50 innovative and affordable wine marketing initiatives - a brief taster of the 250 to be found in...

DWI - Oppenheim, June, 2014

A Wine Thinker Presentation

50 innovative, affordable ways to improve your wine

business

50Marketing

ideas

From the 250In my

Wine Marketing

Toolkit

(To be published in late 2014)

Art

There are lots of things you can do: local artists’ works

on your walls; artist in residence; sponsor galleries

and shows…

#1

Label (& back label)

Big food companies review their labels every

few years. Do you?

#2

We’re on our third label review in 10 years

What is it made from?

Where was it produced?

Does your back label really offer useful information?

Use your back label to invite consumers to visit your website

to find the answers to their questions – or to ask new ones

#2

Be a winemaker - lease/adopt a vine

Sell a 10-year “lease” on 6 vines (shown on a vineyard map) and

deliver 12 bottles per year.

#3

allow consumers to pay you to let them help you pick your grapes. Believe

me, they’ll do it…

So this is what they mean by a vineyard

experience!


I thought I’d be

harvesting with nubile

18 year olds in

t-shirts!

books/leaflets – and ebooks…

#4

What do you think really happens to all the expensively printed

brochures?

Ebooks (on memory stick) are a

better idea

Offering a link to an online ebook is cheaper and better still

Here’s a little ebook project we created for Wines of Brasil.

(accessed via QR codes on almost all bottles shipped to the UK and

US)

But real books can be a very good concept. (Nobody throws them away)

Soil

Two clever ideas I saw at Vinitaly…

#5

Gifts

Some wineries make as much money at cellar door from non-wine as

from wine

#6

Cartons

Your carton is not just a way of getting your wine to your customer. It’s part

of your marketing campaign. Or should be.

#7

Children

If you have a cellar door, what do you offer the

non-drinkers? Keep them happy, and you’ll keep

their parents happy.

#8

You could be right son… That

winery does look as though it has a play

area


colour code capsules

Learn from Nespresso. Make recognising and

remembering your styles easy.

#9

consumer comment

Consumers are the opinion formers of today. Give

them the chance to share their opinions of your wine

and cellar door.

#10

Communicate

Don’t just talk at customers.

#11

Use your website and/or social media to communicate

with your customers

consumer competitions

People like winning things. So why not let

them do so…

#12

… or they could win a book

consumer research

Australia’s wineries are getting good at testing out new styles and packaging

on cellar door visitors – and at public tastings

#13

cosmetics / perfume

Most people have some skin cream/soap/scent in their

bathroom. Maybe it could be yours. And you could remind

them of your brand every morning. Profitably.

#14

Crowd

Crowd-sourcing and funding are hot. Why not invite your customers to help you shape a wine?

And its packaging.

#15

Distribution

How much do you question what your distributors tell

you about the market? How much research do you

do for yourself?

#16

Facebook

Use Facebook as your website. Keep it fresh.

#17

Family

People like buying wine from families. As Hardy’s

and Gallo realise.

#18

family

Fashion

Wine is a luxury – like clothing. Both reflect

personal taste. So why not work with a fashion brand?

#19

Food & Wine

People who never think to match food and wine at home love doing it when

visiting wineries.

#20

gift cartons

Champagne comes in gift boxes and is given as a gift. Pricy wine doesn’t.

And isn’t.

#21

A great notion – from my business partner, Kevin Shaw -doing well at Safeway in the

US

So which would you pick up to take as a gift?

Sydney Airport Duty Free has lots of nicely gift-packed

wine

…Because of all the Chinese tourists, who are used to

wine gift packaging in their country.

Group

Appellations are dragged down by the poorest

members. Small groups of like-minded producers

make more sense

#22

iphone and ipad covers, mousemats etc

Put your brand in front of your customers when

they’re not thinking about wine…

#23

jump the table

People who stand among the visitors rather than behind the table tend to

have the greatest success

#24

library release

You believe your wine is worth cellaring. Prove it – by selling old bottles at

high prices.

#25

logo

#26

How many French/Italian/Spanish labels

can you recall?

What can can you remember of these labels?

Our little sheep helps to get the first bottle into people’s

hands. And then it helps them to recognise the bottle when they want another one

Music

#27

People like

music. You can play on

that.

number bottles

If you don’t make huge numbers of each of your

wines, why not tell customers – by

numbering your labels.

#28

photographs / instagram / dropbox

Use imagery. People remember it. Encourage Instagram and Pinterest. Put your pics onto

Flickr.

Encourage people to use them (eg on blogs etc)

#29

Postcards

Give postcards to cellar door visitors. And a

postbox. And/or offer e-postcards

#30

Print a message on your cork

It’s a free space on which to say all sorts of things…

#31

product placement

It can cost a fortune to get your wine onto a screen.

But some have managed it simply by sending a few

bottles to the studio

#32

However you get it, don’t trust viewers to notice/recall your

wine’s appearance. You have to promote it yourself.

There are 3 types of wine producer

#33

The ones who don’t believe in QR Codes

The ones who use QR Codes and get no results

#33

And the ones who use QR Codes properly

Have you been to Buckingham Palace?


Why not?


Because you haven’t been invited

qr

#33

Wrong!

Is there a call to action?Does it lead directly to:

• Your website? • A video clip? • Your Facebook page?

• A mobile-friendly Microsite with a menu?My shaving oil gets it

right.

Over 30,000 people scanned the QR codes we put on McGuigan

wine bottles – and over 6,000 gave us their email

addresses

SEO

You need it

#34

SEO is a skilled task. If you want to attract visitors you need keywords and appropriate content on every page


Including links to (and pics of) local landmarks, businesses, recipes, history can all build traffic from potential visitors


service

(including after-sales)

The more help – and confidence - you give your

consumers, the more they’ll like you

#35

If the wine industry made computers or cameras –

There would be no instruction manuals

Buyers would be told to buy a book – or take a class

special cuvée

Add spice to your brand by creating some limited-

release wines

#36

tasting truck

An easy way to take your brand on the road

#37

Tattoo

A fun concept at public events – especially if you spread the word via social

media

#38

Alsace producer, Etienne Hugel kidnaps visitors to

his Vinexpo HK stand, tattoos them – and posts pictures of what he has

done on Facebook.

teach cooking / offer recipes

People (in the Western world at least) are readier to learn about food than

wine…

#39

theme menus

Instead of just hosting wine dinners, why not offer a focus, such as

Bava’s ‘Wines to Enjoy with Truffles’

#40

Italian producer, Roberto Bava holds clever dinners across the world in which he offers themes such as wines to go with truffles

tripadvisor

People trust Tripadvisor. So why not use it to attract

visitors to your winery? By including it on your website – and encouraging visitiors

to post their views.

#41

Twitter

If you are not watching what people are saying about your wines (and your region and

competitors) and responding… You’re missing

a trick

#42

URL - website

#43

Is your URL on your label?


Is it visible?

Does your website tell visitors:

?


How your wines (including old vintages) taste?

How to serve them (how old, what temperature,

with what food)?Where to buy them?

Because these are the things they really want to know.

Rather than all the stuff about soil,picking dates and your family history


Vehicle

Use your wheels to promote your brand

#44

Krug – appropriately, uses a Rolls to deliver to local customers.

Gouturbe, a family-owned Champagne house uses an electric delivery van – which sends out a nice green message.


wine name

Is your wine name unique? Or are you

relying on a region or grape variety?

D’Arenberg gets it right…

#45

Watch

Just for fun… a watch we’ll be giving to winners

of le Grand Noir competitions

#46

Wifi

Do you offer free wifi at your cellar door? If not, why not? People using it

might say nice things about your wines…

#47

wine club

US wineries know that subscription wine clubs –

run properly – are a tremendous profit centre

#48

Why have a wine club?1) To build an ongoing relationship with

consumers2) To make more money3) Not to be as beholden to retail

customers4) To make more money5) To create more Word of Mouth

promotion6) To make more money7) To be able to research new concepts

– cheaply8) To make more money

Over 9% of all home-consumption wine in the US is now bought direct.

A growing proportion through wine club

subscriptions Average wine price: $37

The average wine club member joins several

clubsThey remain members

for 24 months, on average

They like red wineThey like to choose for

themselves

They like discounts but really like “unavailable

elsewhere” offersThey like consistently

costed offersThey are best recruited by properly trained staff

They are worth $1,200-1,700 during their

membershipJust imagine: even 500

members at $1,000 each…

wine-cards

Our US distributors Prestige have business-

card sized cards for each of the wines they sell –

with an image of the label and relevant information.

#49

youtube / youku

People increasingly watch video clips, if they know they’re there. Tarlant, a

small family Champagne estate had an audience of

10,000 for this

#50

And this was seen by over 6 million

notebook & phone

Use these… To record what other clever people (and not just wine producers)

are doing. Steal their best ideas - shamelessly

#51 (free supplementary gift)

Why?

#52 (free supplementary gift)

Use this word

Often

(Few other people in the wine world ever do)

why not?

And better still…

Try these two rarely used words

If you would like to know more about the Wine Marketing Toolkit or talk to me about consulting or presenting,

please get in [email protected]

thejosephreport.comthewinethinker.com

@robertjoseph

mailto:[email protected]