February 19 2006
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about the wine buying process. How and why we purchase wine, the influence of labels, merchandising and critics.
Because so much wine (virtually all of it) is decided upon at the point of purchase or by somebody else’s subjective opinion and/or sales copy, you would think that merchandising would be a lot stronger at retail. It’s not. Trader Joe’s does about the best job that I’ve seen and are rewarded for it based on the amount of wine that flies off the shelf there.
But, the other phenomena is the voice of the critic.
The movie business is very similar to wine on a lot of levels.
There’s an over-abdundance of movies coming to market, and by consequence there’s a lot of marketing spent on movies to maximize an opening day weekend--trailers, pre-screenings, etc all contribute to the relative success or failure of a movie.
How many of us read reviews in the entertainment section of the newspaper before deciding which of the three new movies that are coming out this weekend are going to earn our $9? Based on the review of one or more of the movies, you can go through a process of elimination and decide on a movie.
Similar to this, when buying a bottle at the store, you are faced with a lot of choices, and generally you are shopping within a defined price category. Usually, consumers go in with a price pre-disposition--i.e. you won’t buy a $25 bottle if you have $12.99 in your head. You will buy two $12.99 bottles though (interesting the rationalizations we make for ourself).
So, at the store you are looking for a red wine in the $12.99 category that appeals to you--maybe its a label, some familiarity with the winery, a tasting note that resonates with you or a rating. Yes, a rating. "Look this has notes of cherry a hint of oak and is rated 89 by Robert Parker" ...or
Wine Enthusiast or a similar magazine or rating venue.
All things considered equal, we don’t normally trust our own taste, so you’re more likely to buy the wine that was reviewed then if there was nothing to aid in the purchase decision.
You get the bottle home and it’s totally not a wine you enjoy. You like a subtle Pinot Noir, but this is a very bold Zinfandel. But, somehow it must be good because somebody else liked it and gave it an 89.
The same can be said for movies. We may have passed on a great movie in order to see the one that Ebert gave a thumbs up to, or vice versa. Maybe the movies a dog, or thematically isn’t something that’s up your alley, but, again, it must be okay because a reviewer said it was good.
At the end of the day, I think we’d all be a little bit better off if we spent time working on what makes us unique and not what makes us uniquely consumers.
On a separate note, check out Mark Cuban’s Blog (Blog Mavrick) for a post on how he is re-inventing the movie business. See is there isn’t some parallel to the movie business and the wine industry--two areas again where there is too much product for consumers to consume without great fragmentation.
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