QUICK SUMMARY
The session presented the innovation journey of High Noon, which began as a vodka product that pivoted to become a market-leading vodka seltzer after observing emerging consumer trends. Presenters Michele Sandoval and Ron Wetklow shared how Gallo leveraged consumer insights, cultural immersion, and strategic partnerships to create a differentiated product in the competitive seltzer market. The case study demonstrated how initial “failures” can lead to tremendous success through agile pivoting, deep consumer understanding, and building a robust innovation pipeline.
KEY QUOTES
- “Failures can lead to success. Certainly if I think about it, the High Noon vodka, Gallo certainly saw that as a failure, but it led to the success of then the High Noon seltzer.”
- “Keep a close eye on culture, category, and consumers… preparation and readiness are key to potential success.”
- “Innovation is sticky, it moves around, it changes, and every process is different. Every charter’s different every time… it’s okay to be fluid and to understand that things are gonna change and you might have to pivot midstream.”
FULL SESSION SUMMARY
Introduction to Innovation Process
Michele Sandoval, former Director of Innovation at Gallo, and Ron Wetklow, Consumer Insights expert, opened the session by discussing the importance of end-to-end innovation and how early decisions impact go-to-market strategies. They presented a circular innovation model that begins with opportunity identification, moves through ideation and validation, and then to deployment. The speakers emphasized that while senior leaders often want innovation to be linear, the reality is that it’s fluid, iterative, and unique to each project. They highlighted the importance of being comfortable with this fluidity and the potential need to pivot during development.
Understanding the Market: The Three C’s
The presenters emphasized the importance of thoroughly researching culture, category, and consumers (competition) before launching innovations. They advocated for ethnographic research, including home visits with consumers to observe actual behaviors rather than relying solely on reported behaviors. Ron shared examples of cultural immersion experiences, including visits to the Iowa State Fair and Kansas City street art tours, which helped challenge assumptions (like “men won’t drink pink drinks”) and identify emerging trends. The speakers recommended that even companies with smaller budgets could gain valuable insights through social media, AI tools like ChatGPT, and simply spending time observing consumers in retail environments.
The High Noon Vodka Journey
The High Noon story began with Gallo wanting to enter the premium vodka market ($20 price point) to compete with brands like Absolut and Tito’s. The team analyzed the vodka category and found it was dominated by masculine, luxury-oriented, nighttime imagery that didn’t match how consumers actually used vodka—which was primarily for casual, daytime, mixed-drink occasions. Through consumer research, they identified unowned attributes in the category: approachable, original, real, and daytime. This led to the development of High Noon vodka with bright primary colors, daytime imagery, and real juice in the flavored variants.
The Pivot to Seltzer
Despite thorough research and development, High Noon vodka performed only moderately well in test markets. The critical turning point came when the team conducted “feet on the street” market visits in Denver and Chicago, where they observed the rapid growth of White Claw and Truly seltzers. They quickly recognized an opportunity to leverage their vodka-based product in the seltzer category, which was dominated by malt-based beverages with an aftertaste many consumers disliked. Within six months of this observation, they pivoted to launch High Noon Seltzer, maintaining the brand’s daytime positioning but in a more portable format with real juice as a key differentiator.
Amplification Through Strategic Partnerships
While the product was well-received, the team faced distribution challenges competing against established beer networks in convenience stores and beer caves. To accelerate growth, they sought media partnerships to amplify the brand. They connected with Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports, who became an enthusiastic brand ambassador with 6 million social media followers. This partnership significantly expanded the brand’s reach beyond their initial marketing efforts.
Building a Robust Innovation Pipeline
Following the success of the original vodka seltzer, Gallo developed a comprehensive innovation pipeline for the High Noon brand. This included multiple variety packs targeting specific occasions (day pack, beach pack, tailgate pack), expansion into new spirits bases (tequila seltzer), and new product categories (tea and lemonade). They also introduced “Lucky Ones by High Noon,” a product that connected to their spokesperson’s dog and supported animal shelters, further extending the brand’s reach and relevance.
The Pink Whitney Case Study
The presenters briefly shared a second innovation case study about Pink Whitney, a pink lemonade vodka created in partnership with the Spittin’ Chiclets hockey podcast. When podcast host Ryan Whitney mentioned his preference for vodka with pink lemonade, he was teased by co-hosts, and #PinkWhitney began trending on social media. Gallo’s product development team quickly created samples, sent them to the podcast hosts to try on air, and launched the product within six months. Pink Whitney became the fastest brand to reach one million cases and the number one flavored vodka in the country, targeting shot occasions rather than competing with traditional flavored vodkas.
Key Lessons in Innovation
The session concluded with reflections on the innovation process, emphasizing the importance of consumer insights, agility in responding to market trends, strategic partnerships to amplify brands, and building robust innovation pipelines for sustained growth. The speakers highlighted how “failures” like the original High Noon vodka can lead to tremendous successes when teams remain observant, agile, and ready to pivot.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Embrace failure as a stepping stone: The “failure” of High Noon vodka led directly to the tremendous success of High Noon seltzer by providing valuable market insights and brand foundations.
- Stay close to consumers and culture: Regular immersion in consumer environments and cultural trends provides critical insights that can challenge assumptions and reveal new opportunities.
- Be prepared to pivot quickly: Having operational capabilities and a flexible mindset allows organizations to rapidly respond to emerging market opportunities.
- Differentiate with substance: High Noon’s use of real juice and vodka base provided meaningful differentiation in a category dominated by malt-based products.
- Amplify through strategic partnerships: The right media or influencer partnerships can dramatically accelerate brand growth and reach new audiences.
- Build robust innovation pipelines: Successful brands need continuous innovation across formats, flavors, and adjacent categories to sustain growth.
- Innovation is fluid, not linear: Effective innovation requires comfort with ambiguity and the ability to adapt processes to each unique opportunity.
DELIVERY ON EVENT FOCUS: Aligning Innovation with Business Strategy
The High Noon case study exemplifies aligning innovation with business strategy through several dimensions. First, Gallo recognized the strategic importance of entering the premium spirits market to complement their wine portfolio. When the original vodka strategy showed limited success, they quickly pivoted to the rapidly growing seltzer category while maintaining their core brand attributes. The innovation team worked closely with sales and operations to ensure the product could be manufactured and distributed effectively. They also strategically selected media partnerships that aligned with their target audience. Finally, they built a comprehensive innovation pipeline that extended the brand’s reach while staying true to its core positioning, demonstrating how innovation can drive long-term business growth when aligned with broader company strategy.
DELIVERY ON EVENT THEME: Harvesting Innovation and Sowing the Seeds of Future Growth
The High Noon story perfectly illustrates the conference theme. The team “harvested” insights from their initial vodka launch—even though it wasn’t as successful as hoped—and used those learnings to “sow the seeds” for the tremendously successful seltzer product. They continued this cycle by constantly observing market trends, consumer behaviors, and competitive activities to identify new growth opportunities. Their robust innovation pipeline demonstrates how they systematically planted seeds for future growth through variety packs, new spirit bases, and adjacent categories. The Pink Whitney case further reinforces this theme, showing how quickly the company could capitalize on emerging opportunities by leveraging their innovation capabilities and partnerships.
ACTION ITEMS FOR INNOVATION EXPERTS & CORPORATE CHANGEMAKERS
- Implement regular cultural immersion activities: Schedule quarterly immersion experiences where team members observe consumers in natural environments and explore emerging cultural trends.
- Develop rapid prototyping capabilities: Build operational flexibility to quickly create and test new product concepts when opportunities arise.
- Create cross-functional innovation teams: Ensure R&D, marketing, sales, and operations work together from the beginning of innovation projects to streamline development and implementation.
- Establish strategic media partnerships: Identify and cultivate relationships with influencers and media platforms that authentically connect with your target audience.
- Build robust innovation pipelines: Develop systematic approaches to continuously generate and evaluate new product concepts across formats, flavors, and adjacent categories.
- Embrace the “feet on the street” approach: Regularly send team members into retail environments to observe real consumer behavior and competitive activities.
- Challenge category conventions: Systematically identify and question category “rules” to discover unowned attributes and differentiation opportunities.
- Develop agile innovation processes: Create flexible frameworks that allow for pivoting when market conditions or consumer insights suggest new directions.