Comments on: Why wineries use sex, sometimes, to sell wine

By: steve

steve — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:36:41 +0000

Stephanie, thanks. Happy new year!

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 18:13:46 +0000

Maybe it does sell product, but supposedly studies have shown that there is little brand retention and even less brand message retention when shown with boobs and butts and boinking apparatus. Anyway, wouldn’t it be more apt to say that it’s the shock factor and controversy surrounding the sexiness that end up doing the selling, and not the racy ads themselves?

I agree with the idea of going out and doing new things, and look forward to the day a wine brand can pull off Calvin Klein-esque ads with the same aplomb, IF that’s who they are as a brand, if that’s who and what they are to the core, but really, you can only have so many companies using that kind of ploy (or any ploy) before they all start looking like a big bunch of followers. And, if that’s all they can come up with to sell their product because they don’t have a strong brand story that resonates AND differentiates, well, I guess we’ll be seeing more and more naked wineries and their ads. yeeehaaa!

steve – just found your blog some weeks ago and appreciate your candor. very refreshing. you have another ardent reader here.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:05:33 +0000

Part of the lack of “sexiness” on wine labels – and thus the reliance on the aforementioned pets & kids may also be the simple fact that it’s not likely to get past the label approval process. Same with ads themselves; there’s hardly a need to marry the joys of alcohol and sex together and something tells me the adverts you picture above would be a harder (no pun intended) sell to the that department at your magazine. Maybe I’m wrong.

Or as the Santa I once saw on 48th and 12th once said, ” Anyone need a Ho, ho, ho?”

Cheers, Steve! Continued success for the blog in 2010…

By: steve stevens

steve stevens — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:57:21 +0000

Good article by Ms. Kershaw.

She mentions how menu design rules somewhat mirror the page layout guidelines used by newspapers and magazines.

If restaurateurs paid a little more attention to layouts and how their lists are “engineered,” I’m convinced they’d get better results. A lot of wine lists still look like grocery lists on better paper.

By: steve

steve — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:33:00 +0000

if the shoe fits…