Monthly Archives: April 2007

Top Ten Winery Blogging Mistakes

Ryan Opaz founded his website dedicated to Spanish and Portuguese wines in June 2005. He’s also conducted his own research on the web, looking for wine blogs run by wineries.

He didn’t expect that wineries who started blogs to help promote their wines would make it SO HARD TO GET A HOLD OF THEM. Out of the 30 or more blogs that he went through, he was only able to find an email address a quarter of the time, let alone a contact page. Seeing that I’m attempting to learn as much as I can about the online wine marketing arena, I assumed the wise choice was to share this information with anyone out there interested in his discoveries. Here’s his list of Top Ten Winery Blogging Mistakes:

EMAIL - We all hate Spam! I hate Spam; you hate Spam; we all hate Spam. So I understand the reluctance to put up an email address on a public website, but this is not an option if you are a winery looking for publicity and higher sales.  Email is the telephone of today, and every time I have to search for basic contact information, the business is not only losing out on free publicity, but also a simple nice comment like, “I really enjoyed your wine the other day…”

Flash - Flash is pretty. Flash is sexy. Flash is also a waste of a journalists or consumers time when they already know your wineries name. We don’t need your name visually poured out of a glass and onto our page with discordant violins in the background. Flash is a tool to show ideas, or for fun games, but it is not a good communicator. How many times have I just wanted to cut and paste some text from a wineries site into an article for the sake of clarification but ran into a flash site? You can’t use the text in a flash image, nor can search engines index text that is included in a flash presentation – making your website a disaster to search for.

No Information about Wines – This I know seems a bit too obvious, but don’t ever think that the obvious is not capable of being missed. What’s the point of having a wine website without a link to a page about your wines? You don’t need to be flashy (pardon the pun), just a simple list of your wines, nothing more. Though, I feel there is one thing that you must include: a picture of your label, or preferably, a shot of the entire bottle. If you give a nice description, along with a visual, you’ve got a better chance of selling some wine. Without the visual, you’re making it incredibly difficult for someone to differentiate your wines from another when they walk into their local wine shop

Show me the Logo! – Granted, I’ve been looking for winery blogs and not winery websites, but come on, why start a blog about your winery without a logo on it somewhere? I’m confused. Is the story of your winemaking not related to your winery? Put another way, if I visit your website once to learn about you and notice your blog that is updated regularly with new information, which site do you think I’m going to visit more often? My point, make sure you have a logo/image everywhere I, as a reader, visit. In fact, if your are a regular visitor to the World Wide Web and find yourself commenting on other people’s weblogs, why not sign up to have a Gravatar of your wine logo? Then, anywhere you go where Global Gravatars are used, your comments and forum posts will leave a logo behind.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) – not having an RSS feed on your blog is like publishing a newspaper but only selling it at the printer’s front doorstep. I thought that all blogging software had RSS built into it nowadays, but I guess I was wrong. If you don’t know what it is, whether you have it already, or don’t know how to implement it, just ask the next 10 yr old you bump into on the street. I guarantee you that that not only will they put it together faster than you can change your email options, but they’ll also charge less. Maybe you can bribe them for some Mosto (unfermented grape juice).

Addresses - Another silly little thing that should be included with your email is your address, location, appellation, wine region, or what ever might help us to find you in the physical world on the website. People want to know where you are, and with today’s technology, you might as well show them exactly where you are with a Google map link. People love this and it’s SOOOOOOOO easy to do. Go to www.maps.google.com type in your address and then steal the link from the right hand corner of the map where it says, “link to this page”. That’s it. It is a simple link to a visual image of where you are located. This is an incredibly handy tool that I have used on several occasions, especially when visiting vineyards located in the middle of nowhere Iberia. If it weren’t for my doing a little research on Google Maps before my departure, I most likely would have found myself in the Mediterranean, rather than at the appointed winery. In the information age, more quality information is better then less.

Blogger.com – This is a great, easy blogging tool to allow anyone to blog about their life, winery, or stuffed animal collection; however, there is one glitch. On Blogger, there is an area that allows you to make an “about” page, where you can write about yourself. Why is it then that when I click the blog’s “view my complete profile” page, I’m taken to a page where I learn: whether the author is male or female, how long they have belonged to Blogger.com, what town they are located in, and that they are interested in wine, food and travel. If I’m really lucky, I can actually learn the varietals that their particular vineyard grows. An added plus is if you choose, you can actually see how many people have wasted their precious time viewing this profile. PLEASE, put something here that helps me understand who you are, what you do, and why you have a blog. A link to your “real” website, along with a page that tells us about your passion to create wine.

No Images – Wine is a sensory experience. When I taste wine, I sip, smell, look, feel, and at the greatest of times, spiritually connect with the wine in my glass. Going to a website that contains only text, and no pictures, has me running to the next website as fast as I can click. Why have a wine site if your not going to have an image of the wines you make, the vineyard the wine is made in, the local wine festivals, etc. With today’s online panoply of tools to make your blogging world easier to handle, there should be videos, pictures, and I’m sure it’s just a matter of time, smells coming out through your monitors.

Language - This is a point intended for all my Iberian wine pals, though I’m sure it applies to others. Your regional language is most likely not going to be the only language that will sell your wine. Chances are that your wine is being sold to people in several different languages, the most common of them all is English. I wish the whole world was multi-lingual, and that we all spoke in multiple tongues, but alas it is not so. Therefore, please make your site bi-lingual and well translated! By well translated, I am not referring to your sixteen your old doing it for you after taking her first English class. This does not count as professional translation! Find a native speaker. I’ve never been in a country where there wasn’t an American or British Ex-pat society with members, not looking for translation gigs!

Finally, SCHEDULE - Being that most of you winery bloggers, or winery owners with websites, are often busy with harvests, trade shows, and other time consuming events, it can be hard to post regularly. That’s fine. We wine lovers understand, and if you take the RSS advice to heart, then we’ll be notified the next time you post anyways. But here is one tip, please keep your readers in the loop. Before the next trip without internet access, post a note as to what you’ll be up to and what you hope to accomplish. If you’re going to be traveling, let people know where and when, so your fans can come out to see you at a tasting. Before Harvest, inform us as to what you’ll be doing and when you’ll be back. Take a camera, video, audio, whatever it takes to let us know how your doing! In short, communicate. Like a parent, we are thoroughly interested in your daily happenings. So please keep us in the loop even if it appears banal and uninteresting to you, because it will most likely be interesting to us.

Adapted from an article written by Ryan Opaz – Visit Website

Pikkewyn

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Even though South Africa has lost market share in the Netherlands savvy exporters are fighting back and launching new supermarket brands. Pikkewyn, which is Afrikaans for Penguin, is a recently launched new wine brand for the Dutch market.

Designed by Patrick Humphreys from Brimstone Design and once again garnering the wine/animal association, the Pikkewyn range of wines uses the colloquial term for penguin as a pivotal concept. To keep fun in the range, illustrations of penguins in different poses were used for the varietals wearing different colour bowties to depict one cultivar from the next.

Because of the strong black and white nature of the penguins, the labels have a simple, high contrast design capitalising on open space and keeping colours to black, white and gold with the varietal colour dedicated to the bowties.

I like the names given to the three wines - Gorgeous Red, Delicious White, and Exciting Rose!

By Mike Carter.

Domaine Chandon Australia

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Wine, food and tourism have been associated with one another for many years. In South Africa the first wine route was developed in Stellenbosch as far back as 1971. Today, the Stellenbosch American Express Wine Route represents more than 300 wine and grape producers. To increase wine tourism is one of the top goals of every major wine producing country in the world. This is understandable: customer loyalty built through on-site visits is incredibly powerful.

Domaine Chandon, Moet & Chandon’s Australian winery, is nestled in the picturesque Yarra Valley one of Victoria’s premier tourist destinations and home to over 90 vineyards and 35 wineries, just one hour from Melbourne. This award winning winery was one of two Global Winners – Significant Wine Tourism Experience – Best of International Wine Tourism Awards 2007. Domaine Chandon has also been inducted into the Victorian Tourism Hall of Fame having won the Winery Tourism category three times.

The Winery and Visitor Centre (the Green Point Room) are located in lovely grounds amongst the vineyards and have spectacular views across the valley to the mountains.  The Visitors Centre, property and vineyards are now a ‘must see’ destination in the Yarra Valley. The winery receives over 100,000 visitors a year including approximately 15,000 international visitors.

Visit www.greenpointwines.com.au and take the guided tour.

www.greatwinecapitals.com

By Mike Carter.

The Six Keys to Organic Growth

Almost every wine company is looking for growth.  Organic growth is the most efficient way to create revenue growth as you use existing products to drive sales through acquiring new customers or motivate existing customers to buy more, more often. And according to author Edward Hess: “Growth achieved through a commitment to customer satisfaction, employee engagement, and core profitability — organic growth — is a smart long-term strategy for any company. Organic growth represents the underlying strength and vitality of the core business.”

But how and where should wine companies look?

In THE ROAD TO ORGANIC GROWTH, Edward Hess takes a Jim Collins-like approach to find 22 businesses that epitomize the organic growth model. With research backed by a comprehensive study, Hess set forth to explain the underlying qualities these 22 businesses have in common. His investigation found that high organic growth companies generally possessed the six keys discussed below. It’s interesting fodder for all marketers.

An Elevator Pitch Model

“High growth companies have a simple, understandable business model that their employees can understand and execute — none has a complex or sophisticated strategy.”

Instill a “Small Company Soul” into a “Big Company Body”

“High organic growth performers have a small-company soul housed in a big-company body. A small company soul is entrepreneurial, with employees having ownership of the customer, being held accountable for results, and sharing in the rewards of those results.”

Measure Everything

“One of the six keys to building a consistent high organic growth company is measurement — of everything. The 22 companies on the organic growth index (OGI) list track a variety of metrics — financial, operational, behavioral — to understand which areas of their business are not performing as efficiently as possible, and then they take action to shore up those numbers.”

Build a People Pipeline

“All the high-growth companies have a high management and employee retention, high employee loyalty, and high employee productivity as compared with their competition. Employees in these companies ‘own’ their results and their careers, and most even own part of the company. These companies’ management teams are frequently home grown, with long company tenures.”

Leaders: Humble, Passionate, Focused Operators

“Rather than being overly confident about their success, at high organic growth companies, leaders are frequently paranoid about complacency, arrogance, and hubris. Although many leaders are very wealthy, for the most part, you would not know this from their dress, their office, their demeanor, their attitude, or any outward appearance. Few of the leaders, if any, take credit themselves. There is a sincere respect for line workers, where many had begun their careers.”

Be an Execution and Technology Champion

“The high-organic companies generally do not have unique strategies, products, or services, nor are they market-leading innovators. But they are execution champions — day after day, they have figured out how to get consistent high-quality performance from their people. These companies use technology to drive efficiencies across their value chain. To them, technology is not a service function; it is an operational function.”

Adapted from Brand Autopsy by John Moore.

Six Tips For Good Label Design

Stick to the basic design rules, but try and be innovative, even if it is just through the use of different paper or varnishes.

Always keep your labels simple, never over-complicate the process.

Gimmicks may look impressive initially, but will not give your brand longevity.

Make sure your name or branding is strong.

Make sure that the printing costs of your labels are realistic.

Do your research in the market, know your facts before doing your labels, as you don’t want to go through the same exercise in a hurry.

By Vanessa Fogel – Vanessa Fogel Design.

Simplify Your Focus

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” — Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)

Consider this:

Simplicity isn’t simple. Complexity is simple. Anyone can make something complex. Read the front page of any newspaper. You’ll find complex problems everywhere. Look into your own life. You’ll find complex forces at play. Complexity is the natural state of things. Sophistication lies in your ability to SIMPLIFY complexity. It lies in your ability to make sense of the world around you. You can’t do everything. Understand what’s important and what’s not. Pick your focus and act.

By Doug Sundheim •  www.clarityconsulting.com

Elephantasy

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Holland has always been an important export destination for South African wine producers. In 2006 the Castel Groupe (the third largest wine producer in the world) opened an office in South Africa with the intention to strengthen their distribution and marketing presence of South African wine in Holland.

Their first portfolio of wines was launched at Pro-Wein 2007 and includes several with a “wildgame” theme. All the labels were designed by Cape Town based designer Patrick Humphreys from Brimstone Design.   

The Elephantasy brief was to originate a range of wine labels that tagged onto the “wildgame” trend of local wine for export, specifically focused on the elephant but with a slightly tongue-in-cheek attitude – hence “Big Ears”, “Long Nose” and “Short Tail”.

The illustrations were done in a loose line style, to illuminate the feature (ears, nose, tail) but not too literal. The range also has a modern sophistication about it in downsized display on the bottle and the use of a broadband of litho silver ink in which short text uppoints the particular elephant characteristic.

By Mike Carter.

Footprint

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African Pride Wines was established in May 2002 as a division of the Afrifresh Group. With its head offices in Constantia, Cape Town , the Group is one of the leading exporters of fresh fruit in South Africa . In 2001 it was nominated for the prestigious South African Presidents Award for Export Achievement. This nomination recognises the Group’s contribution towards developing and growing markets as well as the social upliftment and development of the community in which it operates.

Footprint’s positioning leads adventurous wine-drinkers willing to explore new labels on a journey of enjoyment and intrigue. Its new-world nuances leave a footprint on the palate and invite samplers to retrace their steps and enjoy the wine again. Presentation and packaging has a modern, minimalist appeal to adventurous wine-drinkers wanting an innovative wine to excite their senses. Footprint is priced to give these wine-drinkers value and affordable quality.

African Pride Wines are now well established in the US and European markets. Cape Town based Vanessa Fogel of Vanessa Fogel Design recently redesigned their existing Footprint range labels. Simple modern classical design, using a high build screen on the footprint, and metallic inks. Modern “funky” but still very classical.

www.africanpridewines.co.za

By Mike Carter.

New World Branding

No brand manual has prepared brands for what is taking place online, where global brands can be assassinated by one blogger and new products are launched without any marketing budget or campaign, just through world of mouth.

Global brand guru Martin Lindstrom should be required reading and viewing (through his weekly podcasts) for every CEO and MD. What he talks about is revolutionary for our brands, even more so now as Web 2.0 has made those ideas mainstream – yet many of the so-called ‘leaders’ of our real-time corporate worlds do not understand how their own email works, let alone what the blogosphere is doing to the brands that pay their salaries and the hundreds of thousands of workers they purport to represent.

Lindstrom, the author of Brand Sense, counts Disney, McDonalds and Mattel as clients, so he definitely has a strong platform and brand history to launch his revolution from. The key learning from his presentation at the African Experiential Summit hosted by Exp. Marketing last week is that the consumer is now the broadcaster and you need to impress them in a “human” way with your brand’s attributes if you want a recommendation.

Because the consumer does not trust your communication much anymore – the consumer takes advice from peers, friends and family in this new cyber world where much of what we learnt in communications or marketing school is irrelevant, unless you entered the industry in the last two or three years.

How are you going to protect your brand or your customer’s brand online when you don’t even blog? It’s the wild wild west out there and your computer is the new frontier. Go explore!

By Louise Marsland, editor www.bizcommunity.com