July 28 2006
Tomat Fermentation has a post on the Carlo Rossi jug wine furniture-buildingproject that I highlighted on Monday, the 24th. Tom usually scoops me, so it’s nice to be a day or so ahead ofhim for once. It’s a rare occurrence.
Onearea where I do have to take exception is his reference to Carlo Rossi as: “These guys have their tongues so deeply embedded in their cheek thatthe entire dimple has been erased.”
Notso fast.
Infact, they don’t have their tongue in their cheek at all. This site plays it straight and they arefocusing their attention on a group of influencers that are complete hipsterdo-it-yourselfer’s. In my post here, Ireference ReadyMade magazine, a niche magazine that skews to the young andironic—the kind of kids that are curve-busters in your college class, drinkwine on the weekend AND know where to score Mexican Sinsimilla, to loosely paraphrase Carl Spackler from the movie Caddyshack.
So,it is with small, prescient delight that I checked out the ReadyMade Magazineweb site today. What did they postyesterday—the 27th? You gotit! A nod to the Carlo Rossi site. You can check it out here.
In general, while alot of winemakers want to put animals on their wine labels to appeal toMillenials, it’s really a demographic that drank Pabst beer when itmade its resurgence and wears t-shirts from a site likethreadless that you want to target—but, be warned, chasing these customers islike chasing the wind—very, very difficult to do successfully. My .02 cents--Carlo Rossi might be doing it. In this arena, it’s good enough to be hip and not talk about your wine.
digg this | toast this! | add to del.icio.us | add to newsvine | add to furl | add to reddit
Posted in. Permalink | Comments (2) | Print | Email This
July 28 2006
I love tying disparate thoughts together; taking ideasfrom one industry and applying them to another industry. Wine is so woven through the fabric of ourhistory and our society that it’s pretty easy to see how influential wine canbe, and, frankly, to note that the wine industry does do a lot of things right—despitecritics hurling Molotov cocktails about how slow to adapt to change the industrycan be.
Forthat reason, I love this post from Andrea Johnston at Inertia Beverage Groupwhere she draws some correlations from her visit to Comic Con in San Diego andcompares it to a wine confab, for example. She lists the following items that comics and wine can have in common:
2. People want to talk to the creators, get them there and have them interact.
3. Connect with new people, leave a great impression of your wine and what itrepresents. A positive experience can only lead to word of mouth referrals.
4. Don’t get lost in the large store or portal without also developing inparallel your independent connection to consumers through the direct channel.
Checkout the post here.
Mark at Uncorked hit a two-bagger, to use baseballparlance, this week with two excellent posts—one on Wine Sediments thatdetailed a completely decadent wine party where he quaffed down a winedrinker’s dream collection of bottles—including an ‘82 Mouton-Rothschild and an’82 Margaux.
He lives in Dayton, OH and I live in Indianapolis—a meretwo hours apart—I want to start partying with him.
Then,the same day, over on his regular blog he has a great post on theWine Spectator restaurant wine awards complete with a snarky response fromMarvin Shanken, Publisher of WS.
AtPinot Blogger, Josh started his family with the birth of child, and continuesto bring his A-game on his blog with a running first person account of the UCDavis Marketing Short Course and a great post about an open forum for SonomaCounty. He brings the narrative to lifeby describing Jess Jackson of Kendall-Jackson winery. It’s one thing to see the ads with Jess Jackson in Food &Wine magazine every month, but it’s entirely different to get the story of aguy growing in iconic stature where, eventually, he’ll be on the wine MountRushmore with Robert Mondavi.
Good stuff.
EricAsimov at The Pour has a nice post on Lambrusco. To my way of thinking, if I’m hot and looking for somethingrefreshing in the form of wine, I’d rather have a Prosecco or Lambrusco then aRośe—the flavor the day.
Hesays (and I’ve excerpted):
I’vespent the last week packing boxes, weeding through old, once-cherishedpossessions before giving them the heave-ho, and generally gritting my teeth,mentally, physically and psychologically as I prepared for the grueling ordealknown as moving day.
Fulldays of this produce a rare weariness, basted with sweat and grit. It’s not thetime for savoring profound wines or food, just something simple, and maybe evena little joyous … And through it all, Ifound the perfect wine for my spent condition and melancholy-but-optimisticmood: lambrusco.
Yes,lambrusco. Trust me, it’s not what you’re thinking, that sickening, cloyingRiunite stuff from the 1970’s that went out with platform heels.
TheMidwest is full of folks that like semi-sweet wines and I’ve often wonderedwhy no major producer tried to dress up Lambrusco as cool.
Ikeep an eye on a blog that posts Samuel Pepys Diary and I have beensporadically posting excerpts from a public domain book by our wine foundingfather, John James Dufour. Because ofthis, I found Jaime Goode, wine author, and his post on a spoof diary for aGeorge Pooter dating to 1892, worth 5 minutes of diversion. Trust me, it’s decidedly more humorous thenPepys or Dufour. The reference point for the diary can be found here.
digg this | toast this! | add to del.icio.us | add to newsvine | add to furl | add to reddit
Posted in. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print | Email This
July 27 2006
Clichéalert: this post contains businessclichés
I’vebeen in the midst of absolute ton of work at my job—most of it borne out of anorganizational strategic direction to create a new division and then dostrategic planning around how to scale the business 4X to take a division withrevenue that ends with an “M” and get to revenue in an amount that ends with a“B.” This begets projects—a ton of projects—most of them having to do with somefacet of creating a plan for the future. Planning … and more planning … and then validation of the planning andcommunication to revisit the early portion of the planning and before you knowit the raconteurs emerge and chaos ensues.
Whyis this? I suspect its because we viewthe planning process as some sort of magic potion to create the end resultwithout the benefit (or virtue) of going on the journey. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happensto you when you’re busy making other plans.”
I’vebeen through these exercises before on the client side and the services sideand the planning that I’m involved in now is better then most because it atleast breaks off actionable projects to move forward—the “start with the end inmind” kind of intent. But, it’s stillplanning to plan.
Thesestrategic exercises usually rely upon the Alice in Wonderland quote as theirunderpinning for justification: “If youdon’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
Gottahave a roadmap, goes conventional wisdom.
But,I’m not so sure anymore.
Withthe velocity of change in our world, the compounding rate of information andthe majority of people simply reacting instead of thinking, I think this way ofthinking may be outdated.
Nobodyfollows a five-year plan anymore. Howcan you? Three-year plans might beirrelevant, too.
I’vebeen thinking about this because if I’m a winery, how do I grow mybusiness? It’s like trying to lay afoundation on quicksand.
AsI’ve been following Josh at Pinot Blogger and his excellent summaries of athree week Marketing Short Course at UC Davis and I’m realizing that he’s gothis hands full, as do his brethren.
Considerfor a moment:
1) Distributionis consolidating causing challenges in securing representation and retail space
2) Retailspace is scarce in an increasing world of SKU’s across every consumer category
3) Wineshipping is opening up with more states allowing direct shipping
4) Consumersare drinking more wine
5) Wineconsumers are getting younger and adopting wine as a product vis a vis alifestyle decision
6) Onlinewines sales, today, is where Amazon.com was nine years ago
7) Theamount of wineries and the amount of labels is increasing at a pace thatoutstrips the increase in consumption
And,all of this doesn’t take into consideration that your product is variable fromyear to year and subject to the whims of Mother Nature.
Cananybody blame a winery for hunkering down and doing things they way they’vealways done
them? Synthesizing thedynamics of all of this change on a macro-level is like trying to get a Mastersdegree without the benefit of having received a Bachelors degree.
Unfortunately,wineries have got to do it.
Maybefor wineries, the concept of Non Finito is the way to go. Heck, for all of us, maybe Non Finito is theway to go.
NonFinito means “unfinished.” Used inreference to works of sculpture by Donatello and Michelangelo, whose work, bornout of blocks of stone were unfinished in that the stones remained with figuresrising from the form were not fully realized human shapes, but rather halfshapes.
Academicresearch attributes Michelangelo for helping other artists see their art“outside of the box.”
BostonConsulting Group uses this idea as an application for organizational innovationand creativity, but it fits for wineries in progressiveness for their businessdevelopment.
“It’san attitude that consists of just being ready, since we no longer know how tomake forecasts. It is in opposition tothe sinister approach that says, “We don’t move so long as we don’t know wherewe are going.” Instead, non finitowould say, “Let’s in any case do what has to be done,” even if it can’t befinished. Non Finito is humility in theface of one sole certainty: we don’tknow what’s going to happen. Non Finitois the will to act while leaving the future open, the habit of writing inpencil rather than ink, of actively participating in a world that is becoming,without knowing what it’s going to become. In the end, non finito is respect for others and the liberty we grantthem to finish in their own way."
Forwineries, I think the lesson is that’s there no way to anticipate thefuture. I think many wineries focus oncreating a good product and then let circumstances dictate its success—a goodreview, surprising pull-through retail, half-baked technology implementationsfor the wine club. But, in fact, that’sthe exact opposite of how it should be. Create a good product AND make incremental progress towards the future.
AsAndy Dufresne says in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
There’sno way to wait for the future to arrive in order to make a good decision. Strategic planning doesn’t work because youdon’t know what you are planning for. You have to make iterative progress daily towards an unknown futurestate--harness the variables and concepts that you understand: shipping is relaxing, consumers are gettingyounger, retail slotting is uncertain and work is perpetually unfinished.
Asa passionate consumer, I want wineries to do this, to understand this, to notlet institutional inertia take root … to make energy in motion a constant fornot only their product, but their business.
Why?
Iwant to discover and drink their wine.
digg this | toast this! | add to del.icio.us | add to newsvine | add to furl | add to reddit
Posted in. Permalink | Comments (2) | Print | Email This
July 26 2006
Naptown,known for being a sleepy metropolis where the sidewalks roll-up at night, hasbeen working hard for the last decade or so to shed its staid midwestern reputation. But, Indy goes International forthe second time in two months after June’s Formula One race as we take thestage for a couple of glorious days for the Indy International WineCompetition.
The14th annual event is the 3rd largest event of its kindbehind San Francisco and Los Angeles based on number of entries. The Indy competition also boasts being thelargest competition of its kind for amateur winemakers.
TakingPlace July 28th – 30th, the competition takes place as aprelude to the Indiana State Fair. Ahem, State Fair notwithstanding, this is a great opportunity for theMidwest to show its wine chops.
With3,600 entries to San Francisco’s 3,900 entries it is possible that we couldovertake them and become the largest competition in the U.S.
Retired Enology Professor from Purdue University, wineconsultant to American Airlines and Competition Chairperson, Richard Vine hasthe heart of champion and a competitive streak when he says, as quoted in theIndianapolis Star, "Down deep in my soul, I’d really like to throttle SanFrancisco and Los Angeles."
Right on, Richard. We can show those guys a thing or three about wine here in theheartland!
Despite having winecategories that are distinctly Midwestern like Catawba and Concord, some of thevinifera wines are California—for example, the Incognito Viognier won a “Bestof Class” in ’05.
The Judges are a mix of regional reporters, distributors,retailers and the like. Dan Berger isprobably the most prominent judge. Thelist of ’06 Judges can be found here.
Despite mytongue-in-cheek deprecation, the competition is world class and goes to provethat the wine industry outside of CA, WA and OR is healthy and growing.
digg this | toast this! | add to del.icio.us | add to newsvine | add to furl | add to reddit
Posted in, Good Grape Daily: Pomace & Lees. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print | Email This
July 25 2006
I’mnot sure I have this all completely reconciled in my own grey matter, but Iread the magazine Business 2.0 and I’m struck on a monthly basis with ads by acompany called XPLANE whose sole mission it is to explain complex topics invisual terms—take a 25 slide power point deck and make a graphicalflowchart/poster. This coupled with plenty of businessair miles and exposure to the 4-color universal language airplane card onsafely exiting a crashing plane, and I started thinking about communicationmethods.
Having put my first 10-year notch on my belt in technologysales and marketing, I can appreciate the K.I.S.S. philosophy—both from aninternal corporate perspective and with customers.
Atleast ½ of every day is spent ensuring communication. But, it’s not really communication. It’s ensuring that Iunderstand what you are saying and vice versa—you would think it’s easy, butit’s not. I can’t tell you how manyconference calls I’m on, where somebody will finish up a long, passionatemonologue with a, “Does that make sense?” Mostly it doesn’t, but re-stating it doesn’t help, either. Communication is especially difficult in acustomer environment where your customer could have, on a scale of 1 to 10, anunderstanding of your product, market niche or your value anywhere in betweenthe very low or the high end.
And,really, that’s what selling is—not only helping somebody understand something,but understanding yourself, before they realize it, where you need to start theeducation process.
Theproverbial back of the napkin happens—all the time. I’ve seen it, I’ve done it. And, I’ve taken napkins home with me for reference later.
Thewine industry could really use this more visual approach to selling andexplaining. Appellation America ismaking a move to use the story angle to greater effect, but that’s only halfthe equation.
Itgoes back to the old model of, “Don’t tell me, show me.”
Wineriesget this on some level given the labels were seeing. A Wine Business Monthly article had this to say,
Thereis a problem of creating too much visual noise for the consumers. "In thepast few years, we have been working with brightly colored labels that attracta lot of attention yet at the same time say something individual about thewine," said Sugarman. "But now, if you go to Beverages & More!and look down the aisle there are just so many different colors and animals and’fun’ labels. So now we are going to have to start thinking of somethingdifferent. I think you will start to see that design will pull back a littlebit and head towards a little quieter label that expresses more about thewinery."
So, I was curious tosee a blogger who is writing a book called, The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems with Pictures.
Ihave another post in me on this topic as I kind of let things kind of stewtogether, but check out the following links and think about it from a consumermarketing perspective and see #1 if you are a visual thinker and #2 if theremight not be an application for a winery to use a visual presentation of theirstory to great affect.
Are you Visually Oriented? How about Goals Management?
digg this | toast this! | add to del.icio.us | add to newsvine | add to furl | add to reddit
Posted in, Good Grape Daily: Pomace & Lees. Permalink | Comments (0) | Print | Email This
Enter your email address for a monthly summary of posts, additional news and information available only to email subscribers. Your email is never rented, nor sold to anybody else!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
Design by The Blog Studio
