Yesterday I attended an experimental Harpers forum placing many of the great and the good from the UK wine industry in a room to discuss a topic. The proposition of this particular event was “At the root of the wine industry’s problems is the failure to engage with the consumer”.
In addition to the quality audience – from which you could have quite happily formed a couple of speakers panels – we heard from six diverse experts
We recently lost a pitch for an Old World regional generic wine account. The budget was sizeable and there was huge scope for improvement – so, in short, we were excited about it and really wanted to win it. We put in three weeks’ work and eventually submitted a detailed, imaginative, realistic, ground-breaking campaign proposal for three years. I can guarantee it would have worked – increasing awareness, incentivising the trade, exciting the consumer and boosting sales. The result? We failed at the first hurdle – not something we are used to.
The UK wine trade is one sick puppy. All of us – retailers, brand owners, producers, bottles, designers, marketers, PRs, press - deep down know this to be true.
Many have been trying to draw attention to this – ranging from Robert Joseph years ago to Michael Cox (Wines of Chile) and Richard Cochrane (Bibendum) in the latest issue of Harpers. Many others think it but can’t say it out loud.
Recently Richard Wiseman, a psychologist from Hertfordshire University, released research results suggesting that consumers couldn’t tell the difference between cheap plonk and fine wine and suggested that they were ‘fooling themselves into thinking that expensive wine tasted better’
Evolve or die. Innovation within the wine category is essential across all facets – wine production, wine styles, packaging, shipping, pricing and marketing. Why? Because we haven’t got it right yet - in fact, I think things are getting worse. For all the talk of consumers being more empowered than ever in their wine buying decisions, I feel they are more confused – presented with so many buying cues and tips that they are more concerned about not making the wrong choice than in making the right one for them.
A few of us lucky members of the CUBE team were fortunate enough to join the winners of the latest Diablo SupperClub competition at the brand new Waitrose cookery school in North London at the weekend.
The Diablo SupperClub is a movement for foodies all across the UK to learn more about food and wine matching, read cooking tips and share recipes. A seasonal competition offers the chance to match one of your own favourite recipes with a Casillero del Diablo wine in order to be in with a chance to win an amazing cookery experience.
As Fairtrade Fortnight 2010 drew to a close earlier this month, the Fairtrade Foundation hailed this year’s push a resounding success. But why should UK consumers be choosing Fairtrade wine?
The Australian wine industry has come in for some pretty stern criticism in the last 12 months both from within the trade and indeed indirectly from those consumers who have drifted to pastures new. But is it deserved and what can be done to re-build its position as the world’s leading wine producing country?
If you haven’t yet seen it, I’d recommend reading Jane Parkinson’s interview of Dan Jago in the October 2009 issue of The Drinks Business - http://bit.ly/2gQtNe
The interview gives a very insightful take on the state of the UK wine industry - not an easy one to accept, but one that can’t be ignored.
Firstly, the 80/20 situation – and I quote Dan directly;
We’re always keen to explore how best to use digital media to communicate our clients' wines. This was the driving force behind not only this experiment, but also the recent Drinks and Digital Media Summit (see blog post below).
Our task was to make good use of Marcelo Papa, Casillero del Diablo’s winemaker, during his recent visit to the UK. So, in addition to putting him in front of key press and other opinion formers, we came up with the live web vid/twitter food and wine matching cook-off - #casillero on twitter, and for short.
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