Archive for the ‘Public Relations & Wine’ Category
How can wine be an emotional trigger point for drinkers? How can it invoke emotion in its users that in turn provokes them to invest more time and money in the product and, potentially, a brand? These were the questions left unanswered by Reka Haros in a recently published and well-circulated article in which she admonishes the wine industry for a lack of emotionally engaging content in its advertising and marketing. Ms. Haros’ case is best summed up when she…
One of America’s most experienced, accomplished and insightful wine writers recently demolished both the idea of “natural” wine and the intellectual artifice of the “natural” wine movement. This is notable because outside of intellectually disciplined observers of the wine world and some hacks like myself, there hasn’t been all that much push back against the foundations of “Natural Wine”. In the course of schooling the natural wine movement at Wine Review Online, Paul Lukacs made the following point that deserves…
There are certain skills and a certain set of principles involved in media relations, be it within the wine industry or any other industry where a company has a story to tell the media. I want to demonstrate an example of a failure of both the skill and principles using an email pitch that was sent to me yesterday. “Dear Tom I recently started a wine import company focusing on terroir – driven wines. Getting it off the ground takes a…
The winery chose to be very vocal about their opposition to President Trump’s immigration policy, going so far as to put a “Resistance” symbol on their label, being vocal in the media about their opposition, and announcing their opposition to the President’s various policies on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They took a principled stand. The upshot was that they lost the support of a small number of important customers located in Texas, Florida, Missouri and Georgia who, together, purchased over $120,000 in…
“Wholesalers have responded to requests to distribute New York wines in such a niggardly fashion that wine shops outside the state are forced to relegate the few Empire State bottlings they are offered to the retail ghetto of the “Other Wines” section.” The thing that is wrong with this sentence provides an important lesson to publicists and marketers. The problem isn’t with grammar. The sentence is perfect in that respect. You might quibble with the point it makes, but that’s…
