About

My experience includes work with both small and large companies, as a brand manager, in retail and restaurant sales, in operations analysis and market research. I hold an MBA from Cornell University and a BA in Economics from Franklin & Marshall College. 

I started Full Glass Research in 2005 for the purpose of offering clear answers and applicable solutions to people with questions or problems of marketing, sales, product planning or industry strategy. Full Glass Research focuses on food and beverage categories that feature a wide variety of flavors, many producers and a craft or artisanal element.

Understanding the unusual aspects of your business category. Consumer quirks, distribution issues, demographic skews and other aspects that make an industry unique must be taken into account. A one-size-fits-all approach to research design can neglect key elements that will impact your ability to use the answers provided.

Choosing the best research methodology for your budget and issues. The best way to find answers will change with the questions. I have experience with online, phone and mail surveys; package and label tests; field and trade research; focus groups; sensory evaluation; data mining and tabulation; market research techniques such as conjoint analysis, multi-dimensional scaling, regression, A/B testing; and economic impact studies using public and private data.

Getting answers to key questions that you can use. The planning phase of the research project must narrow down the research to the key issues, and figure out exactly what answers or data are needed to make important decisions. There is a lot of data that is “nice to know” but not impactful. You shouldn’t necessarily have to pay for it.

Assembling the best team. Depending on the project's scope and scale, we will assemble, assign or partner with experienced recruiters, moderators, programmers, researchers and analysts. I have also partnered with many of the leading organizations when doing research in these categories, including Wine Opinions,  NielsenIQ, Universities of Oregon and California, the Wine Market Council, BW166, Turrentine Brokerage, Scion Advisors and Dragonfly SCI.

Established over 25 years ago, this program is a joint enterprise of the global Organization Internationale de Vin et de la Vigne and the University of California Davis extension program. It provides a crash course in all the essential skills required to bring a wine to market in the U.S. The program takes place for 1-2 weeks every July in Davis. It is open to people in and out of the wine industry, as well as being part of the requirements for the OIV MSc degree.

A non-profit organization, the Wine Market Council has provided wine market knowledge, trends, insights, and intelligence essential to all tiers of the wine industry.  It conducts a regular segmentation survey of U.S. wine consumers that is an industry benchmark, as well as quantitative and qualitative studies on topics of special interest each year. The WMC puts on regular webinars for members, occasionally open to the press and public. Full members have access to the complete data of every project, associate members may obtain topline reports, and both receive a regular newsletter..

In addition to being proprietor of Full Glass Research, I co-founded and continue to advise Wine Opinions. Wine Opinions specializes in both qualitative and quantitative market research in the wine and spirits industries. Wine Opinions has unique resources and capabilities in the wine & spirits categories, including national consumer and trade panels with thousands of members, a specialized online qualitative methodology, and principals with years of experience in the industry. For more information, please contact me via cmiller@wineopinions.com .