Beverage Dynamics is the largest national business magazine devoted exclusively to the needs of off-premise beverage alcohol retailers, from single liquor stores to big box chains, through coverage of the latest trends in wine, beer and spirits.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/303900
www.beveragedynamics.com May/June 2014 • Beverage Dynamics 37 A mericans today are living in a golden age of wine, with more varietals, labels and vineyards avail- able to them than ever before. And they, in turn, are literally gobbling the stuff up, both as the largest wine market in the world and, in terms of per capita consumption, as a swift riser among the ranks of global oenophiles. They're also better educated and savvier—only a generation ago, a typical answer to the ques- tion, "What's your favorite wine?" might easily be "red" or "white." Today, it's not uncommon to see twenty-somethings expertly swirl their glasses while debating the merits of petit sirahs and rieslings. For the folks who sell wine, it's an era of grand opportunity--and unique challenges presented by a dizzying array of competi- tion vying for the attention of consumers with increasingly discriminating palates. And from the suppliers who bottle the juice down to the retailers who bag it, the mar- keting strategies run the gamut. If the suppliers are the generals back at HQ, producing a wide array of marketing programs and point-of-sale materials, it's the retailers who are the boots on the ground in the trenches, determining whether a wine brand wins or loses, bottle by bottle. Not surprisingly, it all comes down to knowing what consumers in the area want. In Houston, Spec's Wines customers treasure the ability to rec- ognize the labels they're familiar with as soon as they walk in the door. Promoted brands get high visibility on the end-caps, typically raising sales for that particular wine by more than 40%. The same goes for A spaces, case cards and wine racks. But on the wine shelves themselves, the emphasis is on shelf cards that pair gorgeous, wine- maker-supplied vistas of vineyards with plainspoken, staff-written descriptions that eschew the esoteric language of stereotypical wine snobs, according to Hermen Keys, the north Texas regional oper- ational director. "In my opinion, customers like to feel comfortable," he said. "We encourage the staff to personalize their shelf wine reviews, not use some cookie-cutter shelf stock that customers see at every location." Individuality is also key at Happy Harry's Bottle Shop in South Dakota, but general manager Dustin Mitzel fi nds the most effective marketing comes from the stories behind the wine. "It's all in the bottle," he said. "Take Goldschmidt Cabernet. I can tell people that Nick Goldschmidt planted these vineyards and named each wine after one of his daughters. And I can say this particular cabernet is named after Katherine Goldschmidt, what the vineyard looks and feels like, how it's from the Alexander Valley region, and what that means." A PROMOTION THAT LASTS Still, among suppliers, the king of off-premise marketing is the Sut- ter Home Winery "Build a Better Burger Contest," which has been regarded as an exemplar of successful wine promotion for over 20 years. The 2014 iteration of the contest includes partnerships with ev- eryone from Classen Pickles to Pabst Blue Ribbon, and budding grill- masters with the promise of a cook-off at the Sutter Home Winery where the winner walks away with $120,000. In stores, customers are drawn in by barbecue-themed promotional displays that heavily play up the partnership with Weber, and booklets of coupons for Pam grilling spray, King's Hawaiian buns, Alexia french fries, and more. The promotional programs are all designed to make the dis- plays as attractive to retailers as they are to shoppers, said James Nunes, vice president of marketing services and strategy for Trinchero Family Estates. "Our larger brands, such as Sutter Home and Ménage à Trois, develop cross-merchan- dising promotions and create theme desti- nation displays to encourage consumers to include wine with their grocery purchases," he wrote in an e-mail. "These displays also give retailers a reason to feature our products in the lobby, meat breezeway, deli or fl oral departments, where consumers are more likely to make an impulse purchase. To en- sure that our wines get displayed in these locations, we offer cross merchandising cou- pons and recipes pairing them together, incenting consumers to pick up our wines for their dinners, BBQs and summer parties. Retailers strive to make every customer's shopping experience enjoyable, con- venient and stress-free, and this tactic supports that very notion." FROM SPECIALIZED MATERIALS TO HUGE DISPLAYS For the last 18 months, Michael Sorg, wine buyer for the Liquor Barn chain in Kentucky, has asked suppliers for more specialized marketing materials--say, small fl atscreen TVs for end-cap displays, or smaller-footprint, more tasteful display racks, all supplemented with e-mail blasts to customers about featured wine promotions. The important thing is that the marketing fi ts in with the chain's "We like to do big 60-to-80-case displays, to draw plenty of attention, with a story behind it." — Brian Maxwell, general manager and wine buyer, Gary's Wine and Marketplace, New Jersey A 7 In an environment with thousands of different wine offerings, suppliers and retailers use a variety of strategies to merchandise their wares. BY MICHAEL PARK