Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/333548
1 8 V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T | J u l y - A u g 2 014 w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m ne of the biggest chal- lenges in our business is targeting the right group of customers. We know t h a t a p p r o x i m a t e l y 8 0 % of Americans are not "core drinkers," as defined by the Wine Market Council. Which is to say that most of our public relations efforts should focus on the 20% who are. There's only one problem with that approach: There are more than 100,000 wines in the U.S. market, and they are all trying to sell to that same 20%. Yet there are 230 million adults in the U.S., which means that there are some 46 million potential core drinkers. How many of those do you need to sell a few cases of wine? I like to envision all of those 46 million wine drinkers in a huge sta- dium. On the field in front of that crowd are 100,000 wines. If you produce wine, you are in that mass of bottles, and you can see just exactly how hard it is to get the attention of the crowd. One solution is to be one of the biggest play- ers on the field. If you are selling a million cases of wine per year, you are going to stand out, even on that crowded field, and the huge audi- ence in the stadium will certainly be aware of what you are doing. Nice work. But most wineries don't fall into that category, and many, many are so small that it is easy to imagine them getting trampled to death in the crush. You don't want to be one of those. So you obviously need to stand out, both to gain the attention of the audience and to make sure that the big boys don't step on you. That means doing something different, wearing brighter clothes, danc- ing wildly in the end zone, hanging from the goal posts or carrying a sign over your head. But every other winery is doing the same thing. You could, if you were very clever, try to appeal to just a few of those 46 million in the stands. You don't need to capture the attention of all of them, just a small portion of them. We've all seen this in a stadium. A section of the crowd suddenly comes to life, and the rest of the stadium wonders exactly what happened. So how do you play to only a section of the stands? GEOGRAPHICAL FOCUS One solution is to play to the part of the market that is closest to you. The section of the stadium that is right in front of you will be able to see you more clearly, and so it makes sense to play to those spec- tators. In terms of public relations, this means that you should make darn sure that you have covered your bases with your local audiences – not just customers in your area, but the local papers, restau- rants, hotels and officials. That's basic PR, but it's amazing how often wineries neglect this. And if you are likely to travel to another region on a regular basis, make that area another focus of your efforts. Make the connections you need to tell your story there. Sign up a local distributor. Stop at a few stores and restaurants and sell the wine. Once you've done that, tell your story to the local paper. In other words, play to that part of the crowd as well. It will be hard the first time, but each suc- cessive visit will become easier and more effective. SHORT COURSE + Don't play to the whole wine mar- ket generically, unless you are big enough to capture its attention. + Look for ways to reach out to specif- ic small markets that might actually notice you. + Make sure those smaller markets have, in fact, people who drink wine. + Measure the risks and rewards of any strategic alliance. All of the People, All of the Time You can't please all, so focus PR efforts on a segment UNCORKING PR PAUL WAGNER