Wine Related Marketing

Let's face it, when it comes to wine, branding is important, just like clothing, or cars.  Wine is really not a commodity because it is an experience, and that is what you are branding, the experience.  When you are a winery, you need to communicate the experience of your wines to your market.  This article talks about the importance of the brand and how it can be perceived by the consumer.  It's a good start on understanding how branding works in the eys of the consumer and what they will need to do to make a buying decision.

As the wine industry has experienced dramatic growth over just the past 10 years in the number of wine brands available to consumers this in turn has been both a blessing and a curse for wine shoppers. How wonderful it is that they now have an incredibly wide selection of wines to choose from! However how sometimes daunting it is that they now have an incredibly wide selection of wines to choose from. How many of you have either experienced first hand or observed someone else in the wine aisle at a store standing with a glazed stare on their face? They have a look on their face which seems to say, "I am at a complete loss to make a choice." Doesn't sound like much fun especially for an activity that they are generally excited about.

A very common tool that consumers will use in just this "display overload" situation is to reach for a bottle with a familiar brand name on it. They have either purchased the same brand in the past or perhaps visited the winery on a vacation experience. A brand name is probably one of the most common shopping guides used by wine consumers. It is also an item all wine labels are required to have by the federal agency that regulates all alcoholic beverages, the TTB. (Former BATF)

A brand name is in most cases the same name as the winery that bottled the wine. There are also many brand names that do not fall into that category. Many wineries have as part of their business plan essentially several brands that they sell wine under. These other brands different from their original winery name are called second labels. At times these second label names will be seen on the front label of a wine, while in other cases they appear on the back label of the wine in the required bottler's statement. This is the statement which reads always at least in part, "Bottled by XYZ Winery,..............".

The other now extremely common scenario as far as brand names are what are referred to in the industry as trade names. Trade names are also used on the front and back of a label in the area referred to above. Trade names are what are used by the very large population in the wine industry who are wholesalers. Also commonly referred to as custom crush clients. They are most commonly those getting their start in the industry by having their wines made by an established winery. The established winery is responsible to maintaining their wine activity records for them and part of that if they bottle the wine for them is officially adding their trade names onto their TTB permit.

As I mentioned above a brand name is a very popular guide used by consumers when shopping for wine. The only way they can know for sure whether or not it is the "original" brand name or a trade name used by the winery would be by doing further research on the brand name on the front label to see if it is an actual physical entity.

Interested to know more about brand name and trade name requirements for all wine labels?
Please go to: http://insidestoryofawinelabel.com

More on Wine Brands:

Best ways to reach the wine consumers — Wine Brands Blog

Too many wineries are not yet convinced that Internet is the best and the cheapest way to build awareness, reach potential consumers and interface with customers.

Publish Date: 04/15/2010