Marketing Evolution

In a highly connected, overly busy world with constant communications and messaging, marketing techniques need to evolve to differentiate and stand out from the crowd.  From social media influencers to mastering digital marketing, an array of new methods and tools are being developed that can be used to connect and build relationships with customers.  Even some old methods, like physical mail and phone calls, are becoming effective again as people yearn for the personal touch.  Through it all, authentically crafting the brand persona and leveraging data to segment the list are needed to make all these methods effective. 

Detailed Show Notes: 

• Social media influencers - each targets different demographics, to be effectives, brands need to align influencers with brand demographics
• E.g. - Jaimee Motley Wines - sold out wines in 3 days from mentions from Raj Parr on social media
• Consumer virality can happen with customers sharing the wines and brand story
• Digital Basics
• Email - becoming harder to get through to customers, but still the highest conversion and most effective channel; able to scale to thousands of people at once
• Text messaging - may be becoming the new email
• Live chat function - effectively used by retailers such as Wine.com and Tribeca Wine Merchants
• Facebook Messenger - can do some programming to customize, e.g. - Live Nation has done some automated messaging with it
• SEO - to show up more on search terms
• SEM - paying for website to show up for certain search words
• Augmented Reality - 19 Crimes has done this well, can influence the perception of quality in the wine
• Hospitality & Experiences
• Plays to Millennials and Gen Z
• Food and wine pairings becoming common (e.g. - B Cellars, Diamond Creek, Donum, Scribe)
• Private tastings (e.g. - Quintessa’s private pavilions in the vineyards)
• Promontory (Harlan’s newest winery) is built for luxury hospitality
• Hall Wine’s Rutherford Estate is like a “time shift” into the past, a very high end wine cave
• Bringing the experience on the road
• Virtual tastings - with groups or private “1:1” tastings
• On the road - may be able to leverage AR/VR to bring the experience alive
• Building brand personas
• Today it’s often about winemakers or the winegrowing process, which often sounds very similar to most consumers
• E.g. - Nicolas Joly - persona as the leader in biodynamics, which lifts the brand
• Dom Perignon - “father of Champagne” brings the brand alive
• Scribe - has a vibe and audience, created the brand around their target audience of hip Millennials
• Ashes & Diamonds - mid-century modern, That 70’s Show feel, playing to the younger SF crowd
• SLO Down Wines - naughty, racy humor; rose is called “Send Nudes” with the founder’s phone number on it, may be offensive to some, but plays well to a specific niche
• Old methods becoming effective again
• Personal touches can be successful in the digital world
• Physical mailers - stick around and aren’t thrown out as often
• Phone calls - especially during the pandemic shelter-in-place
• Can use data analytics to target and segment customers for these tactics
• Word of mouth - both in person and digital
• Referral programs (e.g. - some retailers do this well)
• Tupperware parties for wine (e.g. - JCB did this at some point)

Sea Smoke - allows list members to share allocation with friends, giving them a piece of their allocation