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Kathy Cannon, Director, Wines,at the Liquor Control Boardof Ontario (LCBO, Toronto)

says innovative concept-brandsand a corresponding influx ofnew packaging techniques in thewine market are propelling salesof Ontario VQA wines sky high.Concept-brands create a meaninggreater than any given product orservice delivered under thatbrand name. Apple provides theultimate example, because thecompany manufactures andmarkets various electronic goods,all of which are recognized forbeing easy to use, yet powerful,while looking very cool. Andnow the same concept-brandtrend is hitting Ontario VQAwines.

The Ontario VQA label is a quality designation from theOntario Vintners Quality Al-liance, an independent authorityoverseeing the province’s wine-production standards. Cannon,who heads up LCBO’s entirebuying and inventory team forboth domestic and internationalwines, explains: “For a long time,Ontario wineries relied on out-dated packaging and the as-sumption that, if it’s a greatwine, it will sell. But like it or not, buyers of the OntarioVQA category are buying basedprimarily on packaging andwhether they can relate to it.

“So for about the last threeyears, less traditional kinds of labels have put a different faceon the category and taken awaythe pretentious side of wine. Thenew packaging is funky and fun.It leaves customers not feelingintimidated and gives them theconfidence to shop around andpick up products with intriguingpackaging and try them. VQAwine doesn’t look like something my parents drink any more.”

Cannon confirms that the new products drivinggrowth are mainly less expensive wines (in roughly the$10-$15 price range) targeting younger, entry-level cus-tomers, who are not brand loyal but crave somethingnew and exciting. “It’s not just happening with wine,”Cannon clarifies. “Whenever we put new things outthat have funky packaging and a neat name – poof!They’re instant sellers to younger customers who wantto be on top of the trend.”

Cannon says the new style of wine branding coin-cides with a trend in Ontario and worldwide to produce

new wines consisting of a blend of several grape vari-etals (e.g., Riesling plus Chardonnay). She says theblends are designed for wider appeal and describesthem as “easy drinking – milder, tastier, not overly sweetbut off dry, with a lot of fruit but not a lot of tannin.”

She explains that the strategy behind all thesechanges is to build the base of Ontario wine shoppersand get the current shopper to buy more over time: “Werecognize that younger customers around age 25 havefewer responsibilities than older adults and thus higherdisposable incomes and higher levels of alcohol con-sumption. So we wanted to reach them at the tippingpoint of moving from coolers into wine.

“The idea is to attract peopleto buy wine throughout theirlifespan as a consumer, so weoffer a big selection of concept-brands that allows introductorycustomers to shop around andhave fun in the VQA section,then, when their palate is ready,move up into the more pre-mium wines LCBO sells in theVintages section.”

Cannon reports that, as a re-sult of new products, branding,and packaging over the past twoyears, the LCBO has seen dou-ble-digit growth of 16 to 18 per-cent in Ontario VQA sales – alevel significantly outpacingtheir total wine sales, which grewfour percent.

Innovative brands atHenry of PelhamCannon credits Henry of Pel-ham Family Estate Winery (St.Catharines) with pioneering thenew Ontario brands. Tradition-ally, the winery’s Henry of Pel-ham brand has always focusedon classic premium wines andemphasized the winery’s her-itage, commencing with itsnamesake, settler Henry Smithof Pelham.

The company’s branding de-parture came in 2008 with thelaunch of Sibling Rivalry, a port-folio of three wines with colour-ful, hand-drawn graphicsemphasizing the personalitiesand lighthearted partnership be-tween the three brothers Paul,Matthew, and Daniel Speck, whofounded the winery with theirfather and still run it today.

“The Sibling Rivalry brandingtries to make the wine easy andapproachable. It suggests funand special occasions, especiallyby the way we are dressed on the

label – in blue jeans, but expensive designer ones,” saysDaniel Speck, VP Sales and Marketing. “Because of thewinery’s association with premium brands, the winehas to be of good quality, but in this case it’s three dif-ferent blended varietals – red, white, and pink – one foreach of the three brothers.

“The fact that Sibling Rivalry was such a big hit cameas a surprise. We were terrified when we did it, but wefelt we had to. So many new wine products are beinglaunched into the LCBO that the old guard was feelingtheir limits, and then the economy went off a cliff, sowe needed to bring something new to market. It wasn’treally how we saw ourselves, and our real fear was, if it

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Concept-brands Leverage Packaging to Drive VQA Wines

was a total flop, it could also do somedamage to the original Henry brand.”

Following the success of Sibling Rivalry,they launched their next new accessibleconcept-brand in 2011: House Wine Co.,consisting of a white Riesling Pinot Gri-gio and a red Cabernet Shiraz blend withlabels resembling writing on a chalk-board and more marketing rubric aimedat banishing wine snobbery; for instance:Does good wine have to be complicated? Atour HOUSE, we believe too much stuff getsin the way of simple pleasures. We go to ourfavourite resto and say “just bring us whatYOU like, we trust you” and it’s alwaysawesome.

“The House branding creates a climatefor long-term storytelling, as well as thegrowth of our customers as wine con-sumers. I love going to a local barbequejoint in blue jeans with my wife to drinkbeer and eat pulled-pork sandwiches, butwe also got dressed up and went to theRitz-Carlton for our anniversary. In thesame way, customers can be in two mindspaces. People can drink House one dayand Henry the next, depending on theoccasion and their state of mind. The re-ality is people are not as brand loyal asthey used to be, so we see more brandsbeing developed so wineries can holdtheir volume and grow their business,”says Speck, whose winery plans to launchtwo new line extensions of the House-brand portfolio in the coming months.

Saving the planet at Château des CharmesMichèle Bosc, Director of Marketing atChâteau des Charmes (Niagara-on-the-Lake), says the fastest-growing cohort ofwine consumers is the Millennials, whoare willing to spend more disposable in-come on experiences like visiting winecountry. “The younger generation is alsointerested in the local movement, in wineas an agricultural product, and in savingthe planet. And the social-media revolu-tion has transformed food and wine frombeing topics for geeks to subjects foreveryday people. As a result, our market-ing has to appeal to all these factors.”

Bosc has engaged with the social-media wine community for at least two-and-a-half years and adds QR codes toher product labels: “QR codes make ourlabels dynamic for tech-savvy Gen-Yers.Typically, conventional labels are printedonce a year, and the information staysstatic on them until the winery sells outof that vintage. But QR codes enable con-sumers to obtain the most current infor-mation on our winery’s Website – evenwhile they are drinking our products at areception, where the codes act as a moretrendy and environmentally friendlyform of advertising than a stand-up card-board display.”

Bosc’s marketing collateral details howher father-in-law, Paul Bosc, who foundedthe winery, established sustainable agri-

MARCH 2012 • PRINTACTION • 15

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culture from the beginning, and howtheir environmentally conscious packag-ing uses FSC-certified papers, lighter-weight glass, and screw caps onlysparingly, since corks have a significantlylower carbon footprint. They donate a portion of profits from two of theirwines to the Toronto Zoo, while their recently released Generation Sevenwines, comprising an easy-drinkingwhite and a red blend, raise funds for aCanadian youth anti-hunger charitycalled Meal Exchange.

The Generation Seven label shows atree with a trunk resembling a DNAstrand and seven framed caricature-likeportraits in its branches, representingseven generations of the Bosc family whobuilt the winery. “Generation Seven isalso an ages-old ecological concept thatsays we must consider the decisions wemake today for seven generations into thefuture,” adds Bosc.

Tattoos and Love Potion at Legends EstatesLegends Estates Winery in Beamsville,Ontario, collaborated with a renownedlocal tattoo artist to design a three-wineportfolio called Truth or Dare, launchedabout a year ago, and consisting of a freshwhite blend (Truth), a bold red blend(Dare), and a sparkling rosé. “I wanted aconcept that would entice a demographicaged 19 to 40 to try wine instead of an-other alcoholic beverage,” explains Leg-ends Vice-President Paul Lizak. He saysthe brand’s plastic-sleeve bottles are morecommon for alcoholic spirits than wine:“While a conventional wine label costs 10to 15 cents, a shrink-wrapped sleeve likethis costs 45 to 65 cents; but we felt it wasimportant to use the sleeved bottle as ashowpiece, because people shop withtheir eyes first.”

The sparkling rosé’s price tag of under$20 is rare, but Legends makes the wineusing an unconventional tank-manufac-turing process that helps keep the price

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reasonable. Lizak says the winery hosts alot of weddings, but they never had asparkling wine to offer guests until now.He wanted to label the rosé “Love Potion”,but LCBO turned down the name be-cause of its supposed implications of sex-ual prowess. “Their response didn’t reallymake sense to us, when LCBO already hasother names like Fat Bastard [one of thenewer, uncharacteristically cheeky Frenchlabels] on the shelf,” he laughs.

Another of their recent brands, aimedmainly at women, called Diva, con-tributes some of its profits to a localwomen’s shelter. Next Legends plans toproduce an exclusive new premium winefor Vintages.

Consumer engagement and foreign markets for PillitteriStraight Up is the new brand of red andwhite blended wines launched last yearby Pillitteri Estates Winery (Niagara-on-the-Lake). Like other new VQA brands, itis skewed towards the younger market of“aspirationals” – but especially towardswomen, who are the primary wine pur-chasers among youthful consumers aged20 to 25, according to Jeff Letvenuk, Pil-litteri’s Marketing and Media RelationsManager.

Straight Up’s labels are clearly ad-dressed to people who don’t know any-

thing about wine. For instance, the whitewine’s label reads: You’re bright, fun andeasy going. You love to enjoy a glass of crisp,refreshing and delicious wine on a sunnypatio or while relaxing on a hot summerday. You know what you want, an easydrinking, great tasting WHITE. You can’tbe bothered with all those fancy names youcan’t pronounce – gew-urz-tra-what? Andlet’s be honest, what wine doesn’t go withchicken?

The label also provides such basic in-formation as which foods the wine goeswith, the exact temperature to which youshould chill it, and the size and shape ofglass in which you should serve it. Butone omission on Straight Up’s packagingis the Pillitteri name. “We consider it asecondary brand and a distinct entitythat requires a different type of market-ing, more of a beer approach,” explainsLetvenuk, whose tactics for Straight Upinclude social-media marketing and at-tractive young brand ambassadors, whodistribute wine samples, beads, sun-glasses, and other giveaways at majorevents likely to attract the target demo-graphic. Letvenuk expects their next ven-ture, scheduled for launch this summeror fall, will be even more heavily con-sumer driven.

Letvenuk explains that, unlike StraightUp’s keep-it-simple approach, packaging

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for higher-end wines, aimed at establishedwine drinkers and high-knowledge con-sumers, uses thicker glass, unique bottle

styles, and a more prestigious-lookinglabel with more and different infor-

mation. Thus Pillitteri’s Exclama-tion brand, aimed at affluentBaby Boomers, has a label madeof pewter and is inspired by awork of modern art owned bythe winery.

Unlike many other Ontariowineries that sell their productsmostly in Ontario or other Cana-dian provinces, Pillitteri marketsits wares aggressively to over 30different countries. Letvenukuses several different label suppli-ers, including one producer ofshorter-run digital labels for for-eign test-marketing in places likeChina, where he says consumerswant all wines to have a very tra-ditional look. He especially ap-preciates label suppliers whooffer him not only original de-signs but also new technologiesfor embossing, 3D textures, holo-grams, and other enhancementsto keep things looking fresh, since

the LCBO requires wineries likehis to reinvent their products every

three to five years.

Girls rule at Colio EstateCannon identifies one ofthe best launched On-tario brands as GirlsNight Out (GNO)by Colio EstateWinery (Harrow),a brand targeteddirectly towomen. DougBeatty, VP Mar-keting (Missis-sauga), says thebr and-conceptoriginated in hisdiscussions overthe kitchen tablewith his wife anddaughters, plusthe fact thatwomen accountfor a majority ofall household pur-chasing decisions.

“The expression‘Girls Night Out’may mean some-thing different toevery woman youtalk to, but it alwayscarries a sense of respite fromthe drudgery of everyday life, a sense

MARCH 2012 • PRINTACTION • 35

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of empowerment, and an exclusive realm that weguys will never belong to,” says Beatty.

He sought approval for the label designs, eachshowing a different style of dress, from a circle ofclose female friends before taking them to thepresentation stage. “At the time, things werestill male-dominated at the LCBO, as well aswith my own management and ownershipteam. So one of the biggest hurdles we facedwas selling the concept. But when I showedit to women, it resonated with them.

“As the concept evolved, I struggled tokeep all male opinions away to avoid com-promising both the concept and the in-tegrity of the product, because women willnot put up with anything that speaks tothem of deception and patronization,” heexplains.

Today the GNO portfolio consists ofseven wines, some blended and some singlevarietals. In 2008, Colio launched the firstthree wines at Buff Nail Lounge in Toronto,so guests could enjoy manicures and pedi-cures while sampling the products. A por-tion of proceeds from every bottle sold wasdonated to Girls Helping Girls, a charitythat assists female college students in finan-cial need. For GNO Rosé’s 2011 launch, All-Stick Label Limited designed a label with alikeness of a sequined dress requiring atechnically challenging combination of foiland a pearl finish.

In 2010, Colio launched four GNO flavouredwines with a light alcohol content, fruit flavour pro-file, and names like Tropical Tango (grapefruit/pineapple/lemon) and Citrusberry (blueberry/blood orange). At first Beatty thought the

flavoured wines might diminish the reputationof Colio’s VQA products, but he also recog-nized that women might drink Chardonnaywith a meal, but might want to drink some-thing more fun while sitting around the pool.Like Speck, he ultimately decided the new lineextensions were a way of speaking to the sameaudience on different occasions. His futureplans include marketing partnerships withlarge retailers and female-targeted movies, aswell as expansion into most of the world’smajor English-speaking markets

Cannon says other countries, especially inthe New World, have climbed on similarbandwagons, but that Ontario is by far thecurrent world leader in innovative winebrands: “Recently we had a French conglom-erate visit which commented on how greatour Ontario VQA section looked and thoughtthe French had a lot to learn from it. It’s excit-ing for Ontario winemakers, because for along time they were chasing and copying everyother country. For once, other countries arelooking to Ontario as a leader.”

Victoria Gaitskell is keen to exchange ideaswith readers at victoria@printaction.com

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