Discover your own Australian Regional heroes!

Do you think you know everything about Australian wines? Here is a good way to test your knowledge: the Australian Wine and Brandy Company launched an interactive contest for that very purpose. They call "Regional Heroes" Australia's regionally distinct wines, defined by a unique sense of place and a particular flavor that can't be captured anywhere else in the world.

The contestant clicks on one of the 20 wines selected for the contest. Be patient: it's slow before the system loads your test. A glass is filled of the wine of your choice and little rounds bubbles with words defining the wine start moving around the glass. You drag in the glass 6 of those bubbles. When you're done, your score is published on the screen. Funny but a little irritating as the bubbles don't stop turning and you have to catch them.

Why was I interested in that gimmick? Because the AWBC launched the challenge as an e-marketing campaign in the UK with over 40,000 consumers receiving an 'Australian wine' in their inbox. Recipients are then invited to take Australia's wine tasting challenge with an opportunity to win an instant cellar of Australia's regionally distinct wines. Too bad I don't live in the UK! Even if the technical realization is not 100% perfect, the idea is bright and should be extended to markets less receptive to New World wines, such as Italy or France. It would achieve the goal of the campaign: increase awareness of Australia's wine regions and inform consumers about an Australian sense of place and particular flavour, or style of wine, from a region.

Brands vs. Regions?

Last Friday, I spent the day listening to speakers from various countries about strategies to access the international markets. French specialists, such as Yves Benard, President of the INAO (Institute of the Controlled Appellations) or James de Roany, managing director of Chateau Beaulieu in Provence, the Italian Lorenzo Zonin, owner of the Zonin winery, the Spanish Juan-Maria Torres, CEO and co-owner of Torres winery, Adrian Keogh, Marketing Director for Europe of Pernod-Ricard and, last but not least the Australian Anthony Spawton shared their views on the subject.

Anthony Spawton is a wine marketing expert internationally recognized for his pioneer work in this field. He spoke about "Wine brand strategies: the new world experience" and was introduced by Peter Hayes, OIV Chairman. There is no difference between brands and regions, claims Anthony Spawton: brands and regions are the same. Why is that? A brand is "the encapsulation of the IP of a winery/region" and is also "the vehicle that will ensure its future earnings".

To show his point, Tony drew an interesting table of the "salient features of Brand Relevance":

Purchase Intent Criteria - Weekday Wines - Lifestyle - Luxury
Info search - Safe Brand /Grape - Position (niche) brand - Exclusive brand
Decision point - Price Point - Depends on occasion - Scarce, unique
Post purchase evaluation - Taste, consistency - Socially accepted - Complexity

This table shows that branding and marketing should be concerned with creatinf pleasurable consumer experiences (Schmitt, 1999). Which means you want to bring te consumer to the wine and not bring the wine to the consumer. To do so, the distribution chain is part of the supply chain: the wine is made available for sale and purchase by the consumer. The brand champions achieve a mainstream availability and accessibility.

Who are the regional heroes? It is the wines from somewhere and not from anywhere.

The best illustration of this principle during the conference was the new brand launched by James de Roany, Rosé de Provence. Rosé is the pink dry wine from Provence, the region where 80% of the wines produced are pink. As explained in Wine Brands, the idea was to brand a new category, Rosé (dry pink wine vs. sweet blush wines) and a region, Provence, its birth place and "terroir". James' idea was to capitalize on a "terroir" to raise the value of its consumers' territory - to reach the young people and the women, sophisticated consumers of a brand with an history. The region carries the history while the category expresses the trend.

Conclusion: brand vs. region? No, the region is the brand.

New packagings for wine brands?

A lot of new wine brands created innovative packagings: Barokes and Lubie, to name just two brands I worked on for Wine Brands. Some "old" brands also launch wines under new packaging: this is the case of the long-lived German brand "Black Tower" now lauching a sparkler in cans. "The launch is part of a drive to turn the 1970s icon into a million-case-selling label by the summer", writes decanter.com.



Why is this trend of canning wines and sparkling wines so predominant at the moment? Is it only to show that wine is good, wine is easy to understand, wine is fun, wine is trendy? Or is it to improve sales of an ageing brand? Certainly for some of those brands. The Australian Barokes wines come in various styles (varietals and blends) and even in a 4-can pack. It is heavily marketed by the company. “Today's global wine consumers are increasingly embracing simple means of beverage enjoyment, often in the new economies where wine is seen as the modern trend from western culture. Further than that, Generation X and Y drinkers from many diverse ethnic origins are readily accepting ready-to-drink beverages of a spirit, wine or soft drink base as the drink of the current era. Success in the beverage market comes from being chic, relevant, drink accessible, and importantly single serve.” (From wineinthecan.com)

The same is true of the young Bordeaux-based Lubie. In strategy, as well as in its products, it is a little more subtle and elegant than its American and Australian counterparts.

Instead of aiming wildly at a “global” market, Lubie targets young and upper-scale consumers, mostly the young crowds in night clubs and the more mature wine drinkers in upscale wine and grocery stores in major cities. Their very first target is feminine, since they describe the wine as “feminine, natural, contemporary and self-indulgent”. Women are more sensitive to an elegant and unusual packaging. It is so much fun to show up at an evening with your pack of four small bottles of wine instead of a regular wine bottle!

Barokes and Lubie are now reaching their audience after a few years on the market. Isn't it a little too late for an ageing brand such as Black Tower to try to rejuvenate with a now banal packaging?