SVB Financial reports that buyers will begin to spend slightly more for a bottle of wine into 2011. If this is the case, the question becomes: how does the small family owned winery with a lower operating budget market their wines to consumers and try to make the most of the improving economy?
This past June, I had the good fortune of attending the Wine Bloggers’ Conference in Walla Walla, WA. Over the course of three days, many of my long held beliefs about wine PR were turned upside down, as well as most of my public relations plan (both short and long-term) for Dry Creek Vineyard. Let me explain.
Every new Internet development comes with a hyperventilating promise to change the way a winery does business by revolutionizing how it interfaces with its customers by creating a new type of community around the brand. Yet, these innovations rarely become the ubiquitous life changers they are touted to be.
Social media has become one of the most used buzzwords of the last several years—along with Google (as a verb), subprime, death panels, friend, un-friend, tweet, and of course, blog. Wine has its own set of buzzwords, of course, from biodynamic and sustainable to screwcap, critter label, and boxed wine. Put social media and wine together, and you have a possibility to dramatically shift the way we connect with and consume wine.
As a part-time manager of a wine retail shop in British Columbia, and a full-time marketer, Paul Rickett is bringing a level of analysis to his business and providing interesting results that apply to both wine consumers and retailers at-large in North America. In a word, it's all about "trust."
As more and more content and commerce go digital, it's interesting to gauge whether social media actually changes our behavior or just magnifies it.