REthink Wine Blog

We’ve talked about the changing nature of of marketing and consumer involvement here before, but a post at California Life got me thinking about the topic again. In general I believe that the movement toward a flatter more inclusive market empowers consumers and weakens the power of producers and marketers to shape their audience’s perceptions. When word of mouth is amplified and given wings by a global communication platform like the internet, it dwarfs the unilateral broadcast muscle of marketers.

Wineries may be uniquely positioned to take a more active role in the conversation. Thanks to the popularity of tasting rooms consumers are already used to the idea of talking directly to the wine producer and being educated by her. Wine drinkers crave information about what they are drinking and wineries have the opportunity to participate in the space that folks like Gary Vaynerchuk have already rushed into.

The hardest part of this is going to be that wine producers will have to trade the safe turf of their own tasting rooms and converse with consumers on an equal footing – on the internet there are no pourers, just fellow drinkers.

We sometimes think of winery websites as "virtual tasting rooms". Okay, you can't actually taste the wine on a website, but in other ways a website can, and should, achieve much of what a tasting room does. Next time you're thinking about the content of your web site, or if you're building a new one, a lot of what you already know about your tasting room will help you with your online presence.

Making A Connection

Tasting rooms allow customers to make a personal connection to your wine. Tasting room employees engage with customers in a way that captures a customer's attention in a way that no other kind of promotion can. A winery website has the potential to make a connection in a similar way. What are you saying on your website? Can you imagine an employee in your tasting room talking like the text reads on your site? You have an opportunity to connect directly with customers on your website – don't lose sight of the human being on the other side of the screen.

Honoring the Journey

When somebody shows up at your tasting room you know that they have traveled to get there. You appreciate they have taken the time to visit your winery and you try to make sure they don't regret that investment. A customer visiting your website has also made a journey. Maybe they arrived after searching for your wine on Google or following a link from another site. However they got there, they made a choice to visit your site and have invested some time in exploring it. They should feel like they are getting some value in return, whether it's a special offer on a wine, an opportunity to join your club or an invitation to a winery event.

Beating the Competition

Especially in the big wine centers there are plenty of opportunities to visit tasting rooms. Many people who visit your winery may already have been to one or two others and may visit more after they have left. You need to create a memory of your winery that stands out among the other tasting room visits that day. One the web the competition is even more severe. You are competing with millions of other web sites and all of them are only a click away. How have you distinguished yourself and made sure the memory of your web site stays with each customer?

In an Interview with Wine Business Monthly tasting room consultant Veronica Barclay says that the purpose of a tasting room is to "create memories". A good winery website can do the same thing. But what about the purpose of selling wine? I'll get to that in a future post.

Last week the San Jose Mercury News reported optimistically on the state of the wine industry in these economically troubled times. With the not so original title “Wine Industry See The Glass Half Full” the Mercury News presents the conventional wisdom that people are continuing to buy wine, though may be looking for more value at lower prices. I have to wonder: is there anybody who turns down a good wine value at any time? (more…)

It has often been argued that the true value of social networking, whether in blogging, Facebook, consumer generated content, Twitter, or otherwise, lies in the transparency it brings between you and your audience.  That is especially true if your ultimate goal is in building long term relationships with your customers, partners, vendors, or employees.

As technologies that are now considered cutting-edge become main stream, and as Millennials, with their reputation for being fully connected and passionate, begin to overtake Baby Boomers and Gen X’ers in numbers, a tremendous opportunity presents itself in the form of Social Media.  Exactly how are Millennials staying connected?  Are they reading newspapers or are they reading blogs and other forms of Social Media?

For employees, partners, and customers alike, transparency provides clarity behind the direction of your company and your brand.  For employees, it’s a constant reminder of why they come to work each day.  For customers, it answers the all important question “Why should I stay”?

Web 2.0 has provided a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.  It allows for real people to connect with others – in vibrant and open discussions about what interests them most.  Gone are the days of hiding behind the corporate brand.  With transparency comes trust.  It is your opportunity to display your company’s human side and begin building a direct dialog with customers.

Developing a Social Media strategy means adapting to change and understanding that your brand is now in the hands of forces outside of your control, meaning it’s in the hands of your consumers.

As you begin to develop a Social Media strategy, there are several important principals to keep in mind:

• Know your audience:  Are they customers, employees, industry veterans, or colleagues?
• Give more than you receive:  Blogging is about the sharing of information.
• Always place the needs of your customers first.
• Admit when you’ve a mistake:  Your customers will respect you for it.
• Work with customers to improve your product and your brand.
• Don’t be afraid to show your weaknesses as well as your strengths.
• Reveal your true corporate identity: in the form of your product, your services, and your employees.

Social Media is a whole new ballgame.  If the goal is to display authenticity, you can’t address your audience through a corporate filter.  They want to know the real you.  This is your chance to talk openly and honestly with them.  It is the perfect opportunity to expose the people and the vision behind your name.

So, whether you’re just getting your feet wet by posting comments on blogs or on Facebook, or are diving right in and starting a blog of your own, the easiest places to start are in answering some of the following questions:

• What makes you proud to be sitting where you are today? 
• What is your story? 
• How about your winery’s story?
• Who are your customers and what motivates them?

Social media presents a tremendous opportunity to learn, both from the good news and the bad. 

From Jonathan Schwartz’s (CEO of Sun Microsystems) blog:   “Sunlight’s not just a great disinfectant, it’s a wonderful safety net, too - you can’t fix the problems you don’t know about. But once you know about a problem, even small attempts to help, multiplied over the long tail of the internet, can make an extraordinary difference.”

Everyone knows that the key to building a successful online marketing initiative is building a good database. The more contacts you have in your database the better, since these are the people who will continue to receive information from you on new wines or any special promotions. The people who know and enjoy your product will repeatedly purchase your wines, and will become your best customers. These repeat buyers are the cheapest to market to, and the easiest to convert. This is why it is always important to maintain customer contact and reach out to recent buyers on a personal basis to make sure you continue to nurture that relationship.
As we ramp up our Direct-to-Trade platform, we are finding that the same mentality holds true for trade accounts. A few weeks ago, Andrea spoke about the importance of building and segmenting your trade database on the REthink blog. By harvesting business cards from your tasting room staff or reviewing depletion lists to see what accounts have purchased in the past you are slowly building a list of reliable trade accounts that have tasted or purchased your wine. You should segment these by type of account, level of relationship, and what wines they purchased.
By using your DTT channel to sell wines direct to these accounts; you are enabling your winery to better build these direct relationships with the trade, which is what will allow you to have the personal touch you have with all of your consumers. So what are the first steps to make sure your trade accounts become repeat buyers?

• Make sure all orders ship quickly and on time to trade accounts
• Include materials that are directed towards members of the trade such as shelf talkers and detailed tasting notes
• Always follow up with the account to make sure the wines arrived safely, this can be as simple as a short phone call made shortly after the wines are sent
• Note what wines accounts purchase and buying patterns for follow up efforts

All of these simple steps will help you maintain a relationship with trade accounts that will encourage them to continue to purchase your wines. And remember, repeat buyers are easy targets so the better the relationships you have with your accounts in your trade database, the more sales you will see come through your direct channel.

Recently, some friends and I went wine tasting here in Napa Valley.

Our first stop was Rutherford Hill Winery where one in our group was a club member. A pick up party was in progress for club members and we were given the VIP treatment. We had our own section in the front patio, several staff members to chat with and pour and a terrific snack spread. The Cabernets are always wonderful here and the new realease Syrah was terrific! We spent quite some time there and several extra bottles of wine were purchased–a direct result of the special treatment we felt we’d recieved. I mentioned this to the club manager and she confirmed that pick up parties for club members were very successful compared to having club members stop by when they could.

Next was Baldacci where an appointment is requested. Luckily, they had time for us that day and shared some wonderful Pinot’s. We took our time, savored every sip and were rewarded with one on one time with the staff here once the tasting room cleared out. Stories were told and recommendations for other wineries were shared by the staff members (big score in our books!). Again, more wine was purchased, partly because it’s so good and partly because of the friendly out-going staff that made us all feel special.

My point? Throw a pick up party for your wine club members. Make sure your staff is friendly and spends time with your customers. My other point? Go wine tasting. Meet the winery staff. Take your time and enjoy yourselves. Ask questions. Ask for recommendations. Winery staff members have a wealth of knowledge and the willingness to share–take the time to find out what they know. Your wine tasting experience will be hugely enhanced by doing so.

Cheers,

Jennifer

Over the past 4 months I have spoken with many wineries that are “thinking about” dedicating more time and resources to support their ecommerce channel. After all, a website for many wineries today is nothing more than an online sales brochure. They see that nearly all of the reports support the fact that the Ecommerce is the fastest growing channel and most importantly, levels the playing field for the smaller wineries. But when is a good time to revamp a website to make it worthy of facilitating ecommerce? Well, I can certainly tell you that waiting until after harvest is too late.

More often than not, what prevents wineries from fulfilling the most important phase of sales and marketing - planning - are activities relating to production (i.e. bottling, harvest). Is it more important to focus on producing wine than selling it? Shouldn’t they have equal balance within your business? Also, with the current state of the economy (gas prices, drop in disposable income, etc.) many consumers are choosing to pay FedEx and UPS to ship their wine rather than make the annual drive to wine country. Historically, most planning activity comes to a complete halt in the summertime in order to align resources to focus on the tasting room customers. This year, I suggest carving out some of that time and energy to support those customers that may not be ale to visit…and in doing so you will provide a great destination for those who have the opportunity to visit and want to stay connected.

So what non-production related event can the sales and marketing folks rally around to generate a sense of urgency for the Direct Sales channel? It’s called the ‘Fall Release’. It might not sound quite as fancy as harvest or crush, but it certainly has dollar signs associated with it for those wineries who only release wine twice a year. Following the ‘Fall Release’, of course, is the holiday season (O-N-D) and if you don’t have your plans in place 60 days prior, there is a good chance those plans will never come to fruition (no pun intended).

Inertia’s 5th Annual Direct Symposium will take place on July 11th, from 9-3:30pm at COPIA in Napa. This year, we’ve expanded our agenda to include interactive sessions on topics chosen by attendees. Last month, we released a survey on what we were hearing from our clients and industry partners as the ‘hottest’ topics in the direct industry. Topics included:

• Website Design
• Website Merchandising
• Selling Direct to Trade 
• Direct Shipping Compliance
• Allocation Program Management 
• Wine Club Management
• Wine Blogging
• Online Social Networks

We asked attendees to ‘vote’ on their topics of choice for breakout sessions at our July Symposium. The results were tallied, and we have our winners… 

• Selling Direct to Trade: Access. Control. Sales. 
• Direct Shipping Compliance: A Dynamic Marketplace. Your Options.
• Wine Blogging: Brand Building, Customer Loyalty and Sales
• Online Social Networks: Consumer- to-Consumer, Peer-to-Peer Engagement
• Website Design: Designing for Best User Experience & Greatest Sales
• Website Merchandising:  Sell More Online 

Our Symposium agenda will allow attendees to participate in two breakout sessions of their choice: One in the morning, one in the early afternoon. During each of these sessions, panelists will lead an interactive discussion with the audience around a designated topic. Based on several workshops which we led earlier in the year, we know our clients are eager to engage and look forward to some good interaction.

Because of limited space in each of our breakout sessions, we request that attendees reserve their spot in the session of their choice as soon as possible. Signups will be taken the day of the Symposium, at check in, but to ensure you get a seat in the topic of your choice, send your request through today (along with your RSVP if you haven’t already!) to rsvp@inertiabev.com.

See you in July!

As the web has matured, this is a problem that has become evident in many industries. And I believe it is especially relevant in the wine industry. Wine marketers are increasingly finding themselves in the position of working with fragmented pieces of information from several different technology vendors in developing and executing their marketing strategies. Consumers, on the other hand, are becoming more and more accustomed to the targeted and personalized attention they receive from some of the big box retailers who have made it their mission over the past several years to understand and master the art of multi-channel marketing. And so for wineries, the issue of reconciling several separate silos of information (POS, ecommerce, and wine club) has intensified at precisely the time consumers are raising the bar in terms of heightened expectations.

As a wine marketer, there are several factors which are of vital importance to you in developing a multi-channel marketing strategy:

• A clear understanding of your customer’s purchasing habits and wine preferences, regardless of channel
• An understanding of customer loyalty as it relates to club membership and longevity, order history and VIP status
• The ability to reach customers when and where they want to be reached, with information that is personal and relevant

The solution lies in your ability to capture all information regarding customer behavior in a format which is “actionable” for you as a marketer. I think Forrester Research has coined it best in explaining that the answer lies in the development of an “Online Marketing Suite”. And while the Forrester research involves primarily “interactive marketing” as it relates to a marketer’s ability to integrate the myriad of online marketing technologies available today (email, search marketing, analytics, and Web 2.0 technologies), there are two aspects of the “Online Marketing Suite” that are especially relevant for the wine industry. As Forrester explains, the “Suite” requires two core components:

1. “The central hub – the molten core of the suite that enables marketers to manage and integrate online data.” At Inertia, our philosophy is that all customer data should be available to you in the cloud for purposes of segmentation and targeted marketing, because this is precisely where the superior tools you need in order to reach your best customers are available. In developing a customer centric marketing strategy, we believe that you need a true 360 degree view of the customer in combination with advanced list management and email marketing capabilities. And from the customer perspective, a wine club member or customer making a purchase in the tasting room should be able to visit your website, login and view tracking information and complete order history, regardless of whether purchases were made in the tasting room, online, or as part of a club shipment. This is the approach we’ve taken with respect to point-of-sale integration and it is the reason we’ve worked hard to perfect our club and allocation packages. Of course, we believe in making the data available to your tasting room personnel as well, as this is a must in delivering exemplary customer service.
2. “The network – a thriving community of technology and service partners”. Again, I think Forrester is right on the mark here. All customers win when complimentary technology companies work in harmony, and to that end we’ve made it our mission to develop a vibrant partner ecosystem, one which we believe will significantly enhance value for our winery partners. By devoting resources to an expanded partner program, involving partners who are experts in their respective fields, we can continue to focus on our own core competencies, driving opportunity in terms of demand generation, CRM, and increased lifetime value of the customer.

We know that the ability to manage data from several different sources is a major challenge facing everyone in the industry. By partnering with companies whose business models share important synergies with our own, we hope to change all of that.

Before joining Inertia, I was roaming wine country roads; I would hit tasting rooms and meet wonderful people, hug the vines and taste wines on all ends of the spectrum. Being on the road brings you closer to the actual consumer experience and reminds you of what selling direct is all about. As I’ve been diving deeper into the virtual world of wine2.0 and the challenges of creating a wine experience online, I’d almost forgotten the joys of being in wine country and tasting and connecting.

Sure, you can taste and connect at trade tastings and such events also really make the process efficient – 300 brands in one afternoon! OK, we can all admit that with the exception of the most prolific wine writers – or avid swillers – it’s not easy to see, hear and taste all at trade tastings. They are great, much like Costco, but you might miss a little something. So is there a middle ground? Can you find a single place where you can get the wine country feel, while at the same time go through the serious work of tasting dozen of wines?

The answer of course is, Yes - it’s in the multi-brand tasting rooms. As I was on a little tour of the Napa Valley with my crew to taste some of our client’s wines, we decided to go for efficiency. We hit the following tasting spots:

Folio Winemaker’s Studio: is home to many great brands, several being Folio brands of course. The studio artfully blends different experiences and is a great wine country concept from Michael Mondavi.

Silenus Vintners: also a custom crush facility for artisan winemakers, this beautiful tasting room is home to 13 boutique wineries that you may not have heard of before, but that you will surely remember.

Cult Wine Central: as the name says, this is where you go for the big guns. As all the wines go for a certain status – the odd effect in having them altogether is one of democratization – no single wine has a pedestal here so the wines are much more approachable.

In all 3, the staff was extremely knowledgeable on all the brands presented and very friendly – everything was perfect for an afternoon of serious tasting. Thanks again!

While technically we were in multiple tasting rooms of 18 inches in width, these felt a bit like a cozy farmer’s market. They were all extremely comfortable, while each had its own distinct personality, which, consciously or unconsciously, infused the wines. As a wine guy, I believe such wine venues are great for the industry and the consumer. They allow small brands to coalesce and reach economies of scale in order to create a space for a precious and crucial moment to happen: the direct connection between a wine lover, your brand, your message and your wine.

For wineries without a tasting room or for those dreaming of getting their own – finding a spot on that multi-brand bar is a great go-between. The most effective way to create a direct relationship with customers is to meet them while they are meeting your wine in a glass. From that initial contact, a relationship must be nurtured so it may flourish into lasting sales. As we focus a lot on managing your existing customers here at Inertia – it’s great to go out and be reminded how such relationships are created in the first place.