Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
Every time I hear about a California winery putting up national ads for their wines and brands I think to myself: "THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU"!
Beringer of Napa Valley has launched a TV (and print) campaign to that began in November. I’m currently unaware of any other national broadcast campaigns from a California winery. If they exist there can’t be many of them. The point is, any national campaign for a CA wine brand delivers residual benefits to the entire CA wine industry in the form of increased visibility for what one might call "California Wine Brand".
Its not easy playing in the $6-$10 a bottle market. Those who stick to this price point are looking for value i the way of better prices and are willing to switch brands to find it. Advertising gives a band that little extra edge that is consumer confidence. When a consumer is convinced in some part by advertising into buying a CA wine and when they like that wine and feel their money was well spent they remember this was a CA wine they were happy with. That translates to "I liked that other Beringer Cab, let’s try another CA wine."
In a San Francisco Business Times article on the ad buy, Beringer VP of Marketing Barry Sheridan said the ad buy was:
"a breakthrough campaign. You won’t see very many
other luxury wineries of our stature and quality making this kind of
investment in the creative and in television."
Doesn’t this almost sound like a dare: I double dare you to match this buy! I hope other wineries take the bait. There is no amount of advertising that can hurt the California wine industry.
The irony is, most wineries dread the power critics hold over their business. And yet it is precisely because there is no meaningful advertising coming from producers that consumers must rely on scores and reviews.
Creating differences between your wine and everyone else’s’ in the consumers’ mind is what branding is all about. And while this doesn’t happen independent of your product, neither is it just about what’s inside the bottle.
Wineries need to stop giving away half their business to distributors and start investing in brand building. Done well, it can serve every other marketing function: PR, direct to consumer, sales training, everything.
Rutherford Hill (Napa Valley) ran a TV campaign in October/November on several national cable channels. And they’ve advertised in “lifestyle” mags like Gourmet, Vogue, and GQ for years.
Not exactly your $6-$10/bottle of wine, of course, but that doesn’t negate your point about the potential “trickle-down” effect.
For a small winery, we feel direct marketing is the only way to go. I can see why a national brand would step up to a national tv buy for their purposes. At our meeting table, we don’t speak about impressions, reach, or frequency…we discuss conversion.