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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