Marketing Wine

[Joe Riley]

Many of us in the trade have long suspected this, but it's interesting to see it in print:

Animal labels twice as attractive to wine consumers

March 24, 2006

Panos Kakaviatos

Putting an animal name on a bottle of wine will more than double its sales in the United States, say market analysts AC Nielsen.

According to research conducted by the firm, just over 400 of the 1,000 wine brands introduced in the last three years remain in production. Of those, wines with animal pictures, names or brands outsold those that didn't by a proportion of more than two to one.

Animal-branded wines, such as the Kangaroo-labelled Yellow Tail or Smoking Loon (a duck-like bird), represent about 18% of the 438 wines introduced successfully into the US market, but their combined sales amount to over US$600m (£346m).

'While placing a critter on a label doesn't guarantee success, it is important that winemakers realise that there is a segment of consumers who don't want to have to take wine too seriously,' said AC Nielsen's Danny Brager.

'Not only are they willing to have fun with wine, they may just feel good about an animal label presentation.'

AC Nielsen said that the trend may have been set by Yellow Tail wine – the biggest-selling wine brand in America.

For the record, I would say that MOST "animal-cutesy" wines that I've encountered are very, very mediocre. Penguins, Loons, Koala Bears, Black Swans, etc.. be they from the U.S.A. or Australia or South Africa, wherever, almost always signal very boring wine.

Just taste before committing, okay?

[Meaghan]

Panda Creek is good though, right?

[dinwiddie]

If you can find someone with one try one of the Loring "The Llama" Pinot Noirs. Also look at a new winery called A Donkey and Goat. They make some good juice.

[Escoffier]

If you can find someone with one try one of the Loring "The Llama" Pinot Noirs.  Also look at a new winery called A Donkey and Goat.  They make some good juice.

You might also try Jindalee Merlot and Syrah. Both are very tasty.

[Ferhat Yalcin]

we used to have a very fast seller , `Bearboat` pinot noir

[Mark Slater]

we used to have  a very fast seller , `Bearboat` pinot noir

Bearboat is (or was) good wine for the price. It has a picture of a bear rowing a small boat on the label.

I think I could make a fortune selling plonk called Fuzzy Bunny or Cute L'il Kitty.

[Meaghan]

Why do you think punch buggies and ipod are hot? Cuz they're cute like kitties.

Fuzzy Wuzzy NV-the bubbly that could.

[crackers]

Don't forget Frog's Leap! Everybody loves cute little frogs.

Their site has the most annoying but amusing flash intro ever - it comes with an interactive game and a frog named Lily who will give you a Zen quote of the day.

[Mark Slater]

Don't forget Frog's Leap! Everybody loves cute little frogs.

Their  site has the most annoying but amusing flash intro ever - it comes with an interactive game and a frog named Lily who will give you a Zen quote of the day.

Don't forget their motto: Time's fun when you're having flies.

[cjsadler]

Don't forget their motto: Time's fun when you're having flies.

Or their corks, which say "Ribbet!" on the side. (FL is a fun place to visit if you're in Napa-- they have a basketball hoop in the warehouse, and if you make a three point shot you get a free bottle of wine).

[Joe Riley]

Or their corks, which say "Ribbet!" on the side.  (FL is a fun place to visit if you're in Napa-- they have a basketball hoop in the warehouse, and if you make a three point shot you get a free bottle of wine).

WHOSE wine? I don't mean to brag, but I spent HOURS as a teenager shooting 3-point shots. I'd love the opportunity to clean them out

[deangold]

Or their corks, which say "Ribbet!" on the side.  (FL is a fun place to visit if you're in Napa-- they have a basketball hoop in the warehouse, and if you make a three point shot you get a free bottle of wine).

Qupe and ABC used to ahve a basket ball hoop intheir wearhouse cum winery. But I think all you'd get for making a three pointer is knocked flat on your a.. the next time you had the ball! They are serious ball players there!

FL has a collection of all things froggy... frog's lamps, frog soap holders etc etc etc. John is going into the cheesemaking business in Marin County in the Point Reyes area.

[cjsadler]

NY Times Mag Article

18% of all new wines have some sort of animal on the label...

[Joe Riley]

It has been in vogue for the past decade or so for more and more wines to be released with whimsical labels and names. The pioneer of this was my friend, Randall Grahm, President-for-Life of Bonny Doon Vineyards (www.BonnyDoonVineyards.com). He was the one who really broke the mold and showed retailers and restaurants that wines with cute, funny or just off-the-wall names could be decent sellers, provided of course that they were good to drink in the first place.

So everyone and their brother has jumped on this bandwagon, especially the Australians, who now probably lead the wine world in non-traditional wine names and labels.

One of the latest ones that I've run across is a wine called "Jest Red" (they apparently also have a "Jest White" and a "Jest Pink", but I haven't tried them).

The whimsical descriptions of these wines really appeal to my absurdist nature. Here's the quivering verbiage from their back label:

Giddy pleasure, leaping grace... this red wine, blended from seven noble grape varietals, was crushed by the sirenic hymn of 69 beautiful women reaching for the high note in the wee light of dawn one misty October day. The nose is deeply perfumed with wild dewberries, Himalayan breeding musk and horehound candy, while the flavors, so titillating they may only be disclosed in the Ecstatic Singing Mantra, will remain cloaked in silence until the bottle is uncorked. Sip delicately, sing with abandon.

It's only about an $8.99 bottle, but it is quite tasty, and believe me, you could do a whole lot worse for that kind of money.

Oh, and under "Alcohol", it reads, "Jest enough"

[Joe Riley]

Someone has finally designed a wine just for you: http://madhousewifecellars.com/

[Heather]

Warning, some language ahead might be offensive...

Jesus H. Christ on a triscuit. This has a got to be a joke. Please tell me it's a joke. I'd hate to think some limp-dicked advertising exec thought this up his own little self. Or worse, some vintner thought that this was a great way to sell his/her product. Housewives? Hi-larious! Maybe she could even wear, like, retro clothes and makeup! There's a "purse pack," hardy-har-har.

[jparrott]

Hey. Once upon a time, not so long ago, every rich dork in the Western Hemisphere decided that owning a vineyard was the swellest thing on earth. Presto! Scads of young vines yielding boring wine with plenty of color. A wine lake. And thus sprouteth every kind of brand under the sun. Blended and branded. We take the noble out of vignoble.

[Heather]

I'd like to see them sell to this chick. <wicked laugh>

[ol_ironstomach]

Warning, some language ahead might be offensive...

Jesus H. Christ on a triscuit. This has a got to be a joke. Please tell me it's a joke. I'd hate to think some limp-dicked advertising exec thought this up his own little self. Or worse, some vintner thought that this was a great way to sell his/her product.

Just look at the letters on their blog:

• "Brilliant marketing."
  
• "The other night I purchased a bottle of your Mad Housewife Cabernet Sauvignon based solely on the picture on the bottle!"
  
• "I initially bought it because of the name and the cute logo..."
  
• "Normally, I’m a bit of a wine snob, but purchased a bottle of your cab -- based on the humorous value of the label -- to give my housekeeper a chuckle."
  

Even worse - it's not bottled by a winemaker, but by two ex-technology marketing wonks who set up shop two years ago as "Rainier Wine". The wine itself is bought from unspecified wineries, blended and bottled. It might even turn out to be tasty, but there's no shaking the fact that it's a vatted bulk product, shamelessly gender-marketed using a fictitious housewife.

The creepy thing is, they seem to have knocked off the idea from a neighbor in the area with a similar brand position, only this one is actually owned by women, appears to make their own wines (albeit with a male winemaker), and has a charitable component. Sleeping with the enemy?

[Joe Riley]

I'd like to see them sell to this chick. <wicked laugh>

I'll bet she also discusses The Great Pumpkin

[Waitman]

Warning, some language ahead might be offensive...

Jesus H. Christ on a triscuit. This has a got to be a joke. Please tell me it's a joke. I'd hate to think some limp-dicked advertising exec thought this up his own little self. Or worse, some vintner thought that this was a great way to sell his/her product. Housewives? Hi-larious! Maybe she could even wear, like, retro clothes and makeup! There's a "purse pack," hardy-har-har.

So, I guess this wine would be even less tolerable? Or more?

[Heather]

So, I guess this wine would be even less tolerable? Or more?

"Stone cold sober as a matter of fact"

This one is better.

I wonder if their tastings are set up like Avon parties?

[Waitman]

"Stone cold sober as a matter of fact"

This one is better.

I wonder if their tastings are set up like Avon parties?

They got the label wrong.

I guess it would be pointless to ask why a Spanish wine, using a grape most closely identified with Australia and the Rhone Valley, would be called "Mad Dogs and Englishmen."

"Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun.

The Japanese don't care to, the Chinese wouldn't dare to,

Hindus and Argentines sleep firmly from twelve to one,

But Englishmen detest a siesta,

In the Philippines there are lovely screens,

to protect you from the glare,

In the Malay states there are hats like plates,

which the Britishers won't wear,

At twelve noon the natives swoon, and

no further work is done -

But Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun."

[crackers]

When the bottle is the right temperature, her dress disappears. When you drink the entire bottle in three gulps, the same thing happens to you.

This one looks disturbingly familiar

[deangold]

And silly little me thinks that wine is about something in the bottle that delivers a great sensory experience.... ya know.... taste good and doesn't fark up the taste of your hamburger!

[Joe Riley]

I ran across this completely by accident, but it actually might be available here, seeing as it is a Sebastiani product (i.e. a national brand):

Used Automobile Parts

Explore that site a bit. Don Sebastiani seems to be pursuing the marketing strategy of sales-by-whimsy. The thing that bothers me about that is, Sebastiani is hardly an "outsider" or iconoclast trying to fight for shelf space amongst the "big boys" - he IS one of the big boys! It's rather akin to one of the major Hollywood studios trying to release a film through one of their smaller companies, in an attempt to fool the moviegoing public into thinking that the film in question is an independent film made outside the "Hollywood system", therefore possibly more daring or cutting edge, or for the purposes of somehow insulating the parent company in case such a move backfires. Of course, that's the cynic in me talking. They might actually have some good ideas which might need to be marketed to particular consumers in a different way, such as the Walt Disney company marketing more general film fare through their Touchstone Pictures arm, instead of Walt Disney/Buena Vista. Seriously, what teenager wants to be caught dead at a "Disney" film? Us so-called wine sophisticates might balk at buying wine from a colossal wine concern that we're familiar with, but if we're fooled into thinking that the wine in question is from some small grower, we might have fewer reservations.

Again, I'm being quite cynical. Who knows, maybe the Sebastianis went to Australia and saw how many untraditional winery names and labels there are, or something, and just decided that they might as well join in the fun.

[jparrott]

See, the big boys get to have more baboons and more typewriters in their stables...so they can generate more random brand names for their blended-and-branded bullshit.

If any of you have ideas for brand names for slightly less bullshitty, but still "brandable" wine, shoot me an e-mail. I'm sure I can find adequate vinous compensation for you. Cos we're at our wits end.

[Wine Guy 23]

Annual production of Rosemount Estate: 3 Million Cases of wine = 36,000,000 bottles.

Best NEW vineyards?If you pick up the new Wine and Spirits Magazine look at the article on 'best NEW vineyards', and see that MacMurray Ranch, and Provenance are listed amongst the others , who have production under under 10000cs. and these guys are well over that and have been around for YEARS!! any chance there was handshake involved?