Grape Differentiation is a Must!
In wikipedia, marketing differentiation ” is the process of distinguishing the differences of a product or offering from others, to make it more attractive to a particular target market.
Further it suggests that “Differentiation is a source of competitive advantage…. Marketing or product differentiation is the process of describing the differences between products or services …. This is done in order to demonstrate the unique aspects of your product and create a sense of value. Marketing textbooks are firm on the point that any differentiation must be valued by buyers.”
I chose to use this particular definition because it touches upon almost all the salient points of why differentiation is so important to any business, and certainly no less important to those in the wine industry.
Reviewing the highlights above:
- Differentiation allows your wine business to be more visible to a targeted audience of wine enthusiasts.
- It provides competitive advantage when clearly defined and clearly communicated to that audience.
- Competitive advantage is achieved because the differentiation conveys a sense of value that directly correlates with the values of your customers.
Differentiation has always been an important principle in regards to successful marketing. However, it takes on even greater leverage in the internet era of social media and networking. Why? Because of the critical need and ability to selectively target and connect with your current and/or prospective customers.
So what was missing in the definition?
The fact that differentiation is NOT relegated only to your product and service! In this age of social interaction, it can relate to the product or service (varietal, blend, wine club, tasting room), but it can also relate to many other things, such as background, gender, culture, production methods, 
beliefs, memberships,passions. even a target generation.
Case in point: I recently had a conversation with Galen Struwe, President of Desnous Imports LLC, whose website is Sacrebleuwine. Having established profiles and a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube, he gets the power of social media, and more importantly, he understands the importance of connecting with his target audience. Look at his webpage. He is selling fine wine from France. Do you see any pictures that relate to bottles of wine, grapes, or vineyards? No.
What you will see is a very conscious effort to connect with a specific target audience. Visit the site. Click on the picture of Laetitia Bleger, Ms. France 2004. Hey .. we are talking about wine here! We are talking about a winery in Alsace where Ms. Bleger is adding a passion for wine to her resume.
You will also notice a very visible area that offers visitors a chance to share the site and contents with their peers and friends. Is this differentiation? You bet.
However, whatever differentiation you choose (and it can be more than one), it must be part of your overall marketing strategy and it must be genuine.
Disingenuous differentiation will be spotted almost immediately, and will likely backfire badly in conjunction with social networking.
For more details on how to differentiate your winery with examples of those that are using differentation, check out this related article I just posted – “Wineries: Differentiate to Increase Business through Social Media”.
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Read MoreWineries using Facebook? You bet!
How many wineries have a fan page built on facebook and how many of those have at least 500 fans participating?
I must have too much time on my hands, so I decided to do some digging on my own. If you are a winery you might find some of these data interesting.
Now there are a few caveats that I need to point out before presenting the data:
- The research was done at a particular point in time (June 23rd). With fans coming and going each day, and new sites coming on board each day, any reseach can only be accurate as of a snapshot in time. The data reflected below was researched on June 23, 2009.
- There is no easy way to know when a winery page became active. Therefore, it is hard to make any conclusions in regards to how quickly a page is growing (acceleration), or how long it took to reach its current numbers. This can only be done by comparing data over a period of time.
- Although one can objectively point out the average number of applications on these pages as well as denote whether winery, fan or both drive activity on the site, there is no way of correlating that with any separate marketing activity (such as PPC ad or email) that might help drive some of the activity on any page.
- One can make some assumptions on why one page seems to be building more momentum regarding fan enthusiasm over another, but this cannot be relegated only to the activity on the page, but rather also to the type of activity and the interaction between the fans and the winery beyond the page itself (as an example, enthusiasm based on an event or a tasting that is now being discussed on the page).
- As pointed out in many social media articles, there is a viral nature to social networking. Therefore, some pages may grow their fans at a quicker pace due to the fan base that they attract, and the additional number and interests of those connected to the winery fans.
- Although data was pulled for over 250 wineries, the data is concentrated mostly on the first 50.
For a more detailed view of facebook and winery fan pages and data, visit my hubpage: Building wine fans on facebook: A moment in time.
The above said, here are some results that you might find interesting:
The winery with the largest fan base is Duplin Winery in North Carolina with a whopping 3613 fans. The
second (Chateau Morrisette) had 1965, the third (The Round Barn Winery) had 1505, the fourth (Murphy-Goode Winery) had 1273, the fifth (Palminia Winery) had 1208.
98% of the first 50 wineries are located in the United States (one is in South Africa).
Of the first 50, 62% are located in California, 8% each from Michigan and Washington State, 4% each from Georgia, Missouri, and North Carolina, and finally 2% each from New York, Ohio, Oregon and Virginia
66% of the first 50 had additional groups and/or employees with a presence on facebook
Again, focusing on the first 50, 40% of the pages had been updated within 48 hours or less, 42% had
been updated within the last two weeks, and 8% had been updated within the last month. Only 10% had not updated their page in June.
In terms of appications, 86% shared photos, 16% shared favorites, 70% shared events, 20% shared notes, 38% shared links, and 22% shared videos. (These will not add up to 100% since most wineries share multiple applications.)
Regarding applications, only 10% shared one application, 24% shared two, 40% shared three applications, and 16% shared at least 4.
The oldest winery with a facebook page was founded in 1858 and the newest in 2006.
Finally, in terms of the page activity, on 16% of the pages the activity was driven by the winery, on 14% the winery drove most of the activity, on 6% the fans drove most of the activity, and on 64% the page activity was equally driven by the winery and the fans.
So what conclusions can be surmised from this brief research?
- At least 500 wineries have determined that it is to their advantage to build a special page on facebook. Now, that needs to be qualified a bit. For instance, some pages are very new with only 1 or no fans as of yet. Only time will tell if the effort will in fact provide benefit to the winery. In addition, some pages that have a substantial amount of fans have not been updated in quite some time. Without speaking with the winery there is no way of knowing whether the inactivity is due to a belief that the effort is not worthwhile, or simply due to time limitation or a lack of knowledge.
- Adding up the number of fans for each winery (up to the first 250), 37,524 are fans of the first 50 wineries, the number jumps to 52,135 fans of the first 100, and finally, 72,742 following the first 250 wineries. Even with some of these fans on multiple pages, these numbers are significant, and I would venture to guess beneficial to the wineries interacting with them.
- With 64% of the pages being driven equally by the winery and the fans, one could conclude that an active dialogue is going on. That dialogue may be talking about a recent event, a new award, the next harvest, the wine club, the tasting room, the weather, an anticipated trip to the winery, or a recent meal paired with one of the wines. Regardless of the dialogue, the fans are engaged and I have to suspect that this can only help to increase business as well as loyalty for the winery.
How many wineries think it is beneficial (meaning it helps to drive additional sales and customer loyalty) by positively interacting with their customers and/or prospective customers?
How many wineries spend marketing dollars to target customers and prospective customers without knowing whether or not they are reaching that audience?
At a time when small and medium wineries face stiff competition, a challenging distribution environment, increasing costs, and a tough economy, social media and networking can help to reach new customers and increase profitability, if it is done as part of an overall marketing strategy.
Read MoreGreat wine, Great grapes, Great tasting!
Last evening I was fortunate to attend a tasting of Paso Robles wines from Four Vines and J. Dusi Wines in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Bill Grant of Four Vines and Janelle Dusi (wine makers) presented their wines, provided some history and anecdotes about their wines and wineries, and generally interacted very well with an appreciative crowd (over 100 fans).
Four Vines / J Dusi Tasting
First to the wines. A total of 10 wines were tasted during the event including 9 from Four Vines and 1 from Dusi Wines (see list below). Much of the grapes were sourced from the vineyard itself and the surrounding area in Paso Robles, and the rest from other prime grape growing AVAs in California such as Dry Creek Valley and Russian River.
I can’t say this for every tasting I have been to, but for this one all of the wines tasted (with the exception of the Naked Chardonnay) were full bodied, complex, a virtual (no pun intended) pleasure. This is not to suggest the chardonnay was not well made. Rather, the chardonnay is one of Four Vine’s entry level offerings. It is a very good every day quaffer, but simply did not have the same kind of complexity as the other offerings.
My personal favorites included the Sophisticate, Anarchy, and a very different style but nonetheless very well made, abeit more femine style Zinfandel from J. Dusi Wines. The 2005 FV Zin Port was also really nice with a great balance of sweetness and alcohol, and a mouthfeel and finish that went on and on. Wiht that said, I can say that all of the wines are highly recommended!
Bill Grant & Janelle Dusi
Besides the tasting itself, both Bill and Janelle got the crowd going with anecdotes about making wines, winery costs, quality, wine storage, and tidbits about the different varietals including of course Zinfandel, but also Syrah, Mourvedre, Petit Syrah, Tempranillo,
Malbec, and Petit Verdot (really enjoyed the Monachy as well, which is a blend of the last three and normally only available at the winery).
However, being a long time marketer I also wanted to take note of the great teamwork that went on to make this event a success. Keeping in mind the current recession, competition continues to be very keen for wineries around the world. There are neary 6,000 bonded wineries alone in the US all competing for shrinking dollars.
Bill Grant (left) & John Hannum
In order to standout in the crowd, wineries need to provide access to their wines so that avid wine consumers have a chance to try their wines and become loyal fans. That said, having worked in marketing for many years, I was very pleased to see such great cooperation between the wineries (Four Vines and J. Dusi Wines), the distributor (M.S. Walker), and the retailer (Yankee Spirits).
The adage of the evening was “if you can’t get the people to the tasting room, get the tasting room to the people”. In this case, Yankee Spirits advertised the event to their mailing list, which consists of customers of their Sturbridge, Swansea and Attleboro locations. These locations are spread apart, about 2 hours between Swansea and Sturbridge and 1.5 hours from Attleboro to Sturbridge.
This distance would most likely have discouraged some of the participants from attending. However, Yankee Spirits tried something new last night: they offered to bus their customers free of charge from the other locations to Sturbridge. This was a win win for everyone – for the wineries, retailer and distributor it no doubt translated into incremental sales, and for the customers an evening to try some new wines and learn more about the industry.
Bravo to all those involved.
Now .. for the Pièce de résistance !
There is a great deal of buzz today about social media and how wineries can take advantage of it to increase their visability, grow brand recognition, and increase sales. Here is an example of marrying smart traditional marketing and social media: the wineries, distributor and retailer setup and sponsored the event, and now I am taking that event and splashing it through my blog, Twitter, etc.
Social media and net working are not to be feared .. it is simply another set of tools to help connect with your current and prospective customers.
All in all …. Great wine, Great grapes … and a Great tasting!
For more information, visit Four Vines and J. Dusi Wines.
List of wines tasted at event:
2008 Four Vines Naded Chardonnay
2007 Four Vines “Biker”
2007 Four vines “Sophisticate”
2006 Four Vines “Maverick”
2007 Four Vines “Anarchy”
2006 Four Vines “Loco
2007 Four Vines “Peasant”
2006 Four Vines “Monarchy”
2007 J. Dusi Zinfandel
2005 Four Vines Zin Port
Social Media: Navigating The Landscape
The landscape of social media is anything but straightforward:
1. Social media continues to evolve and change not only each day, but sometimes hourly. Unlike the photo above, social media and networking is not “written in stone” or constant by any means. Social network sites, wikis, blogs and microblogs, and bookmarking sites appear, evolve and sometimes disappear overnight.
2. As suggested in #1 above, social media and networking refers to a large number of potential activities on the net. Here is a brief list of the possibilities:
Personal Social Network Sites: These are sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn where like individuals can connect either individually or through membership in one or more groups.
Focused (Wine) Social Network Sites: These are sites such as Adegga, Snooth, MustLovewine, Wine2.0 and many others whose members focus on wine in general. Here too there are groups within these sites that focus on specific aspects of wine such as tasting, varietals, distribution, etc.
Blogs and microblogs: Blogs are sites that “talk about” a particular subject (like ViralVines.com!. )In the case of wine it could be focused on value priced bottlings, varietals, wines from a particular region, winemaking, wine tasting, etc., or a combination of one or more of the above. Examples include Fermentation, ThinkWine, Dr. Vino, and many more. There are also microblog sites, the best known being Twitter, where in 140 characters or less a message (tweet) can be sent to 100 or 100o or 10000 followers multiple times a day.
Media Sites: These include sites for video upoad and review (YouTube, kyte), photos (zoomr, flickr), or audio (BlogTalkRadio, graperadio).
Wikis and White Label Social Networks: Wikis (pbwiki, wikipedia) are communities where users contribute directly to the site. White label Social Networks (Ning) allow anyone to build or start up a social network.
Collaborative tools: These are sites that support online collaboration including planning, calenders, and email such as Zoho, Zimbra, and Google (tools), as well as tools to support online events such as Webex, eventful, and zvents.
The key to successfully adding social media to your overall marketing is:
- ensure social media is not a separate activity; it needs to be an integral part of your overall marketing plan and activities
- understand (assess) where you are and what you expect from social media (set clear and measurable goals),
- understand the social media landscape – use tools such as mind mapping to help
- decide on how much or how little to invest in order to achieve the goals (where will you participate and how often),
- and then measure results.
Finally, you need to revise your activities based on your measurements. For instance, if you have decided to engage with multiple wine social networks and you realize through analysis that only two are providing the results you have set, you may want to drop activity on those that are not performing for you, and focus on only those two or investigate other potential sites.
There I go again … talkin up the grapes!
Read MoreSocial Media: where do I start?
Assessment
Before stepping into the social media landscape, its important to do a self assessment. In order to be successful, the adoption of social media should be well connected and integrated within the overall marketing plan and activity of the company.
You may feel some of the assessment is obvious. It may be. However, it never hurts to review goals and strategies. Times change, markets change, and personnel change. Timely assessments help to get everyone up to speed and marching in the same direction.
Here are some things that should be part of your assessment:
1. What is your primary business mission, goal or objective? Yes.. I know it is to sell wine, but be specific: How much, though what channels, in what timeframe, etc.?
2. Do you have a presense currently on-line? Do you sell your wine online or is this site primarily an introduction to the winery and its wines? Do you make any special offers on this site? Do you list or promote events?
3. Describe your target audience. Yes, if located in the United States it includes those over 21. However, is it babyboomers? Millenials? Both? Others? This makes a difference in social media since specific targeting is not only possible, it is key. Your target audience will help determine where you will focus or not.
4. Are you currently engaged in social marketing? Are you or some of your employees active online? If yes, how experienced and knowledgeable are you? How much time are you currently devoting to social media?
5. If you or some of your employees are online, which social media and/or social wine channels do you participate in? Why?
6. Why are you interested in focusing on social media/marketing? Is it primarily brand recognition? Direct sales? Driving more traffic to the tasting room? Reaching out to wine lovers that are also Green and/or organic supporters?
7. If you are active online, what is working well for you and what is not?
8. What are your competitors doing online? How has it impacted their business – for better or worse? If you are online, are you and how are you managing your reputation?
9. What are the results you expect from engaging in social media? How are you planning to measure these results?
10. What positive impact will your activity have on your current and/or prospective customers? This is your ‘giving back’. Again, social media is not about direct selling. Its about dialogue and reaching out to current and prospective customers.
After the assessment … you’re ready to evaluate how to navigate the social media landscape. To be successful, you don’t have to play everywhere. In fact, you likely don’t want to play everywhere. Like any other marketing activity you need to focus, test, measure, and adjust.
There I go .. talkin up the grapes again!
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