wine drinkers of various age groups and genders and took less than five minutes to complete. Respondents were asked about their wine consumption and familiarity with specific brands. They were then shown multiple alternative labels and asked to provide feedback on each, including their appeal, positioning drivers, purchase intent, and price expectations. The survey included both fixed and open-ended questions to capture the emotional reactions to design elements.
The entire process, from providing the draft survey, through building it, managing the fieldwork, and collecting data, took less than a week.
The results were clear. More than 40% of the respondents showed a distinct and strong preference for Design B which also had the strongest premium cues.

Lucia Farrington, Category Insights Manager, UK, Europe & Americas at AV commented,
“[our wine drinkers] said they would pay more [for Design B] so it had that premium connotation, it also had the highest quality associations and had the strongest standout. Internally, when looking at the different options a lot of people preferred [an alternate design] so it was good to see a clear consumer preference”
Like all marketing and brand teams, deep product understanding can sometimes be a barrier to objective assessment.
As Lucia put it,
“We’re very close to the brand so sometimes our view is a bit distorted”
The study with Glow provided clear direction for the AV team on which design to proceed with. The label has now entered production and will be featured on mid-price McGuigan wines in Sainsbury’s and Tesco starting in August.
When asked why AV work with Glow, Lucia commented:
“Compared to others…Glow is very quick and it’s very simple….some of the other agencies are too complicated, their methodology is confusing, it takes a long time and it is much more expensive.
[With Glow it is] Always a seamless experience. The team are always there, always quick to respond, always very accommodating. I couldn’t say a bad word about the team, they are fantastic.”

To hear more candid feedback from Lucia about her experience working with Glow watch the video below:

Want to test before you invest?
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