for Retailers: How do you find new customers?

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Permalink Reply by Bobby Cintolo on January 5, 2010 at 5:21pm

Hi Marcy,

I have a lot of friends who are not wine drinkers, professionals, or aficionados and I stress that they try something new. When I ask them why they chose wine over some other alcoholic beverage that incentives like coupons, sales, and other discounts have an impact in their buying decisions. This along with recognition of labels and brand dramatically affect their buying habits.

Is this information in line with the other feedback or information you have?

-Bobby

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Permalink Reply by Marcy Rye on January 7, 2010 at 5:33pm

Hey Bobby, thanks for the feedback! You are the first one to reply actually, so I don't the answer to your question ... but perhaps we can get a discussion going on the subject here and all benefit from it.

happy new year!

Marcy

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Permalink Reply by Vine and Wines on January 18, 2010 at 2:00am

hi..in that case you too are a newbie !

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Permalink Reply by frank on January 18, 2010 at 11:03am

I agree that brand recognition is important to a point. I think the more recognizable brands at times limit the conversation with your customer, which would be ideal if we're talking about non regular wine drinkers and hence new customers to your store.
Another thought would be using other channels to reach these people;
ie. Cross promotions via sponsorship of a wine dinner at a nearby restaurant. You can arrange it yourself or involve one of your distributor reps. An announcement would be made that the wines used in the pairings are available at your store. You may also want to leave a pre-sale offer sheet with the diners and capitalize on the celebratory mood of the evening.
You also may want to think about wine classes. Not so much as the standard in-store tasting, but not the over the top snobby extravaganza either, as it could be off putting to the novice you're after. Keep it fun and light but still informative on the basic terminology, and characteristics that scare off some people. Say, Oaked vs unoaked chards help dispell preconceived notions and generalizations. Include an "off the beat and path" varietal, as in my experience, while people are coming for a beginner's class, they still get exited about being "in the loop" on some strange sounding and obscure Italian, austrian, etc. grape. Whatever you do, steer clear of choosing Pinotage as that grape, but that might be my own personal hatred for that grape more than anything else.
Linking up with cheese shops, and gourmet delis in the area could be one way to promote it. It would be in their interest to plug the classes if you are using their products to cater the classes. Also, don't shy away from leaning on your existing customers to get the word out for such an event. I'm sure they're as frustrated as you that some of their friends have yet to discover how great wine can be.
Hope this helps.

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Permalink Reply by Nexternal on January 18, 2010 at 11:13am

Those are great recommendations Frank. Thanks for the insights.

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Permalink Reply by Bobby Cintolo on January 18, 2010 at 11:21am

Frank,

These suggestions seem ideal for small new wineries and shops. Cheese shops and gourmet deli's are right in line with wine consumers.

I am not sure I agree with your note, "Include an "off the beat and path" varietal" as I can see new wine drinkers being overwhelmed with trying to understand the differences between little known varietals. It might be better to stick to hot or well known varietals.

Hope these thoughts help Marcy.

Bobby

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Permalink Reply by frank on January 18, 2010 at 11:25am

you may be right Bobby, but I'm not backing down from my pinotage bashing. I feel strongly about it. Good luck Marcy. down with pinotage....

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Permalink Reply by Rob Hawkings on January 28, 2010 at 5:13am

Down here in Oz it seems that most people over 30 are wine drinkers (if they drink at all). the challenge is to get people to explore outside the mainstream.

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Permalink Reply by Marcy Rye on July 19, 2010 at 9:20am

You guys are bringing up some great ideas. What we do is to hold informal tastings. They're very low key and fun, and we keep things simple - mostly challenging people to identify specific flavors in the wines, and then try to decide how intense the flavor is (is it overwhelmingly peppery? is there just a hint of vanilla?). They really get into it. And then I think it helps them to get familiar with specific wines - but in the long run to also get familiar with grapes, and then maybe regions so that in a store or restaurant, they have some confidence about what to choose. What I'd love to do is to be able to then tell them if they go buy the wines we tasted, say within the next month, they could get a discount, but we're still working on developing the right relationships for that.

p.s. Frank - why the pinotage-bashing? They aren't ALL bad are they?

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Permalink Reply by Joseph Jones on May 3, 2012 at 3:00am

Several classic marketing techniques I guess in the area of advertising for it, but you would need an idea, a concept for it. Otherwise word of mouth is still effective imho, people who are wine aficionados, getting others involved.

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