Advertising wine: elite or common?
I’m not sure that an audience comprised of Masters of Wine was the right venue for an advertising man to call for a simpler, more consumer-friendly approach to marketing our favorite beverage. After all, there’s no wine club on Earth more elite than the MWs.
But it was at an MW event in Bordeaux that Sir John Hegarty told the crowd, “The [wine] industry fails hopelessly on accessibility. This market…goes out of its way to confuse the consumer. You’ve seen it – the way people in restaurants nervously pass round a wine list. It’s fear. You as an industry have encouraged that fear. The wine industry is the most fragmented market I’ve seen. Fragmented, confusing, impenetrable.”
It’s true, isn’t it? You and I, who know something about wine, go our merry little ways, making tasting notes, debating about Burgundy vs. New World Pinot Noir and speculating on the future of social media. But the average consumer, on whose shoulders the industry rests, indeed is totally confused and fearful.
Hegarty is creative director of an ad firm, Bartle Bootle Hegarty, which has worked on campaigns ranging from Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Finger Lickin Good to Levi’s Flatbeat TV ads that included a yellow puppet
to Johnnie’s Walker’s “Keep Walking” commercials,
which were credited with helping to revive that whiskey brand’s fortunes. I don’t think a single ad campaign is going to be wine’s salvation — and with per capita continuing to rise in America, things aren’t quite as bad as perhaps Mr. Hagarty painted them to be. But everybody knows that millions of adult Americans are scared to death about wine, or have negative attitudes toward it, or both, and we need to do something about it.
The snobbism factor is the main problem. I know people who are perfectly happy to get snookered on beer or cocktails, but when it comes to wine, they shrug their shoulders and say, with an embarrassed little smile, “Oh, I’m not really an expert,” as if you have to be an expert to like wine but not beer or liquor. The wine industry itself created this myth, although it did so unwittingly, in an era when the industry’s most creative minds thought that the way to sell more wine was to create an aura of aspiration.
For example, I remember a wine TV commercial from years ago that, I think, was from Gallo. As I recall, it showed a wedding couple, she in a white gown, he in a tuxedo, and they were riding in one of Boston Commons’ famous swan boats,
toasting each other with a glass of bubbly. I remember thinking then, and it’s even truer today, “OMG, the concept this ad is delivering is that the only time you’re permitted to drink sparkling wine is on your wedding day, on a swan boat in Boston Common.”
And then there was Orson Welles’ creative but fatuous “We will sell no wine before its time” commercials for Paul Masson,
as if Paul Masson’s wines needed to be aged. Those ads were pretty classy, but did they sell wine? I don’t think so. They just proved once again, to the average guy, that wine is too complicated to deal with.
Compare that with the Bud Lite TV commercials of the same era,
in which regular dudes had fun with each other, often with scantily-clad bosomy beauties. (Not defending that, no ma’am. No sexism at steveheimoff.com. Just sayin’.) That sold bottles of beer, by the billions.
Hegarty didn’t come up with any specific ideas for marketing wine, although the article did suggest he said something interesting: His “solution [according to the reporter] was to redress wine’s image as an accompaniment to food – which he suggested was a drawback – instead promoting it to stand alone with the slogan ‘wine flavours our life’.”
Wow. For years, we’ve championed the idea of promoting “wine with food” as wine’s greatest strength. Hell, even the beer people started copying us on that one. Now here comes one of the industry’s greatest brains saying “wine with food” has been a drawback! I’m not sure what to make of that, but I do agree with Hegarty that “Today’s market is a younger, more experimental audience. Invest in the future. Youth is the future.” Having just come back from the Bloggers Conference, I saw the future. It is indeed young and it is indeed experimental. However, it is also extremely interested in food, so I’d say that, rather than being a drawback, the “wine with food” message is only a part of the package. I do like the “Wine flavours our life” thing, although in this country, they better drop the “u” and spell it “flavors.”
Here’s the link for my keynote speech at the Wine Bloggers Conference. The audio is a little choppy.
I wrote an article very similar to this Steve that I have not posted yet (don’t know that I will). I see SOME hope out there. My friend Dave Potter of Municipal Winemakers is doing a great job marketing to young common folk. He hires artists that do band posters to redesign his labels each year. He is one small guy though.
The industry as a whole is failing, especially much of the California wine. I could not agree with this assessment more.
Steve,
when you see wine ads at bus stops, buses, subways, billboards downtown you must think that this type of message is not snobbish or aloof from the consumer. There are cases and cases (no pun) that prove there’s wine ad diversity out there.
In short, there’s wine ad for the masses (no pun again) too. I think the question lies on the issue that most of you don’t shop at lousy supermarkets, don’t circulate among the very poor parts of cities, don’t take buses (which in my country only “losers” take them) and so on.
The low end market for lousy or cheap wines is huge in volume of bottles and advertising in many countries. It is often fun ads (or meant to be fun) that really deliver the message to their customers.
Didn’t i see a lot of ads from yellow tail the last time i was in the US? Where did i see them? The Economist last page? During a 60 minutes commercial? Of course not, it was right on my nose.
The world is still a poor site, despite what the per capita GDP numbers show in Luxembourg, Belgium, Japan, or the USA.
Hard to keep ourselves sweet and short here given such hot topic.
Carlos, I live in the inner city along with the masses, buses and lousy supermarkets. So believe me, I’m not isolated in some elitist wine ghetto. But even in my local Safeway, the presentation of wine — in the infamous “wine aisle” with its “wall of wine” — is daunting. I have the feeling some shoppers avoid it like the plague.
On one level I have to agree with Mr. Hegarty, (although I agree that a room full of MWs may not have been the perfect audience as I know quite a few and anyone that longs to have a “master” of anything attached to their name and pays gillions of dollars doing so….well) and as a person that has worked in a retail wine shop for 14 years, that consumer fear he is talking about is a very real thing. See it all the time and it can take a lot of coaxing and soothing tones to work past that, “I don’t belong here” edge.
I’ve seen tremendous changes in the past ten years though, lots more people into food, (probably in part thanks to the Food Network) cooking and wine is a natural next step. The more people “into” it the more diverse the group of voices to choose from. There are now far fewer of those snooty, pontificating, dorks that hold their wine knowledge over people’s heads….because it’s the only thing that makes them cool. Think “Movie Guy” you know they guy, the one that studied and memorized the name of the director of lighting from all the movies in the sixties, and feels the need to discuss it to a room full of people that don’t give a shit, (shit, can I say shit on Heimoff?). Fewer people speaking the gospel of ancient English wine writers that while very knowledgeable, wrote books long before California was a major player in the wine world and things like Pho and Korean BBQ were part of our weekly menus. Fewer people talking down to the consumer and I think that while we still have a very long way to go, things are by far better than they were. But there is one area where I think our industry still has a major hangup and one that pushes away a bunch of new consumers…..sweet wines.
We have seen remarkable growth in the “ethnic” consumer department, and I’m not sure ethnicity has as much to do with it as coming from non-wine drinking cultures, but there are a lot of people that want to drink wine but their newer palates find dry wines…well, unpalatable. There are far too many people in this industry that treat these people poorly, roll their eyes and say things like, “Friends don’t let friends drink white Zinfandel”…really? I thought friends didn’t judge. Kills me, they scoff at someone drinking white Zin or Moscato while they slurp their Opolo Zin or Romabuer Chardonnay. Two wines that I often poke fun at, not because they are sweet but because of the people that drink them and pretend that they are not. I think if we wish to welcome more consumers we need to stop treating sweet like an “s” word.
(standing back and waiting for the Olken assault)
Sam you can say shit on Heimoff. And I’m with you when it comes to sweet Cali wines. Uggh.
Wine marketers have tried everything and what you see is what works. In general, the people who make and sell wine are the most sophisticated marketers in the world. The dirt farmer plants some grapes, ferments and bottles it and steps into the wine industry. He soon picks up a shtick that sells it because he has two centuries of predecessors who have finely crafted the art of adding value to the product in the minds of the consumer. Think Charlie Wagner. The large wine corporations have add warehouses of data on their company and dozens of marketing MBA’s who satisfy the complex needs of a global marketer. They do a good job or they are fired.
Every one who sells wine has heard Hegarty’s speech a dozen times. When an ad exec criticizes the way wine is sold they are usually people who have never sold it, but are trying to make a case for their ad agency. Ignorance is bliss, so it is easy for them to think that the wine industry needs the brilliance of their ad execs who know nothing about wine. They will try to sell wine like they have sold Audi or British Airways. (no elitism there?) It won’t work. So they will do exactly as most wine marketers do and sell wine just like Bartle Bogle Hegarty sells Johnny Walker…which is to create the same sort of elitism and bullshit about a product that they criticize.
That said, if there is anything we need to do away with, it’s all this crap about wine and food pairing. If finding a wine that tastes good was not intimidating enough for the consumer, let’s have them believe they can make a further mistake if they serve it with the wrong food.
Sam…sweet! The S word just needs another name that doesn’t flash “calories” and “off-dry” isn’t it.
At a small meeting last year, I told the organizers looking to increase wine sales that pairing was a niche, get over it. If for no other reason than we have thousands of taste buds, wine has around 2,000 components, food comes in a myriad of ways from the farm to the table and most people eat pizza (etc) half the time, anyway. They were shocked.
Well, just cruise around online. Very few wine geeks get into the serious side of food pairing (even on chowhound). Even fewer food geeks get into the wine side of pairing. Though, Sam got it right, we like to cook and drink wine.
This doesn’t mean people don’t want to be told their steak goes great with Pinot, acidic and light tannin wines are a better bet with most food (sorry California), and the wine needs to be sweeter than the dessert.
But since it’s the sauce/spice/herb that is the deal maker or deal breaker (as it is), the audience light dims. Why? Most people cook with what they have on hand (oops, out of this, substitute that), use takeout (good thing for wine there’s salt in takeout) or go to a restaurant where they may or may not get good advice (and that depends on training).
But back to the speech and the brand vs story vs varietal conundrum. Sometimes it seems like producers want the wine to reveal itself in a vision. Or, hey, maybe a mini Magic 8 ball in the punt is the answer.
Morton, I still have to believe in wine and food pairing as a selling point. People love to eat, so why not persuade them to love to drink wine with their food? Besides, there are some truly awful pairings (try Cabernet with sardines) that even a wine dummy will understand and try to avoid.
This “wine is too complicated to market” meme has been around as long as I have been in the industry. Long after I’m gone some descendant of Hegarty will be telling a room full of wine people that they are failing at marketing their product. And then some bigger fool or fools will hire that guy’s agency to design a “new” marketing campaign – which could be just as successful as New Coke or re-packaged Tropicana. I have to agree with Morton – what you see is what works. Not from me, though – I’m not that sophisticated a marketer.
IMHO wine is the ultimate niche product. “Wine, it’s what’s for dinner” is going to reach some buyers, “wine flavors life” will reach others, “wine as investment,” “wine as status symbol,” “wine as experience” etc… Each niche and each demographic in each niche will react to a different message. Thank goodness for this complexity, or small globally-inefficient producers like me would not sell bottle one.
Regarding wine and food pairing the best advice was on Alex Bespaloff’s answering machine. “I’m not here, but if it’s an emergency – white wine with fish, red wine with meat.”
David Rosengarten’s answering machine: “Whatever.”
The problem with pairing as a marketing tool is that it adds another layer of complexity to the consumer experience. They have 1000s of wines staring at them from the shelves, some varietally-labelled, some by appellation, some blends, etc., from all over the world. Then they feel obligated to not only select a wine they like, but also a wine that goes with whatever they’re eating that night? Instead of motivating them to have wine, it becomes another turn-off; much easier to have a cocktail or a beer (where the marketing message is “drink it, it is good/is cool/will get you laid) and be done with it.
I’m not saying there isn’t a lot of pleasure to be had in pairing wine and food, but as an entry-level concept, it’s treacherous.
(Simplifying wine by adding another layer of complication; it didn’t work for German wines, did it?)
Jim, I dunno. I still think that the wine-and-food thing makes sense to use in marketing. But keep it simple. It doesn’t have to be all complicated. You can tell people (as I do in my Wine Enthusiast reviews), “Great with a nice steak.” I don’t have to say porterhouse, or filet mignon, and I don’t have to tell them the sauce or the seasoning and side dishes. Or “This unoaked Chard is nice with mussels.” Simple stuff like that that gets readers thinking of eating.
Let me say first that John Hegarty –excuse me, Sir John — is a legendary figure in the world of advertising. You can diss his read on the room he was presenting to but the point remains: wine marketing sucks.
For this, you can point the finger in many directions. Elitism? Sure, that’s one. But really the problem is immaturity.
Relative to, say, the packaged goods category, wine marketing is still in its larval stage. Morton’s comment that “Wine marketers have tried everything and what you see is what works” is simply not true. What little wine marketing there is, is entirely preoccupied with scores, vague notions of terrior, and ham-fisted assertions of Quality.
More here.
Wineries confuse scores and medals for branding and marketing. Yes, third-party endorsements are important. But they are but one approach to marketing. And frankly, given the “pretty good problem” where pretty much all the wine coming from the major AVAs is, if not excellent, certainly without flaw, then talk of Quality does nothing to distinguish one wine from the next. More here.
Why are we even
talkingjoking about Orson Wells/Paul Masson when we should be asking: Where is the wine world’s equivalent of “The Most Interesting Man in the World?.Why is wine marketing so humorless, so colorless and so bloody academic? Why is it – and this is the most damning criticism of all – so safe??
Randall Grahm – iconoclast, satirist, and shameless punster that he is – is perhaps the only person in the industry has known with the temerity, the creativity, and absurdity to take wine out of its comfort zone.
“Elite or common” is not the issue.
Great post, I totally agree with you. Something has to be done about the marketing of wine. People have such a fear of it and there’s no need. Nevermind shopping in a supermarket, I had a woman come to a tasting at the wine shop I managed and she wouldn’t try one of the wines because she had had the varietal before and she knew she wouldn’t like it so she asked for an extra taste of one of the other wines. The general fear of wine has to be mended. The whole point of a tasting is to explore. You don’t even have to drink it if you really don’t like it – that’s what spit buckets are for…there was no convincing her though.
Fred, I don’t see how you could have a wine equivalent of “the most interesting person in the world.” Would this be a generic, pro-wine campaign? In that case, who would pay for it? Big, rich wineries never like supporting generic campaigns, which help their competitors. A big winery could, of course, use a charismatic person in an ad campaign, and many of them have, as you noted with Orson Welles. In a way, Kendall-Jackson uses the iconic Jess Jackson himself. And of course Robert Mondavi Winery used the late, great Mr. Mondavi as their icon. I agree with you that Randall Grahm is a great satirist and marketer, but I don’t think he’s the only one. Look at the Twisted Oak folks.
Steve – couldn’t agree with you more. We seem to have lost the consumer in all of this talk about wines. Usually, marketers (and advertisers) speak to the lowest common denominator (see beer commercials), but we always seem to want to speak to the highest common denominator (the MS, or wine collector, etc). Some small and localized campaigns have been good, but it seems we do need a larger campaign to de-mystify wine.
Another great post…
Thanks Joel.
Great article, even better discussion. Marketing on any level is fascinating on what works and what doesn’t. Wine is scary. I agree. On some levels it feels like sitting in an English class while the rest of the class is debating on the imagery and meaning to the poem, while you are sitting there wondering how the heck they came up with those ideas?? Are you tasting cherry? Is it blueberries? Chocolate? What do you say? Once you jump in the water, so to speak, it gets less scary. Like anything. How to market that? No idea.
Steve, the beauty of the Dos Equis campaign is its irreverence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI58wj4b4g0
There is SO much about this campaign that goes against the linear, Quality- and/or Heritage-driven approach that defines wine marketing.
Note his signature line in each commercial: “I don’t always drink beer. But when I do, I prefer Dos Equis.” He doesn’t revere the beer, he merely “prefers” it. He could take it or leave it. A far cry from the self-important advertising personas of Orson Wells, Jess Jackson and Robert Mondavi.
Don’t get me wrong; Messrs Jackson and Mondavi are towering figures. But that doesn’t make them effective advertising spokesmen. Their charisma is one dimensional. And in that regard, of no help in attracting a broader audience.
And just to clarify, The Most Interesting Man in the World is not a generic category campaign for beer. It is branded. So your suggestion that a generic, pro-wine campaign be modeled on it doesn’t follow. But it does remind me of an ill-conceived effort by the Wine Market Council. http://www.winebusiness.com/wbm/?go=getArticle&dataId=27901
“The perfect complement to the ancient art of kick’n back.” Oy.
Wine is the only beverage marketed as not going with things. Some re-thinking needs to go into food & wine pairing as a marketing tool.
One of the fabulous aspects of wine is that there are so many out there. Consumers are trained to fear making the wrong decision when purchasing wine. Other beverages don’t seem to me to instill such fear. Without the fear, Safeway is no longer a wall of intimidation, it’s an aisle of things to try.
Sam –> ” I think if we wish to welcome more consumers we need to stop treating sweet like an “s” word.
(standing back and waiting for the Olken assault) ”
Assault? You have finally seen the light. The issues here are two fold. As long as folks like you dump on Rombauer Chardonnay, the average wine drinker who likes the wine is going to think that you are a snob with your high acid Chablis.
Fruity, reasonable balance, not Chablisienne balance, clean winemaking, depth of character are important. Nobody needs to like Rombauer Chardonnay, but nobody need put down the folks who do. It’s not like drinking Pastis, after all.
I will admit that I am not a great marketing whiz. If I were, I would be making a lot more money than I do. But, I do have some training in that field and built a successful wine publication without massive advertising campaigns.
Wine, in all of its facets, from cheap to expensive, from slick paper magazines to newsletters to books, has a very narrow audience when it comes to trying to differentiate the product. The largest portion of identifield winedrinkers are not much influenced by advertising, and there are not enough of them to make giant expenditures of dollars effective. Sure, big companies advertise, but even midsized brands like Beaulieu and Sebastiani and Rod Strong simply do not get enough return for their buck because they have to spend too much to reach decision makers.
Wine advertising has not proven to be effective at the mid-sized winery scale. Beer advertising has always been more effective because of the number of units that get moved.
It is the same reason why good cookbooks sell in the hundreds of thousands and good wine books sell in the tens of thousands, if that.
Charlie you have once again hit the nail on the head. I wonder what, if anything, it will take for wine to become huge in America.
Very interesting discussion. One element that maybe missing is to whom the advertising campaign is targeted to. Recent studies have shown that the Millenials do not recognise themselves in the wine ads because they don’t reflect their lifestyle or environment (culturally diverse, young and social)
There are different wine styles appealing to different consumer groups. Customising advertising to these groups could be an alternative. I reckon I am not a marketer, only a consumer researcher.
Wine and Food? I have always considered wine as food, being a French native. However, why make wine and food pairing such a complicated exercise? To gain new market shares, wine needs to be perceived as accessible and easy to consume (and enjoy).
On the Sweet stuff: through my research over the last decade, I have consistently found 50-80% consumers preferring the sweet and fruity styles in whites or reds. Caution: sweet perception may not be related to high residual sugar; it can be a cognitive assimilation of perceived fruitiness, smooth body, and alcohol.
I am curious about the feedback Sir Hegarty received from the Mws
Here’s a simple rationale for the disconnect between wine advertisers and the wine-drinking public. Branded ads, not unlike individual wine reviews, are by nature specifc, as in Drink THIS Wine. But the reality of wine-drinking is that the buckshot appraoch is usually more than sufficient to provide pleasure. If you like Cabernet, there are many Cabernets you would enjoy in a wine situation. Advertising is designed to promote So and So’s Cabernet, and in doing so misses the bigger picture.
Until the wine industry can develop generic advertising that speaks to both style of wine and lifestyle of people, the (relatively few) ads that people actually see are going to be hard-pressed to include/invite more drinkers. In short, before we can become a wine-drinking nation, people have to accept that liking “a” wine precedes focusing on “the” wine.
I don’t think (as Joel Peterson points out above) that the problem is speaking to the high-end consumer. I think the problem is in drawing undue attention to specific wines in a culture that has not yet developed an ability to understand the differentiation that exists.
Marketing… hey the big boys have always done it and I say let them keep trying to reach whomever they want (Its as old as Moms apple pie ) because in the end it does help the industry.
But could everyone else PLEASE market for more than a month or two or three. And go after the right consumer and PLEASE stop worrying about what the other person is doing and focus on your brand PLEASE : )
Miller and I am just saying : ) Keep Smiling PLEASE
Charlie Charlie Charlie,
There you go again and I think the confusion for us is you read my blog which is more of a personal journal, and assume from what you read there that I am anti California at work too. This is not at all true, I sell wine from all over the world in the shop and the only goal I have is making sure I put a wine in each consumer’s hand that will please them. I need them to come back and have even made it my mission to taste every wine that we open in the shop, from everywhere, (well Australia not so much) so I can do just that. To be honest with you Rombauer Chardonnay and Zinfandel have been very useful to me as crossover wines for those that have worked their way through things like Brachetto and Moscato and want something just a little drier. The problem, (and what I was referring to in my earlier post) then becomes where to go next for these folks. I think if some of the stigma associated with sweet wines was removed there might be more wineries willing to produce them.
This weekend we did a Zinfandel tasting and threw a Brachetto in as a bonus and just for fun….well guess which wine we sold the most of to these, “I like dry reds” people? Look, we are a soda pop and french toast culture, sweetness is even how we make diet food more palatable. I do not see this as a palate flaw but there are far too many people acting like sweet is for beginners while they suck back wines, “Fine wines” like Caymus Cabernet that tastes like marshmallows. Why do you think Rombauer Chardonnay has such a draw? Because it is a “fine wine” (coasts more) that is sweet enough for certain palates. The only time I get pissy with those folks that love it is when they look down on their friends that drink Riesling or white Zinfandel.
Any snobbery is a bad thing and does nothing but keep people away and that was the point I was trying to make. You are right Charlie, on my blog and in my home I do shun many wines that are simply too sweet for me to drink but my role on the retail end is to help people find wines that they like and hopefully have them drinking wine more often. If I gave a Rombauer Chardonnay lover my Azo Chablis and somehow implied that that it was a better wine….well then not only would I likely lose a customer but I might even crush any desire that person had to get to know wine. Last thing in the world I want to do.
As long as others continue to market in their antiquated style, guys like me will do just fine on the marketing segment of the wine world. Those who continue to proudly showcase scores or medals or quotes from “wine celeb’s” on their tr windows will find themselves on the business end of Darwin’s evolutionary stick. Wineries looking for success in wine marketing need to get their winemakers or grower’s out in the limelight engaging clients and passionate distributors and their sales staff. I’ve heard in some winemaking contracts, there are stipulations on the number of public appearances a winemaker has to make in a given calendar year!? When prospective clients see the grower/winemaker in the TR discussing winegrowing techniques, answering questions (even the real rudimentary one’s) and signing bottles, they pay closer attention to the presentation and ultimately buy more wine. As a zin guy, I hear ALL THE TIME, “wow, we usually do not like Zin at all, but these we like”… part style part passion by the guy growing and making. If winemaker’s aren’t able to participate in at least some basic wine marketing, maybe the owner’s should look for more of a complete employee. No one is devoid of needing to do a little self promo.
In most of the corporate wine pub’s, there’s a photo in the beginning of the edition with some fancy pants NYC editor standing with an obscenely large glass of Cab in front of his fancy library room with a sort of smirk on his face. Uh, you might expand our wine drinking client base by first ridding ourselves of this silly, snobish approach to wine.
RE: Marketing wine and food together… Lose the booze, lighten the body and drop the overly oaked BS and you might have something there otherwise you’ll be recommending dishes like wild boar, short ribs or steak as these outlandish dishes are about all that pairs well with what’s mostly out there. Things not commonly found on the NIGHTLY dinner table. Making wines that pair with nightly dinner is a sure thing when the wine is not too over the top. Quit making California Cocktails and focus more on natural acid and less on glycerin and mouthfeel.
The fact is, the bigger-is-better winemaking is at the very least limiting the appeal for that style and at worst, driving entire slices of our diverse citizenry away… yea, thanks corporate wine publications. Another job well done.
I actually like the way others are marketing their wines as it makes my job all that much easier. The younger folks are much more savy when it some to marketing. They don’t want to hear corporate marketing rather taste for themselves and decide what they like and don’t feed them a bunch of bs as they see riiiiight through it. Sincere marketing with a flare of wine grape growing education works every single time.
Randy, there’s a lot of truth to what you say. But there’s also not that big a difference between “corporate marketing” and the “sincere marketing” you’re talking about. What we’re seeing is an eruption of “sincere corporate marketing,” or corporate marketing masquerading as sincerity. That should concern you.