Wine Related Marketing

I really like this article because it talks about how small wineries should focus on doing their marketing. I agree with the approach this article takes... focus on selling your wines over branding. When your wine sells, people know about it. When they know about it, you can begin building a brand. With the reach of the internet today, it only makes sense to begin to utilize the Internet as a large part of wine selling. Read on for more specifics on focusing on selling wine vs. focusing on branding.

Now, before the brand police start to scream - hear me out and read the entire article.

And...while this article is directed specifically to small wineries and wine makers in the United States, it can apply equally well to any small business on the planet. Really.

So, let me focus the problem for you.

Our economy is in the tank (duh!). People are losing their jobs right and left. Businesses all over the world are feeling the pinch with often a precipitous drop in sales - for many businesses like falling off a cliff.

If you are a small winery and are NOT selling out every vintage today, why the hell would you spend a dime on branding?

Simply put, don't waste your money on branding.

Instead, focus your marketing budget on SELLING wine! Period.

Better yet, focus all of your marketing spend on selling all of your wine direct to consumer.

Let me say that again: If you are a small winery or wine maker, focus all of your marketing money on direct response marketing initiatives (online, direct mail, email, tasting room, tasting events, wine club events, etc.) to sell all of your wine directly to the consumer where legal.

If you are Constellation, or a similarly large company, then you have enough money to fund branding programs and campaigns. Great.

Okay, even if you are medium sized company likely you can afford that.

But if you are a small winery, don't bother with it, certainly not now. Spend your money to sell wine. Your marketing budget is just too precious to spend on image.

For those of you sitting in the back of the class, hands raised, straining to ask THE question - yes, branding is important for small businesses, BUT ONLY as the thoughtful outcome of your other marketing, tasting room, sales and customer service processes you have.

So, what do I mean by branding?

Branding is the impression and feeling of how visitors, customers and vendors view your product and company based on their interactions with you.

Branding promotions I define as marketing efforts to affect that view specifically.

Branding is image advertising. If you have a bad image, branding can help change that - over time.

Bad brand? Fix the problem and the brand takes care of itself.

If you are a small wine business, you are better off fixing the problem that caused the bad image in the first place. Bad wine? Fix the wine. Bad tasting room reviews? Make the changes needed to fix that, change it around, re-decorate, fire and hire. Clunky Website? Make it lightening fast and easy to use. Not making enough sales? Get in front of more potential customers.

Can branding hurt you? You bet. But, spending money on branding promotions to fix your brand is absolute lunacy if you are a small winery. Spend your available marketing money to sell more wine...then when you have sold all of your wine, you can consider a branding initiative. But then you likely won't need to...

Steven Sands -
Wine Marketing Center
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