Some locations seem to specialize in favorable conditions for selected test market trials, such as for high-end beer, premium vodkas, or Brazilian steakhouses.

Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, decided to test market three kinds of low-calorie, craft-style light beers in only four cities starting in 2008: Minneapolis, Minnesota; Charlotte, North Carolina; San Diego, California; and Baltimore, Maryland.

Their goal was to establish a new category for light craft-style beers and to capitalize on three noticeable trends in the beer industry: the shift toward lighter beers (fewer calories and carbohydrates), more variety, and the so-called premiumization- high-end, quality-perceived offerings.

It's a solid idea because craft beer sales for 2006 were up 17.8 percent, and those four cities have the right combination of demographics to warrant the test market.20 Fuller's, a London brewery founded in 1711, selected Denver, Colorado, as the premium United States locale to test market its high-end London Pride beer. Why Denver?

The area is home to a hefty quantity of beer drinkers who prefer the high-end brews and presumably won't mind spending $8 for a London Pride six-pack. People there, research has found, are "friendly" to premium or craft-style beers.

Even better, craft beer commands a 10 percent market share in Colorado, putting it third in the nation. Fuller's marketing approach included radio ads that trolled for the golf and outdoors-focused types who are more the "microbrew set," the company said.21 Anheuser-Busch is test-running its Purus vodka, distilled in Italy and fetching $35 a bottle retail, in Boston, New York, Washington, and Annapolis. Why there?

The company wants to attract the "modern luxury connoisseur" to their organic wheat-based Purus, and they want to test-position it in those cities' most exclusive lounges and restaurants as well as in a handful of specialty groceries and liquor stores. Again, there's evidence of sober thinking behind the approach: U.S. sales of upper-end or premium vodkas more than doubled between 2003 and 2006. Typical consumers?

Young drinkers, aged 21 to 30, who care more about image than price.22 What U.S. city did International Restaurant Concepts of Lakewood, Colorado, select to test market its Tucanos Brazilian Grill steakhouse? Provo, Utah. At glance, Provo's demographics would seem against it: Of its 100,000 residents, 87 percent are white and only 10 percent Hispanic, so where's the market for churrascaria?

It turns out that because Provo is the home of Brigham Young University and runs a missionary training center for the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, many of the thousands of Mormon students sent out in the have been posted to Brazil. In addition, the university population comprises many international students-all of which generates an ethnically diverse and language-rich community and good test market.23

Question

1. What characteristics do the cities of Minneapolis, Charlotte, San Diego, and Baltimore possess that make them good markets for introducing premium-level beers?

2. How would you tailor a test market experimentation for Brazilian cuisine in a Mormon-saturated region whose members, nonetheless, are well-traveled and versed in Brazilian foods?