I love the Klondike Contest using Twitter mentioned in this piece and wanted to share it with you. A fun new way to engage your audience!
Vodpod videos no longer available.
more about “Using Twitter for PR Campaigns“, posted with vodpod
Archive for June, 2008
24 Jun
Winery Marketing: 43% of Consumers Abandon Online Shopping Carts Due to High Shipping Rates
As a follow up to yesterday’s post regarding the rise in thrifty consumer behavior, I heard this stunning statistic this morning on “Morning Express with Robin Meade”: A recent PayPal and comScore survey found that 43% of online shoppers do not proceed and purchase items, abandoning their online shopping carts, due to shipping rates that are viewed as too high. The article quotes a research expert who notes that free shipping is an effective lure for customers who don’t like paying for shipping when considering their purchase options.
Understanding that some states may not allow for free shipping of wine, here’s a thought for my friends at wineries and wine retailers: you may want to find another attractive lure to negate shipping costs in the wine consumer’s mind. Some that I like when wearing my wine consumer hat include:
- An additional hand selected, surprise bottle (if laws allow…not sure if there’s an issue here)
- Fun, promotional items as a bonus (t-shirt, bag, rubber chicken a la Twisted Oak Winery)
- A favorite wine or wine & food pairing book with a personal note from the winery owner or winemaker
- A gorgeous picture of the vineyards or winery personalities with a note
These are just a few and I bet you can think of many more ideas. Just a little food for thought! 🙂
23 Jun
Potential Wine Marketing Opportunity: Women Embrace Role as Chief Thrift Officer
In this morning’s Marketing Daily newsletter by Media Post, Sarah Mahoney makes a case for the fact that the recent change in the economy, more specifically the rise in gas and food prices, has brought out the thrifty, value-conscious side of many women, who have begun relishing the title of Chief Thrift Officer. The article states that women are more conscientious than in the past about shopping for value, eating leftovers and doing more shopping online now that high gas prices have made it a more attractive prospect, negating the shipping cost differential when weighed against gas cost and inconvenience of brick and mortar shopping excursions. The article also predicts that this trend of value shopping will continue after the economy bounces back because women are feeling good about themselves for creating smart, efficient shopping strategies that benefit their families.
So now I’m weighing the marketing potential of this trend and mindset for my friends in the wine world. How can wineries and wine retailers make their offerings more attractive to these Chief Thrift Officers among their customer base? Is it via free or one-cent shipping offers? Possibly adding to the line of magnums and larger sizes available? Expanding the number of wines in boxes and venturing into higher quality wine offerings in this category? Creating shoppers clubs with exclusive discounts and offers for members?
This mindset is evident everywhere these days. Morning shows, news reports, magazines and newspapers are weaving shopping tips into their daily agendas and it is glaringly obvious that there has been a shift toward weighing value and price in our purchases. Although I don’t believe that we’ll stop buying wines above $15-20, we may see an uptick in demand for those in the everyday category and women hungry for “a good deal.” Is it time to consider launching that second label? Or how about that fun, tasty blend that you’ve been tinkering with?
19 Jun
Winery Marketing Idea: Local Focus Groups for Wineries
As I dig deeper into the wine industry and look to identify the needs of both wineries and wine lovers, I had an idea. I have noticed that it seems to be tough for wineries to gather consumer preferences and desires when planning ahead and that oftentimes wineries are counseled to resort to online surveys to gather this information. Or the dreaded comment card!
As the legion of wine lovers grows, I wondered if there would be interest in establishing monthly wine tastings that would also serve as a focus group for wineries to submit questions and gather feedback from a small sampling of wine consumers. Trying to decide between two label designs, the next grape variety to plant, innovative ideas for your wine club? Ask away.
Perhaps wineries would provide a few bottles to the members of the group in exchange for picking their brain. This would be a very non-scientific sampling, but could be helpful and cost-friendly! This could complement any survey findings or other feedback gathered. And if the winery owner/marketer/winemaker attended the meeting, there would be an opportunity for them to interact with new potential customers, creating a bond and potentially driving sales. The local wine bar, an intimate restaurant or the winery would make for fun gathering places.
I found a couple of hits on Google for a few random wine tasting focus groups, but I’m thinking of more of a regular, monthly opportunity. What do you think?
18 Jun
Support a Great Cause: Turning Wine into Food
My friends at The Wine Spies are teaming up with the San Francisco Food Bank and Napa’s Humanitas Winery to help turn wine into food this weekend. For each bottle of Humanitas 2006 Pinot Noir that you purchase over the weekend of June 21st and 22nd via The Wine Spies web site, Humanitas and The Wine Spies will each donate at least $1.00 per bottle sold to the San Francisco Food Bank. You’ll also receive a 20% discount while supporting the Food Bank. For more details on the fundraiser including coupon codes, please visit http://www.sffoodbank.org/Home/index.html
Help by turning wine into food this weekend!
Note: The Humanitas 2006 Pinot Noir will not appear on The Wine Spies website for purchase until Saturday, June 21st.
UPDATE: The Wine Gives online wine sale to benefit The San Francisco Food Bank has been extended through Wednesday, June 25. Additional winery participants include Iron Horse Winery of Sebastopol, CA; Michel-Schlumberger of Healdsburg, CA and Pengwine of Chile.
10 Jun
NY Wineries: Interested in Getting Your Wine in Front of Top Wine Bloggers?
Lenn Thompson at top blog LENNDEVOURS just announced the first Wine Bloggers Conference 2008, October 24-26 in Sonoma, CA. In his post, he presents a golden opportunity for NY State wineries:
“There will be speakers like Gary Vaynerchuk and Alice Feiring, vineyard walks, tasting competitions and wine dinners. There will also be an informal (or maybe even a formal) New York wine tasting if I can get a handful of NY vintners to sign on with me.”
If you’re interested in the opportunity to have your wines featured at this gathering of the top wine bloggers, please contact Lenn Thompson directly at lenndevours (at) gmail.com. He’s still working out details with the event organizers at this time.
UPDATE: I will be attending this event, my first time in Sonoma! My husband is the best!!! I’ll keep you updated as we get closer to the date.
9 Jun
Wine 2.0 Is Amazing!
I just had to share my excitement about the tremendous opportunities available to those using Wine 2.0 technologies. If you are in the wine industry, or aspire to be, social networks such as Open Wine Consortium, micro-blogs such as Twitter (I like to describe Twitter as more of a broadcast instant messaging service where one-way and multi-way communication messages are distributed via a network of followers) and participating in forums like the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle’s Conversations on Wine can help you expand your network by exchanging ideas, creating relationships for future collaborations and adding a great deal of value to your brand by creating a presence for your winery or related service in front of key targets.
In one week, I exchanged ideas with two people that may be interested in collaborating down the road, reconnected with an editor I had previously met at a Manhattan press event and was asked for some advice from a reader of this blog…all via social networks, my blog and Twitter. The key, in my opinion, is to create value for others. Educate, share and give some personal insight and you’ll see that opportunities will present themselves, adding an addtional layer to your marketing and branding efforts.
From my experience, the wine industry is full of passionate, smart, resourceful and helpful people who love to talk about bettering the industry. I highly recommend spending some time poking around on the sites, creating profiles and getting involved. Even if you’re not ready to create a blog, these little steps into the social media space will help you to advance your business. If all of these terms are putting you off or if your head is spinning trying to figure it all out, don’t hesitate to contact me. I would be happy to walk you through a better understanding in layman’s terms, without all of the “geeky” tech ones! 🙂
Recent Comments