Archive for the ‘Wine Marketing Rules’ Category

May 22, 2013

Wine Marketing Education With the Masters

Though I can’t say for sure, I’d bet that wine tasting room workers constitute the greatest number of “marketers” in any wine region in the country. I’d further hazard to guess that a good number of wine tasting room personnel have a desire to rise from the tasting room to a position that allows them to work in a more hard-core marketing environment in the wine industry. What is absolutely necessary to make this climb up the latter is education….

Feb 22, 2013

The Top 10 Winery Promotional Tools

The winery/brand owner has a variety of tools at their disposal for promoting their product and sales. But some are more important than others. Some are critical to the success of the brand. These are your Top Ten Most Important Winery Promotional Tools. 1. YOUR WINE You have no other tool that will more often represent your winery, both in your presence and out of your presence, than your wine. And when I say your wine I mean the liquid…

Jan 25, 2013

Woe Is Sonoma Valley—For It Is Within the County

Decanter Magazine reports that a survey by the folks over at Wine Opinions has discovered that few wine buyers “differentiate between Sonoma County and Sonoma Valley and that using both on a label may even be a disadvantage.” A disadvantage to the folks making “Sonoma Valley” wine, that is. Of course it’s a disadvantage. And yet, after a “conjunctive labeling” law was pushed through the state legislature at the behest of the Sonoma County Vintners Association in 2010, it is…

Dec 7, 2012

Saving the Idea of “Reserve” At Smith-Madrone Winery

Here’s something relatively rare in the wine business: An established Napa Valley winery that has never affixed the term “Reserve” to a wine. You can swing a dead cat in this Valley and knock over five or six “Reserve” wines before the feline makes a full revolution. But, say what you will about the term “Reserve” on wines (The term isn’t regulated”. “There are too many synonyms for the term”. “It’s just a marketing gimmick”), the fact is it can…

Dec 6, 2012

Wine & Graphic Design: A Crowded Undertaking

Graphic Design has changed! When I entered the wine industry in 1990 at a small PR firm dedicated to serving wine clients, my first graphic design project was a newsletter for a client. I was pointed to a particular designer whose work was outstanding. Like most others, he did not use computers, laid out the design on a board, had film of the mock up made then passed it to the printer. It was a fairly long and detailed and…