Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/51841
MANAGEMENT UNCORKING PR C o n t i n u e d rant placements, 75 new consumer visitors to the tasting room, and a feature story in a wine publication, will be well worth your time and energy. How will you achieve those results? The first step is to identify them as goals. Then make them happen. Make sure you use the eight techniques above to increase your opportunities for success. DID I WIN? There's one last part to this equation, and it will help you refine your marketing plan to the point of real strategic focus. It is critical to develop cost-effective strategies for your marketing and communica- tions campaigns. Once you do that, it is only fair to measure the costs against the benefits. Then measure those results against the other ele- ments of your marketing communi- cations plans. For every event, and every ele- ment of your marketing commu- nications campaign, you have to answer these questions: How much will participation cost in terms of time, money and materials? Don't forget to include product costs, travel time, enter- taining and other associated costs. How big is the payoff? How many contacts (and of what impor- tance) will you need to make to justify these expenses? This doesn't mean that the sales contacts you make at the show have to place orders large enough to pay for the costs of the show within three months. That's not how marketing communica- tion works. But you need to look at these events as investments, and how they are going to pay off. If you don't have a way to track these investments, how can you possibly make good decisions about them? Clearly, you should develop a measurable goal for a specific number of sales contacts to be made, as well as a target number of follow-up sales calls and orders placed. By having a stated goal, your staff can focus on making sure those numbers are reached. Once you see what you hope to get for your time and money, you should spend some creative time thinking about how you might spend that time and money in differ- ent ways to get even better results. A good PR professional will explore a wide range of tactics to achieve any goal; this will help you decide if the trade show or festival is the best strategy for your needs. Comments? Please e-mail us at feedback@vwm-online.com. WWW.VWM-ONLINE.COM JAN - FEB 2012 VINEYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT 21