It’s Gruner Time!
We’ve been saying it for years but Austrian wine has arrived. Check out Gary Vaynerchuk’s Daily Grape episode June 11 on Gruner Veltliner.
One of the things I really like about Gary’s democratization of wine tasting (“give it a sniffy sniff”) is to give us permission to personalize our palate. He gives a great taste analogy of minerality that really demonstrates that you don’t need to use traditional wine wonk words to describe what YOU taste. He compares it to a time when he was a kid and got smacked in the mouth with an aluminum bat….THAT’s what minerality means to him.
Check out the vid then head out to your nearest wine store for the Loimer Kamptal Gruner Veltliner or the Stadt Krems Kremstal GV, both imported by Winebow. And a big thank you to Erin Grace and Jodi Stern of Winebow’s Austrian Portfolio for facilitating the samples.
Here’s a link to the review on Snooth with some links to e-commerce sites where you can order the wine if it’s not available locally (and the Loimer in particular should be…it’s one of the best-distributed Austrian GV’s out there.)
The Chocovine Phenomenon, or What Separates a Breakout Brand from an Also-Ran
For those of you unfamiliar with the brand, (and therefore probably snickering), ChocoVine is one of those unique new product successes we see so rarely in the industry. Not just a breakout brand, but one that flies counter to what the pundits would tell you will work. In point of fact, ChocoVine was mentioned by every panelist in our wholesaler session at the U.S. Drinks Conference last October as an example of an opportunity missed. All had scoffed at the idea initially and were astounded at the brand’s success.
We’ve been watching the ChocoVine phenomenon from its early stages and while I can describe what’s been happening, I can’t explain the phenomenon. But I sure would like to be able to.
ChocoVine is a chocolate cream product but instead of a spirits alcohol base it’s made with red wine “The taste of dutch chocolate and fine red wine.” So when you first hear the name. the concepts of chocolate and wine seem at odds…a very difficult pairing in the fine wine world. The label and package are often referred to as “hokey” or “downscale”. But that’s where the criticism has to end, because this stuff is flying off the shelves. In its third year on the market the brand is on track to hit a million cases.
There’s something about the DNA of this brand that’s really resonating with consumers. As an anecdotal example of that, I was in one store where the delivery guy had just placed a case on the check out shelf for a moment, and customers came over and literally grabbed bottles out of the reshipper…they never even made it to the shelf! And just yesterday in a bar in Brooklyn the bartender mentioned the brand, the Southern on premise rep just happened to have the “Holy Trinity of ChocoVine” (Original, Raspberry, Espresso) with him. So what began as an off premise brand, is cracking on premise as well.
We spoke to Steve Katz of Clever Imports in Florida who is the brains behind the brand. He told us the idea was pretty simple. Instead of putting chocolate into the alcohol, they put the alcohol into the chocolate. And by using wine as the alcohol base, the product can be sold in a much wider set of retail stores than a spirits product. Additionally, the lower tax rate on wines means it can be priced at $10-$12 compared to market leader Bailey’s $19.99 price point and still deliver significant margin.
As the Brits say, “Brilliant!”
USDC at WSWA PPTs and Audio Files Available
Responding the calls we’ve gotten from those who wanted to attend but couldn’t get in, we’ve posted access to the powerpoints and audio files of the educational sessions we produced at last week’s WSWA convention. Go to www.USDrinksConference.com and check ’em out!
US Drinks Conference Debut Partnership with WSWA Wows SRO Crowd
We’re just back from a whirlwind few days at the WSWA in Orlando where we inaugurated the link up of USDC with WSWA. For those of you unfamiliar with it, the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America is the big daddy of wine and spirit trade conventions in the U.S.
After four years of flying solo with the U.S. Drinks Conference, we were thrilled to be asked to provide the educational sessions for this year’s WSWA, with plans to co-locate the two conferences in full next year in Las Vegas.
We weren’t sure what to expect in terms of attendance and were kind of worried since we didn’t have that much advance time to promote it. But we were blown away by the response. The crowd started pouring in for the first session on Social Media, and it became pretty clear pretty quickly we were a bit conservative….Cindy Nachman-Senders and the folks from WSWA did some fancy footwork and found a fast extra 50 seats. We ended up with a standing room only crowd and had to turn people away at the door. The next three sessions were also packed filling up the extra seats.
We led off with a focus on Social Media Marketing with me as moderator and a panel of Alyssa Rapp of Bottlenotes, Kit Codik of Liquor.com, Vincenza Kelly from the Italian Trade Commission and Camper English of Alcademics.
(l to r) Kid Codik of Liquor.com, Vincenz Kelly of ITC, Alyssa Rapp of Bottlenotes, Steve Raye of Brand Action Team and Camper English of Alcademics
They did a great job of putting into context what this whole SMM beast is all about.
The key takeaway was the importance of engagement, transparency, authenticity and commitment…not just talking the talk, but walking the walk.
Jeff Grindrod moderated the Brand Builders session with Chris Catterton of Bogle Vineyards, Norm Bonchick of Van Gogh Vodka and Dave Stringfellow of Beacon Beverage Imports. The big advice there was for small brands…start small, stay focused and don’t expand too quickly. Distributors have their eyes on what’s going on and they’ll recognize a successful brand. It’ll be much easier to expand when you’ve proved the concept, and then can leverage the middle tier for growth. For larger companies there’s no silver bullet. Just as each brand has a unique USP, each has to determine the right strategy whether it be flavor extensions galore, or sticking to a core set of skus.
MHW Ltd. prexy John Beaudette piloted the “Navigating Brand Entry: Understanding the Three-Tier System” session with panelists Bill Earle of NABI, Charlie Merinoff of Charmer Sunbelt, Vince O’Brien of Nixon Peabody and Jim Squeo of NABCA. They pointed out the critical need for offshore suppliers to have an experienced pilot to guide them through the apparently Byzantine rules and regulations that comprise the American drinks market.
Mike Ginley of Next Level Marketing played solo cleanup with a deep dive on maximizing the value of a Brand Ambassador team. Brand Ambassadors (aka Market Managers) are a critical component to a new brand launch. They can help prime the pump and supply the account-level time and attention that can results in real brand traction.
QR Codes: Marketers’ Consensus
I’m a member of a fabulous organization called MENG, (Marketing Executives Networking Group, basically a brain trust on steroids for senior marketers.)
A prospective client asked a question about validating the utility and effectiveness of QR codes (you know those funny looking square scanner things).
QR code link to the Brand Action Team website
Here’s a summary of MENG’s take on the subject.
They’re new. There’s not a lot of data on case histories published yet. Agencies are enamored of them. Consumers are just discovering them.
The key to effectiveness is the motivating relevance of what the marketer tells the viewer they’ll see by clicking through. So offers/discounts, relevant content, contests/sweepstakes, order online immediately or a value added service are all great. Videos, links to websites or Facebook pages are not as compelling. you have to clearly communicate to the consumer what they’re going to get if they click through. Don’t try and “trick” or tease consumers. To paraphrase Sarah Palin, that’s like teaching a pig to sing…it doesn’t work and it pisses off the pig.
Some Key points:
-Make sure the landing page from the code is accessible on mobile platforms…iPhone, Android, tablet.
-While still in its relative infancy (right now, penetration is about 30% of smartphones, expected to go to 50% by end of 2011) more use of QR codes will generate more downloads of readers. In Japan, it is a mature tool and people expect marketers to communicate via QR codes for “the rest of the story.”
-It’s relatively inexpensive (there are paid as well as free QR code generators), so it’s not much of a risk, or as my bubbe used to say, “It couldn’t hoit” to test, learn, optimize.
Here are some QR basic metrics from MENG’s own Heidi Cohen’s blog.
- Impressions. This is the number of times the QR code is viewed in its original context or surface. This is usually the same as the number of impressions the ad, in which the QR code appears, gets.
- Snaps. This is the number of people who snap a shot of the QR code and are linked to the landing page or other content. Make sure the landing page is mobile friendly because users capture this information on a smartphone. Since U.S. smartphone penetration is roughly 30% and additional action is needed, snaps will be low relative to the impressions.
- Snap-through rate. Calculate the percentage of people who take this next action by dividing the number of snaps by the number of impressions. Expect this to be a very small percentage.
- Actions. This is the number of people who ultimately buy or take the next step. This should be in line with marketing goals.
- Conversion rate. Calculate the percentage of people who convert from those who snap-through on your QR code or actions divided by snaps.
The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
I just finished Gary Vee’s new book The Thank You Economy and I have to say he’s done it again.
He’s been the most visible and productive advocate of using social media for marketing in the wine industry, and has demonstrated in the promos for this book that he’s not lacking for innovative new ideas for book promotion as well.
Here’s some excerpts from his in-your-face, straight-talking, get-out-of-your-chair-and-do-this manifesto of modern marketing.
“People can spell bullshit even across an oil slicked Gulf”
“Social media is not media, or even a platform, it’s a massive cultural shift.”
“If you’ve already experimented with social media and it didn’t work, there are only two possible reasons: your product or service isn’t any good, or you’re doing it wrong.” (great line, but I’d add a third or maybe a corollary for both…you don’t have clear objectives)
“It’s not the number of followers you have or “likes” you get, it’s the strength of your bond with your followers that indicates how much anyone cares about what you have to say.”
Steve Raye and Gary Vaynerchuk at the U.S. Drinks Conference
Right on bro’! We’ve been carrying that flag for a while now…Facebook fans and Twitter follower numbers are nice, but it’s the depth of the engagement that we’re interested in. We’ve created a proprietary tool to measure engagement level across social media platforms and that tells us more about how we’re doing than likes or followers. Combine that with social media monitoring tools like Sysomos and you’ve got some powerful real-time, behavior-based market research.
“Intent Matters”
You said it Gary! The better you can intuit intent, the more likely you are to delight customers. That’s why social media monitoring and tools like the engagement index are so important to us. They help us understand why people feel compelled to converse with us, so we can respond with more content of value to both of us.
Bottom line folks, if you want to know how social media is impacting the wine and spirits industry…read this book!
You Gotta Buy This Pisco Book!
Kudos to author Greg Dicum and the folks at ClearGrape, Shelley Alger and Tim Childs for publishing a fabulous new book on Pisco titled “The Pisco Book“. (It’s available for sale at Amazon.com but hurry…only 18 copies left!) 
Folks, this is the new definitive source on the subject of Pisco. Whether you’re in the cocktail community or just love a good story, you’ll enjoy this read. If you’ve ever wondered what the difference is between a falca and an alembique, where the name Pisco really came from, or the Peruvian/Japanese origins of ceviche, you’ll find the answers here.
In our travels around the country to mixology bars and conversations with bartenders, cocktail writers and aficionados, we’re seeing the nascence of an emerging trend. People are looking for something new and different from vodka, tequila and rum. And Pisco clearly (no pun intended) fills the bill
There are some great Pisco recipes in the book, several created and contributed by Pisco Porton Maestro Johnny Schuler, Jim Meehan of PDT, and Dushan Zarick of Macao Trading Co. and quite a few that are on our “we gotta try these next” list.
US Drinks Conference Links with WSWA
We’re happy to announce that the U.S. Drinks Conference and WSWA (Wine and Spirit Wholesalers of America) are joining forces this year. For those of you not familiar with it, the WSWA convention is one of the most important industry events in the U.S. Everyone who’s anyone in the world of wine and spirits…the sales side more than the marketing site…attends. In fact last year more than 2,000 people attended the event which alternates being held in Orlando (this year) to Las Vegas (2012).
The convention is being held April 10-12 (Sun-Mon), and the USDC will be producing the educational sessions on Tuesday afternoon.
I’ll be moderating the social media panel and we’ll have some great folks joining me including
-Alyssa Rapp of Bottlenotes
-Camper English of Alcademics
-Kit Codik of Liquor.com
-Vincenza Kelley of the Italian Trade Commission
Here’s a profile of the session:
Social Media Marketing: It’s Not an Option, it’s Mandatory
Forget the theory and the lectures, this hard-hitting panel will give attendees the street smart perspective on social media marketing. Whether you’re a supplier, wholesaler or retailer, social media marketing must be an integral part of your marketing strategy, The panel will provide the straight scoop on:
- What does success look like?
- Case histories with lessons learned that you can leverage right now.
- What are the wrong ways to use Facebook and Twitter, and how do you handle temperamental bloggers?
- Why social media marketing needs to be a core strategy- the liquid in marketing’s bottle and not the label slapped on top.
- Should your distiller or winemaker be tweeting?
ImporterConnect™ a Better Way to find a U.S. Importer
Finding an importer to work with your brand in the U.S. is a challenge. The U.S. wine and spirits market is one of the largest and most profitable in the world, but it is also one of the most difficult to penetrate. It does not function as a unified whole but rather as 50 different markets, each with its own set of laws and rules on how to conduct business. Furthermore, everyone has to operate within what is called the “Three-Tier System”. That means producers are restricted to selling through an importer (Tier 1), who sells to the distributor /wholesaler (Tier 2), who in turn sells to a retail store, bar or restaurant (Tier 3).
ImporterConnect™ U.S. Wine and Spirit Importer Database
The engine that drives the ImporterConnect™ service is the proprietary database we’ve developed specifically for the needs of suppliers looking to find a U.S. importer. It contains a wealth of detail on hundreds of importers that are simply not included in any other comparable resource. This gives us the ability to prioritize the criteria for a specific situation and identify those that match the needs. We can look for importers by markets in which they operate, whether they import from a particular country or region, suppliers and brands they work with and specializations such as family-owned, organic or indigenous varietals, etc.
ImporterConnect™ Service Options
BAT is offering three different service levels in the program ranging from providing a set of prospective importers that fit a specific set of criteria, all the way up to acting on a suppliers behalf in making the calls and having the meetings to lat the groundwork for negotiations of a deal.
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GBS Capital Advisor Launched to help entrepreneurs
We just launched a new service in partnership called GBS Capital Advisor. Here’s the press release we released yesterday with some background.
Partnership Launched to Assist Beverage Entrepreneurs
GBS Capital Advisor to provide business planning and investment-sourcing assistance to start-up, early and mid-stage companies in all beverage categories.
Plano, TX (Feb. 2, 2011) — Two essential steps in bringing startup and early-stage beverage brands from concept to commercialization include a rigorous business plan and a practical strategy for attracting angel, private equity, and venture capital funding. Mid-stage companies trying to get their product to the next level have similar working capital needs. GBS Capital Advisor has been formed to provide assistance to business owners and entrepreneurs facing these challenges. The company is a partnership between two complementary consumer products consulting firms, GBS Growth Partners, and Brand Action Team.
“We regularly see companies and individuals with great products and ideas who need planning expertise and financing support to gain traction,” said Jack Brennan, Managing Partner of the new entity. “These companies typically have done some planning but could benefit from more structure and detail necessary to attract the capital investment to grow their brands. We have the expertise to bring these companies the contacts and experience on how and who to approach for financial support,” he added.
According to Steve Raye, Managing Partner at Brand Action Team which specializes in spirit, wine and beer marketing, “The services GBS Capital Advisor offers include development of a professional business plan that is designed to present a company in its best light, in a format that answers the questions that investors ask when they evaluate concepts.”
As a result of a combined century of experience at global CPG companies such as Coca Cola and Diageo, coupled with the contacts, industry data and market research capabilities in beverages, GBS Capital Advisor can accelerate both the planning and funding processes. “We work with our clients to provide a comprehensive business plan in 60 days,” Brennan said.
While many consultants can tell you what to do, the GBS Capital Advisor program does most of the work for the brand owner. The process has been proven successful in getting the right investors to look at the company and provide the investors with the right information they need to evaluate the opportunity. Additional services include development of a Private Placement Memorandum (PPM), Consumer Marketing and Social Media Marketing plans, as well as consulting on commercialization, distribution supply chain and HR issues.
GBS Growth Partners has an existing investment partnership with a private equity firm formed specifically to invest in high potential consumer products. “Our extensive network gives us access to an array of Angel investors, VCs, Private Equity and other sources that significantly expands financing potential for these projects,” commented Brennan.
GBS Capital Advisor has offices in Plano, TX and Avon, CT. For more information visit www.GBSCapitalAdvisor.com. Tel # 860-803-1072
Brand Action Team is marketing consulting company specializing in wine, spirit and beer category and is based in Avon, CT. For more information visit www.TheBrandActionTeam.com.
GBS Growth Partners is a consumer product consulting company specializing in the food and beverage category with offices in Plano, TX. For more information visit www.GBSGrowthPartners.com
