Branding a region through the colors of its wines is a new marketing strategy I really enjoyed. Most of wine lovers know Bordeaux for its red wines.  Bordeaux also produces white, rosé, clairet (darker pink), bubbly (the Crémant) and sweet wines of various yellow shades. Unfortunately, those colors are not as known as the famous red. That’s why when, a few weeks ago, I got an invitation to (re)discover the various colors of the Bordeaux and Bordeaux “superieur” wines I was interested: what an original approach to the wines of a specific region that consumers think they know. In fact consumers know mostly the Classified Growths and ignore the diversity of the Bordeaux and Bordeaux superieur area.

The program included an evening and three half days based on the wine colors: a blind tasting to select the summer rosés, a trip to properties producing mostly red wines (the Ruby event), then a yellow theme on the beach of the Bassin d’Arcachon and the firework, a dinner created by Michel Porthos where the color of the each dish matched the color of the wine.

Wine is usually about color: think Cahors and its “black wine“, think Provence and its pale rosés, think Bordeaux and its dark red wines, think Alsace and its white wines.  But is also part of the stereotypes of the region : Cahors, Provence, Bordeaux and Alsace produce other styles of wines. Provence has some beautiful red wines while Alsace Pinot Noir is a gorgeous wine.

The marketing strategy of the Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superieur is a good example of a simple and efficient strategy: invite a few female bloggers, create a fun and instructive program and bingo! you get a good buzz on the Net. The young Italian blogger Magda Beverari, the French Nina Izzo, the Canadian MarieEve Inoue were fascinated by what they learnt and discovered.  They blogged and twitted about the trip. No need to spend a lot of money: just be creative and trust your guests.

This experience showed that Bordeaux is trying to brand its wines of lesser fame (and much cheaper price) than the famous Classified Growths. It is time for international wine consumers to understand that a Bordeaux wine at about $15 is a good wine: one does not need to pay an extravagant price to taste and enjoy a good Bordeaux wine. I just hope international consumers will appreciate wines from smaller estates and will not be put off by “low” prices.

For the last two weeks, Bordeaux buzzed with the “En Primeurs” campaign for the 2010 vintage. Last week was the peak of the campaign with tastings all over the Bordeaux area. Every appellation and classification opened their doors to journalists, bloggers, importers, distributors and all kinds of professionals. This time of the year is a blessing because it is possible to meet all those people one knows through Internet, via their blogs or virtual events.

Château d’Yquem, true to its cult status, organized the tasting of its 2010 vintage in the most beautiful room of the Bordeaux Opera.  The staging was gorgeous with beautiful white flowers in huge vases and the golden sculptures of the walls.  It gave a very zen feeling to the tasting very much in symbiosis with the vintage. As most know, I am not a wine critic and will not comment on the 2010 vintage, except to say it was as zen as the staging. I enjoyed the smoothness and the elegance of the wine. As Sandrine Garbay, the brilliant cellar master of Yquem, told me, it is already very drinkable and amateurs will be able to enjoy it earlier than the 2009.

After the pleasure of tasting the 2010 and the 1988 vintages, meeting a few friends, exchanging a few words with Pierre Lurton, Sandrine Garbay and Valérie Lailheugue, Communication Director of the Château, I started thinking about cult wines and branding. When I wrote Wine Brands – three years ago – I concluded that cult wines like Château Haut-Brion or Château d’Yquem, were not wine brands: they were luxury brands, but not to be treated like a Dior perfume.  Luxury wine brands are a very specific type of brands: very rare (a few thousands bottles every year) and not expandable, often expensive, exclusively distributed, luxury wine brands can thrive only in the rarefied atmosphere of  exclusive events and zen elegance.  But because they are an agricultural product as well, they cannot be treated like Calvin Klein jeans. How did they achieve this legendary status? Answer: organic marketing. According to Michael Havens, who founded the Havens Wines Cellars in California, “Synthetic marketing emphasizes the brand’s concept, label and price, followed by the wine; organic marketing focuses on the wine and the region first, followed by concept, label, etc.”, said Havens to journalist Marvin Collins of Winesandvines.com (Sept. 18, 2007).  As Michael Havens said even more wittily, it is “a story of a guy in a place with a grape”. Of course, luxury wine brands are more than just great wines grown in an exceptional place and elegantly bottled. Nowadays it is also a concept. The concept certainly evolved over the years more “organically” than voluntarily. Each luxury wine brand had to differentiate itself from the others but instead of emphasizing the packaging, they worked on the emotional link they created with their customers. Drinking a glass of Haut-Brion or Yquem is like drinking a little part of European history. Emotion through a beautiful wine, elegant bottle and refined staging is what created the brand over the centuries.

After the unfortunate recent failure of Chamarré it seems very brave to launch a new French brand on the US market.  The press release bears the rather off putting title : “300 Year Old French Winery Brings Prestigious Wine Appellations Into The 21st Century”.

The 300 Year Old French Winery is Arnoux et Fils, family-owned and operated in Vacqueyras, in the Rhone Valley. The prestigious wine appellations are Vacqueyras, Gigondas and Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The brands are called “Gig” for Gigondas, “Vac” for Vacqueyras and the “Chat9″ for Chateauneuf du Pape (9 is said “neuf” in French). The range also includes some “rosés” from Côtes de Rhône. All those brands are under the umbrella of “THE-Vins” (the wines).

The launch of this new brand is based on a study conducted by Sopexa, stating that “72% of respondents held a very positive image of French wines, and 81% agreed that French wines are typically reserved for special occasions. French wines have the image of being consumed less frequently, being more complex to understand and to taste, and commanding a higher price.” THE-Vins are the answer to the shyness of young American consumers towards French wines. The packaging is supposed to break “the mold of conventional French labels, while respecting and promoting the longevity of prestigious French appellations that are currently unfamiliar to a broader range of tomorrow’s consumers”, according to the press release.

The new brand is promoted through a traditional web site 100% Flash and 100% annoying when trying to get information. My questions to young American consumers are : do you know Vacqueyras? Do you know Gigondas? Do you know Chateauneuf-du-Pape? Next questions : when seeing those bottles displayed on a supermarket shelf, will you be enticed to buy them because they’re eye-catching?Are you sure you’ll enjoy them because of their labels?

My questions to THE Vins are: What is the price point? Where are your wines going to be available? Why release several brands like Vac, Gig, under THE Vins? Why not launch THE Vins brand by itself? Why dilute the brand by too many sub-brands? Why no social media presence if targeting the young American consumer?

So many questions, so few answers. The American young consumer is the favorite target of a lot of wine brands.  Just have a look at the perfect strategy of HobNob wines launched by veteran Bill Deutsch. The consumer is involved in the strategy. He is the center of the strategy. When will Europeans understand that they have to engage with the consumer if they want to succeed? I wish the best of luck to THE-Vins.

Twitter.com just is launching a new wine brand, Fledgling, to promote literacy in the world. Out of the $25 paid by the consumer, $5 will go to Room to Read, a non-profit group dedicated to raising literacy levels in developing countries. An other innovative company was brought in this effort: the winemaking team of Crushpad in California designed the wines, a 2009 Chardonnay and a 2009 Pinot Noir.

A few things are striking in this “Fledgling Initiative” for the brand standpoint:
-Twitter has basically no business connection – except for a lot of wine professionals and wine lovers tweeting – with the wine industry but chose to link its name to a wine brand instead of a coffee or a chocolate. For this charity-related operation, the company is convinced wine is the right medium to carry their message. According to Biz Stone and Evan Williams, “The Fledgling Initiative embodies two things that are at the core of Twitter’s mission: providing access to information and highlighting the power of open communication to bring about positive change.”

- The operation is conducted by two innovative companies: Twitter and Crushpad. Their marketing strategy is mostly digital and viral. Tweets have already relayed the initiative. As usual with Crushpad, buyers will be able to follow the making of the wine through digital channels, including Twitter.

- The label is obviously designed to remind the buyers of the charity behind the initiative.

This initiative is alrealy relayed by many print and digital media, by web users and many “tweeters” as well as bloggers. I could only wish more technical companies would use wine as a carrier of social and ethical values such as those promoted by Twitter and Crushpad.

Who ever dreamed of having a glass of wine at Starbucks in the evening? For a lot of coffee drinkers, Starbucks is THE brand symbolizing good coffee when a morning jolt is needed. Now after drinking lattes or cappucini all day consumers will be able to unwind with a glass of wine.

Dream? No. Reality  in Seattle for the historic store on Olive Way in Seattle’s bustling Capitol Hill area.  The store was closed for three and revamped according to the wishes of the customers: outdoor deck, indoor fireplace, sustainable furniture, expanded menus, as shown in this video. The $7 to $9 glass of wine can be served over an expensive cheese plate or some bisque soup.

The purpose of this striking move is to attract evening customers. 70% of Starbucks business happens before 2pm. It is less costly for the company to expand its business into wine and food in existing stores than to open specific locations dedicated to evening traffic. Consumers seemed rather agreeable to the idea of having a glass of wine at their favorite coffee place after work or after dinner.

What will such a move change for the brand? Some people are reluctant, such as Bryant Simon, a Temple University professor and author of Everything but the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks: “People don’t go to Starbucks to be cool or to show off. They go for a predictably good cup of coffee and a place that’s predictably clean and safe.”

But brand guru Scott Bedbury begs to differ: “Brands have to evolve or die,” he says. “It’s a tall order. But if anyone can pull it off, it will be Starbucks.” My question is about the consumers: are they ready to get their morning latte at Starbucks on their way to work and their relaxing glass of wine on their way back home? As a coffe and wine lover – and a big Starbucks fan – I just hope Bedbury is right!

Pernod-Ricard went through major organizational changes in the last week: they launched a new brand company called Premium Wine Brands. Under this umbrella brand, consumers will find some of the group’s major wine brands: Australian wines (Jacob’s Creek), New Zealand wines (Montana and Brancott), Spanish and Argentinean wine brands with international potential (Campo Viejo and Graffigna). According to Premium Wine Brands chairman and chief executive, Jean-Christophe Coutures, Pernod-Ricard now has “a complementary portfolio of premium wine brands representing the signature varieties for each country – Australian Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, Malbec from Argentina and Tempranillo from Spain delivered through our leading brands, Jacob’s Creek, Brancott Estate, Graffigna and Campo Viejo.”

Let’s see how it translates in the facts. Curious to learn more about those wine brands, I googled “Premium Wine Brands Pernod-Ricard” and was sent to Pernod-Ricard-Pacific.com”. A little puzzling but I saw weirder things happening on the Internet! The homepage carries clearly the “Premium Wine Brands” title. I patiently entered my country of origin (France) and a birth date allowing me to have access to the site. And surprise : I was denied access because “my country of origin doesn’t allow access to this site”. Well, well, well! I checked “Germany” and got the same answer. I switched browser (maybe a problem of cookies?) and was denied access again. And then eureka! Is it possible that access was denied to Europeans? I tried “USA” and entered into the site with a loud sigh of relief.

The story is not over and I hope you’re not getting bored yet. I was expecting a site dedicated to those premium wine brands. Unfortunately the site is a little confusing. Under “Brands” are listed “Australian Wine” (which one?), “New Zealand Wine” (which one?), “Champagne” (really?), “Spirits” (great wine brands!), “Other Beverages” (yes?) and “Tasting Notes” (of what?). I’m usually a rather accommodating person (at least, I hope) but at that point I got slightly annoyed : first, it required special detective skills to enter the site; then I have no information on those famous “Premium Wine Brands”.

Let’s be honest. When a global company such as Pernod-Ricard invests millions of dollars (or euros) to re-organize its brands and hire new executives, is it that difficult or intellectually challenging to think about a basic communication tool, a web site? Is it too much to ask for a certain respect for the consumers? And maybe even more important, is it a positive move for the awareness of the brands involved? I’m not sure…

You might have read on brandchannel.com the story on George Best’s barley wine. Didn’t? Here is a quick up to date: George Best was a UK football star who drank himself to death, even after a liver transplant. His last words were supposedly: “Don’t die like me”.  Was it a good idea to let his name endorse an alcoholic beverage? At first sight, the answer is “no”. The case is even worse when reading the ad: “This limited release all malt barley wine has been brewed in homage to the famous soccer player George Best, who we hope would favour this rare ale. Barley wines are, like George, a dying breed and we hope to revive this beer style.”
That’s it: I agree 100% with the author of brandchannel.com, Abe Sauer. This campaign is an absolute “no no”. But could it be turned around? The story has the making of a success. We have a deceased champion whose addiction to alcohol drove prematurely to his grave. We have a barley wine (for what it is) trying to get on the market and to appeal to the values of a great champion. Why not donate part of the profit of the sale to some charity helping former alcoholics or former champions down their luck? It might help the cause of this quite unfortunate wine and transform one of the poorest branding strategy I came across in an acceptable one.