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March 5 2007
Abbie Hoffman once said, “The 60s are gone, dope will never be as cheap, sex never as free, and the rock and roll never as great.”
He’s right on several counts. Many would argue about the rock and roll portion, though.
When I was talking through web site ideas with my designer I told him I wanted it to look like an imagining of a rock poster from 1920s bourgeoisie Paris.
I think he nailed it.
Rock posters as art have been going through something of a renaissance the last couple of years. Numerous artists and traditional screen printers have taken to modern techniques and antique letterpresses to create what amounts to one-off, or limited edition works of art.
You can see examples of what I’m talking about here.
I’ve made the analogy before, but rock bands and wineries, particularly small wineries, have more in common than they have differences.
And, forget for a moment that there is no winery that has even begun to capture the merchandising opportunity that exists for a winery brand. For interesting insight into a band as a product empire, check out this article on a company called MusicToday.
I thought then, as I still think now, that if somebody started doing letterpress rock posters for winery brands that you could have a really cool little online business going.
I also think it would be a good marketing idea for small wineries that don’t want to change the essence of their brand, but want to create some connecting relevancy with consumers (i.e. younger consumers) that blanch at the normal tasting room schwag and don’t drive off in a Benz, laughing, hair blowing in the wind, plumy cloud of dust trailing with a newly purchased case nestled in the trunk.
That is, most of us.
I have thought that Sebastiani & Sons might get this, since they seem to have a firm grip on packaging, technology and a good quality-to-price ratio for their brands. But, I think there might be some other guys that can step up to the table.
The other guys would be the team that brought out ‘Three Thieves’ wine (quality everyday juice in a jug). Charles Bieler, Joel Gott and Roger Scommegna have just released a Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine blended from the Central and North Coast AVAs called “The Show.”
The cool thing about this, separate from the wine, which I assume to be decent at a $15 price point, is, according to winebusiness.com:
The marketing angle here is the Wild West. Labels were designed by Hatch Show Print in Nashville, Tennessee. The company is famous for letterpress prints and posters depicting the likes of Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Louis Armstrong, Hank Williams, and other music and cultural icons.
Just to make sure that the positioning towards younger consumers is cemented, The Show wine also has a Myspace.com page—pretty savvy considering that Myspace has some 11,000 + members in wine affinity groups.
A relatively new blog, the Napa Valley focused The Cork Board highlighted on Fermentation today, even has a first person interview with Charles Bieler from Three Thieves. The short Q&A provides a couple of insights that are very savvy:
Question: The Three Thieves brand seems to be all about taking a bit of a contrarian stance on wine making and marketing, particularly when compared to the traditional Napa Valley winery. Talk to us a bit about the overarching strategy and thinking there.
Charles Bieler: Yeah, that’s perceptive. I’m a total contrarian by nature. If everyone is going one way, I need to go the other. I feel that the wine business often takes itself far too seriously, and there’s too much elitism associated. THREE THIEVES was founded on challenging all that and bringing good value in different formats (jugs, boxes, off beat labels, and niche categories).
Question: Your latest release, The Show, incorporates the style, packaging and marketing we’ve come to expect from Three Thieves. In fact, you guys even setup a MySpace page as part of the release. How did that idea come about and what’s been the general reception so far?
Bieler: Cool, glad you like THE SHOW. It was a great honor to work with the legendary poster shop, HATCH SHOW PRINT. We’d done some posters with them and I’d always dreamed of using their art to create a label. Eventually I was able to convince them. The response has been VERY strong.
Why MySpace? I draw my promoting inspiration more from the music world, than the wine world, and MySpace is standard for music promo. It’s a natural.
Very cool. You can scarcely go a day without seeing an article about the increase in wine consumption or the adoption of wine by younger consumers. Interesting, as well, that Three Thieves has chosen to push the upper limits of the super-premium wine category at the $15 price point. The way that wine is marketed is just now beginning to change. In 10 years, we’ll look back at “adventure brands” and concept labels like Little Penguin and the like and, perhaps, say that “The Show” ushered in a new era of evolution in marketing to a younger consumer while moving to higher ground, forgoing the schlock that has taken place the last couple of years in popular wine marketing.
If they can pull it off it would be an accomplishment worthy of framing ... maybe even a rock poster.
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February 22 2007
As a final, final postscript to the WineX story from yesterday, a story that received more wine blogosphere notice than any other story I can recall over the last year aside from the resveratrol angle, I was forwarded this story about being in the waning years of the 18-34 demographic.
We’ll soon return to normal wine related items, things of interest to most, but this article especially resonated because I too am in the last year of the 18-34 demo, the demo that WineX alleged to appeal to, and it hits the mark on a couple of notes. And, as well, I feel connected to WineX in a dysfunctional relationship kind of way, having followed the magazine for the last seven or eight years, fraught with frustration.
Well, it’s now 2007 and the generation who rages together ages together. We are now older, in managerial positions—but still creating companies aimed at driving forward the growth and adoption of technology and knowledge. Of course, we also embrace terms like “viral marketing” and “social networking,” all of which are slightly ambiguous terms used to explain the daily occurrences of life in an online environment where things are out of our control, and yet we still want to take credit for them. We try to harness the power of the consumer and use it for the “greater good” which basically means we pawned off the creative responsibility for 50% of what we do and called it “user-generated content.” We even convinced Time magazine to give “You” the award for Person of the Year in 2006, primarily because we couldn’t figure out if there was anyone who stood out and did something more important than the rest of us. No; our enthusiasm for the future is actually quite strong, because we keep finding ways to make our jobs fun and create new opportunities for us to sell ourselves to the world at large.
In particular, the one thing that really sticks out about WineX, especially in the autopsy phase, is that it provoked strong feelings—mostly vitriolic feelings—completely in contrast to warm fuzzies of social communities on the Internet. Rare is the time when people proverbially call out the son of a bitch at his funeral. Unfortunately, Darryl Roberts is getting that kind of flack online. Simply, he never was able to sell himself or his magazine to the industry, not too mention the world at large.
The second notion is a truism related by the esteemed Lloyd Dobler from the movie “Say Anything,” excerpted from the post:
Of course, now my mind drifts off into space and I recollect the famous words of one Lloyd Dobler, from the movie “Say Anything”: “A career? I’ve thought about this quite a bit, sir, and I would have to say, considering what’s waiting out there for me, I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything or process anything as a career. I don’t want to sell anything bought or processed or buy anything sold or processed or repair anything sold, bought or processed as a career…” and so on and so on.
Like I said, tomorrow we’ll return to normal programming, but for one last moment let’s reinforce the point that Generation X doesn’t want to ‘sell anything bought or processed or buy anything sold or processed.” Ultimately, the plaintive wail of a lack of industry support from Darryl Roberts is an industry renouncement of not only his magazine, but also his demographic processing.
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February 20 2007
Maybe it’s a slow news day, or maybe it’s because a guy, bloodied and beaten, lunged below the belt, a last ditch effort of the street fighter courting defeat, but unwilling to go down without a parting shot.
Wine X magazine announced they were closing down—announced on Decanter.com no less, a U.K. double gun middle finger salute aimed at the U.S. wine industry that allegedly didn’t do enough to support the young target market that Mr. Darryl Roberts cultivated for the last 8-10 years at Wine X magazine. Assuredly, Dale Carnegie would not approve.
And, some folks linked to below are weighing in:
In my pop culture view, there is a 15 year gap in between perception and reality. By that I mean that sometimes fifty year olds think they can identify with 35 years and 35 year olds think they can identify with 20 years olds. There’s a part of us that thinks we can skip down half a generation and still be current.
Rarely does speaking in the same voice occur naturally in between two generations if leadership and mutual respect isn’t also a part of the equation. Ultimately, Roberts was trying to step down a generation without providing leadership to the industry or speaking in the same voice. His scarlet letter is a crash and burn marked with an X.
As a sometime subscriber, albeit frustrated, I wrote a lengthy post on their miscues in June of ’06. Read the full post. In that post I was incredulous at the re-hash they put out as a new magazine amongst numerous other grossly negligent mistakes they were making in trying to appeal to an audience that I occupy. Ultimately the issue that prompted my ire was the last issue published.
I’m not surprised they’re folding up their tent. Very rarely have I seen somebody so completely disconnected and out of touch from their intended audience. And, let’s get one thing straight—they didn’t target millenials. They targeted Generation X and they targeted a hipster Gen X that had long ago ceded the bar scene to more mature lifestyle choices. But, the content and style of the magazine never kept up with Generation X, nor came even close to Generation Y.
I’m not about to dance on anybody’s grave, but I will say that Wine X magazine is and was a good idea that suffered from terrible planning and terrible execution. I have frequently ranted about a lack of a magazine for my generation, not too mention folks 10 years my junior. That opportunity still exists for somebody that wants to approach it intelligently. If you don’t believe me, check out a bookstore—any Border’s or Barnes & Noble will do and look at the music magazine section. In this day and age of plummeting cd sales, Web 2.0, ipods, and digital downloads, etc music information publishing is increasing. Yes, increasing. There are scores of music magazines that did not exist a couple of years ago. Rolling Stone has a lot of company. Oddly enough these music magazines target the same supposed audience that Wine X did, and younger consumers. If you want to check out a magazine that addresses a youthful culturally literate and wine consuming audience check out this link for Imbibe magazine. If you want to check out a music magazine that addresses an adult alternative-style music fan check out Paste Magazine. Whoever wants to create a wine magazine to address Generation X and Y would do well to start with these two examples.
Mr. Roberts rails against the wine industry and their lack of support. Ultimately, this is the defense mechanism of a man who has lost his magazine, his baby. I feel bad for him because an idea without execution isn’t much to hang your hat on. And, unfortunately, Mr. Roberts is still looking for a place to hang his hat. Instead of raising the hackles of others for his poor form, I think he deserves our sympathy in failure.
Posted in, Wine: A Business Doing Pleasure. Permalink | Comments (3) | Print |
February 6 2007
Tim over at Winecast.net has posted the very first edition of the new Unfiltered podcast. He and I are co-hosting and it’s designed to be a monthly podcast that gathers industry folks together to have a conversation in a roundtable format. Topics will range, but it should be something akin to The Sportswriters on ESPN or Face the Nation, except for wine wonks.
This month’s edition features Jeff Stai from Twisted Oak Winery and Tom Wark from Wark Communications and his own leading blog Fermentation. Tom is also now doubling as the Executive Director for the Specialty Wine Retailers Association, which he details on the show.
Overall, the show turns out well, especially for a virgin effort. The only downside to the podcast might be my own staccato pattern—I think most actors and people with personality talent don’t watch themselves because it’s too painful. Even without much of the personality talent, I know what they mean. I’ll work on it.
Kudos to Tim for organizing and look for monthly editions going forward. The link to the podcast can be found with either of the below options:
Link for listening on your PC:
http://winecast.net/2007/02/05/unfiltered-1-twisted-oak/
Link for download:
http://winecast.net/podcasts/Unfiltered_20070121.mp3
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February 4 2007
With apologies to Gary Vay-Ner-Chuk at Winelibrary and his likely epitaph, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a couple of other people that are also changing the wine world.
The wine industry has always attracted outsiders—while it seems to be a fairly inclusive community, the truth is that most of the money required to start a winery has come from outside the industry. Very few have bootstrapped their way to the top—it’s just not set-up that way given capital costs for land, personnel and equipment and the lag time in between grapes in the ground and bottle on the shelf.
For many people (myself included) interested in aligning their passion with the industry in a professional capacity, working somewhere in the value chain is the way to go. This model for getting close to the industry is probably the best way to go because outsiders can drive change in what can sometimes be a hidebound and traditional business clinging to legacy models of business.
As a result of professional work, I’ve recently had the opportunity to come across numerous people, most of them young and all of them passionate about creating value in the world of wine.
Interestingly, I say “creating value” because most people in the wine industry, though capitalists they may be, are not nakedly greedy and fueled by the love of money. More often these people are organically fueled by a passion for the vinous arts with an appreciation for good business that begets profits.
Two companies I’ve recently interacted with, led by wine industry outsiders, are examples of companies that are going to change the way we buy wine at retail from a distributor and how we buy wine consumer direct online.
Taken in Two Parts, I’ll review the distributor first.
Many in and around the industry deride the three-tier system as profiteers required to be a part of the sales chain by regulatory mandate and not value-add. The grinding axe usually includes an anecdote about lack of focus for quality-oriented small brands and heavy-handed sales tactics for grocery store wines. While that may philosophically be true, there needs to be a line of demarcation between big distributors and small distributors.
Professionally I’ve been on something of an extended road trip meeting with small distributors in many states and almost to an organization; these are smart, engaged, creative people shaking things up by focusing on artisan brands that require a hand sell.
Candid Wines based in the Chicago area is one such distributor. Started by Scott Kerrigan and Damien Casten, both of the business partners come to the industry from other professional experiences.
Casten was a young American living in Paris when his wine radar went off while eating a fantastic meal, well-paired with wine. After working in the rat race, he enrolled in the New England culinary institute and returned to France to cook at fine dining establishments, include the Michelin three star restaurant Lucas Carton before eventually settling in Chicagoland and meeting up with business partner Scott.
Scott Kerrigan, a fascinating guy and my lunch companion at Blackbird in Chicago recently had a similarly circuitous route to the world of wine. An MBA with a law degree, he’s obviously wicked smart and well-oiled in the machinations of big business. Straddling the line between foodie and passionate wino, he enrolled in culinary evening school to hone his home kitchen chops before transferring his business acumen to the wine industry and starting up Candid Wines with Damien.
Their position to market is, perhaps, the most interesting aspect of their business, though certainly not the only aspect that makes them unique and a safe bet for success.
With their mantra of, “We Make Wine Lovers Happy” they are building a business that does a 180 on the traditional distribution business. And, in my experience, entrepreneurs that are stridently dogmatic about their “brand,” how they do what they do and with whom they do it are the best candidates for long-term success. A clear execution path from points A to B is the result.
Candid wines is just that. They strike me as protégés of Kermit Lynch, creating an iconoclastic reputation for absolutely the best quality wines with a terroir-based organic bent. By building on their own palates with a reputation for quality, they will create a business that succeeds by the dint of their hard work.
But, what’s more interesting is the transparency with which they are building their business. Sure they sell wines to retailers and restaurants in the Chicagoland area, but they also have a robust consumer-oriented events portion of their business and this, in my estimation, is their secret sauce.
Most distributors provide closeout wines to non-profit events and maybe supply a bottle or two for a retailer tasting on Saturdays.
Candid Wines take their personal backgrounds and strengths to create events for consumers that are a likely profit center, and also have the magic opportunity to drive consumer pull demand for their wines at retailers and restaurants.
Smart. Very smart.
Their events, including corporate, public, catered, and charity events is an opportunity for them to give, in their words, a “Candid Wine Experience” that “delivers all the passion and pleasure that embodies great wine.”
With growth occurring in every corner of the wine industry—from amount of wineries to continued record-setting levels of consumption, I’m glad to see that new spins on old business models are occurring to advance the cause of the industry—just like Candid Wines is doing in Chicago with a singular focus on sensibly growing their business while building their wine portfolio and creating events that, of course, “Make Wine Lovers Happy.” They are turning the traditional mode of linear operation of the supply chain inside out.
Next up, I’ll review an online business that is capitalizing on the emerging Wine 2.0 space coupled with the off the charts growth of online winery consumer direct shopping.
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