Monthly Archives: June 2007

Tickled Pink With Rose

Take a look at the latest addition to Juno Wines Cape Maidens range. Since we last published a story about the brand in March they’ve added a Rosé to their fashionable collection of labels. I also wrote that this young South African company has ambitious plans to grow their brand domestically and expand their export markets. So they’ve delivered on that promise.

Juno Wines take their inspiration from the Roman Queen of the Gods, who represents feminine sensuality and the beloved protector of women, mothers and children. The creative flair and spirit of Juno Wines stems from the small South African town of Bonnievale, located between the Breede River and the Langeberg Mountains.

However, no wine is complete without the distinctive icon on the brand. The label artwork created by artist Tertia du Toit accentuates the beauty and joys of being a woman. Celebrating life as a free spirit with compassion, wholesomeness and aspirations, these women represent the purity of the elite range from the Juno Wine Company.

Check out their website www.junowines.com

By Mike Carter.

Content is King

Jaya Dharneja reiterates the importance and the key characteristics for good content on a winery website:

  • High quality, well crafted and accurate product descriptions and titles
  • Sharp product images
  • Key product differentiators, such as a high rating your wine may have received
  • Recommendations from customers, staff and noted people in the industry
  • Any specifics about your product that can create the “wow” factor for the end user
  • Original content – that is specific to your winery via the About Us section, or within the site, to attract eyeballs and increase click-thrus

Source: http://blog.inertiabev.com/

100 Million Millennials

No Snail Mail Allowed
Push past the shot glasses of yeager bomb and glass bottles of corona and you may be surprised to find a few empty wine glasses scattered across the bar tops of crowded nightclubs. Similar observations may be made at hip and trendy wine tasting events catered to an unexpectedly younger crowd. These events are not promoted by traditional means of advertising. Translation: you won’t be finding any snail mail with script fonts and foil seals here. Websites, digital flyers, email blasts and text messaging all hit hard where it counts with this new and rising demographic.

Are these young hipsters embracing the “Wine REvolution?”

The answer is a resounding YES sounded by the heavy clinking of wine glasses and toasting.

Allow me to introduce myself as a proud member of the Millennial generation. We are your next wave of consumers, and we might just become the biggest driving force the wine industry has seen in three decades.

Meet the Millennial
In brief, the term Millennials is credited to William Strauss and Neil Howe who explain that the term was originally coined by the Millennials themselves. Millennials are also commonly referred to as Generation Y and The Internet Generation. The period of birth for Millennials is controversial and range between late 1970s/early 1980s through 2001. In the eye of the wine industry, the age of the Millennial consumer falls somewhere between 21-28 years (“Generation Y”).

The most prominent characteristic of this generation is their overwhelming use of technology including the Internet, cell phones, text/instant messaging and social networking along with many other forms. According to Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa, 97% of Millennials own a computer, 94% own a cell phone and 90% of college students have a myspace account. These unprecedented figures are highly attributed to the Millennial’s early following and adaptation to technology (“Generation Y”).

More Bang For Your Buck
With the coming emergence of the wine industry in the Internet and e-commerce, the Millennial community is revealing itself as a significant target group for wine consumption. Recent studies indicate that the Millennials are responsible for the steady incline of wine consumption in the United States. The percentage of Millennials who consume wine has nearly doubled in the short time span of two years, growing from 10% in 2004 to 17% in 2006. The United States may become the world’s largest wine consuming country if the collective trend in growth continues (Heeger).

In an article in the The New York Sun, Peter Hellman presents Tyler Colman, creator of DrVino.com, who describes wine as “the new black” for Millennials. According to Colman, “(Wine provides) a lot more return on your social investment than beer.” More and more bottles of wine frequent the tabletops at Saturday night dinner parties replacing red plastic cups of bargain beer. A student survey conducted at Columbia Business School revealed a strong majority who felt quality is more important than quantity, and wine overall provided more “bang for their buck”. In addition, wine is becoming the preferred choice of social beverages due to its healthful benefits.

Darryl Roberts, publisher of Wine X Magazine, addresses the rising phenomenon in Millennial behavior and argues that the habits people engage in while in their mid to late twenties lay the foundation for lifelong consumption habits. Moreover, Roberts points out that while most Millennials do not have specific brand loyalties established they have enormous disposable income and a hunger to explore and experience new products.

Considering that the Millennials are comprised of an astounding population nearing 100 million people, it may be worthwhile to get to know this new and rising customer. Public relations agency Ketchum estimates the Millenials’ buying power at a tremendous $172 billion which is projected to continue increasing as Millenials’ gain more recognition in the work force (Clark).

Hot On Their Trail
Sacre Bleu is a leader among wine brands who are quickly catching on to this new opportunity. Their target group is hard marketed towards 21-28 year olds and they are hot on their trail. The name itself “Sacred Bleu” is pulled from French slang “Holy Crap” which they explain as an expression of amazement. On the splash page of their website is a bold “ENTER” button and beneath it reads “No fake ID’s here. You must be 21 to enter” alluding to rules of the nightlife common to most Millennials. A small link to Sacre Bleu’s MySpace account is also readily accessible.

Within their website, Sacred Bleu touches the Millennial consumer’s desire to explore and reads “We want you to discover us and explore not only what wine is but where it can lead.” It further prompts its visitors to share their artwork (graphic art, photography, music or even absurdity) to “showcase innovative, aesthetic.”

Sacred Bleu’s MySpace account also demonstrates a marketing technique which is growing in popularity to reach its Millennial consumer. MySpace is at the top of the food chain for social networking websites. It allows its users to create a personal profile to share interactively with a network of friends. Sacred Bleu’s personal account information is displayed as a 23 year old female from Minneapolis. Their website is filled with photos of trendy venues and beats from over a dozen artists such as Fiona Apple, Flaming Lips, and Tenacious D.

In his article The Millennials Take Centerstage, Jim Clarke explains how necessary it is to reconsider lifestyle advertising to reach this unique demographic. Whereas with Generation X, wine enthusiast magazines pumped with “winespeak” ads could sell an esteemed brand, the Millennials are often not receptive to traditional methods of advertising. (Clark) Lifestyle advertising is a marketing technique in which the user is presented as opposed to the product. Hence, advertisers such as Sacre Bleu push their brands to accommodate the lifestyles of their consumers (“Lifestyle Technique”).

Roberts further supports this argument stating “…the best way to reach, emotionally engage and retain loyal customers, when they’re in their 20s, is to put your product in their hands in an environment that they feel most comfortable in. Then make sure that you reinforce that positive experience with advertising and/or other supportive methods-email blasts, text messaging, print ads in the magazines that they read etc. If you do this, if you engage the 20-something consumer with your product, you will not only sell them your product now, you’ll create brand loyalty and sell it to them for the next 50 years.”

Keep Your Eyes and Your Ears Open
With over 100 million Millennials and counting, the presence of this unique demographic will undeniably be felt if it hasn’t already hit you. Keep your eyes and your eyes open and be ready for the Millennials.

Works Cited
Clarke, Jim. “The Millennials Take Centerstage.” Wine Review Online. 13 June 2006. 7 June 2007. http://www.winereviewonline.com/clarke_on_milennials.cfm

“Generation Y.” Wikipedia. 6 June 2007. 7 June 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Y

Heeger, Jack. “Boomers, Millennials boost wine consumption.” The Napa Valley Register. 8 February 2007. 7 June 2007.
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2007/02/08/features/food_and_wine/

Hellman, Peter. “For ‘Millennials,’ Wine Is the New Black.” The New York Sun. 9 May 2007. 7 June 2007. http://www.nysun.com/article/54113

“Lifestyle Technique.” Advertising Glossary. 7 June 2007. http://www.advertisingglossary.net/definition/1677-Lifestyle_Technique%C2%A0%C2%A0

Sacre Bleu Wine. Home Page. 7 June 2007. http://www.sacrebleuwine.com/

Sacre Bleu Wine. MySpace. 7 June 2007. 7 June 2007. http://www.myspace.com/sacrebleuwine

Source: ReThink Wine Blog http://blog.inertiabev.com/

By Jennifer Cheng.

B’s Blog

Check out Simon Backs blog which he writes for the family farm Backsberg. Simon is currently studying Business Science Economics at the University of Cape Town. Having grown up on the farm he’s able to give a more personal insight into the workings of the farm.

By Mike Carter.

Four Tips To Take Your Wine Brand Up A Few Notches

Wine producers tend to segment their wines into tiers – basic (or commodity), premium and super-premium. But consumers are changing and better informed, making branding decisions more difficult than ever before. Here are some excerpts from an article by Allen Adamson, recently published in Advertising Age. Good advice for wine marketers.

From ice cream to bottled water, there isn’t a mass-market category that hasn’t jumped onto the “up-branding” bandwagon – and a very wise jump it is. Adding a premium product to an already strong brand name is a great way to drive brand growth and drive up margins. In fact, it can cast a positive halo over the entire brand family of products, making them all seem worth more.

Thanks to the internet and other media channels, consumers have changed too: People are more informed and more worldly-wise than ever before. There’s greater awareness of what’s sophisticated, what’s hot and, more important, what’s cool. And these consuming masses have shown strong evidence they are ready, willing and able to pay premium prices for products and services once considered commodities.

But up-branding is a tricky thing to get right. You can’t simply put your product in a shiny black box with a 10-point, sans-serif typeface and expect people to grab it off the shelves. Consumers are becoming more aware. You can’t up the price of a product without upping the intrinsic value – otherwise people will see through it immediately, and you’ll lose credibility. And while word-of-blog can boost a brand’s reputation very quickly, it can sink it even faster.

Here are four tips to take your brand up a few notches:

Play from your brand’s strength. Offer a benefit that is legitimately better and different, but aligned with what consumers already associate with your brand. The key to success is to make it simple for people to understand what makes your product worthy of up-brand status at an up-brand price.

Leverage design. Sophisticated or elegant design is one of the fastest ways to communicate quality. Consumers have been trained to factor in aesthetics when assessing value. The more attractive a product, the more valuable they perceive it to be.

Consider limiting your distribution channels. Limiting distribution can be a powerful way to signal an up-branded product or service. If you’re everywhere, how special can you be? The environment in which a company decides to sell speaks volumes about the company it wishes to keep.

Give your brand a “green” label. Historically, buyers of environmentally correct products have been perceived as more educated and more socially aware, characteristics generally shared with the premium-goods market. Today green has gone mainstream, and consumers across many markets are willing to pay more for products they believe will make a difference to mitigate global warming.

Step back before you step up. Think about how your up-branded product will actually be different and more relevant – and why people should pay for the privilege you offer.

Adapted from “Why Up-Branding Is Here to Stay” by Allen Adamson.