A few days ago, I was talking with one of my MBA students on Bordeaux as a brand. The question was: Should Bordeaux brand itself like Champagne?  By branding its region, Champagne allowed small family owned properties to shine and sell their wines. The region leaders, the famous Krug, Bollinger and other Ruinart, did not hide the many little Champagne houses. On the contrary, under the umbrella brand, every brand was able to shine.  Champagne developed a very creative image of happiness, party and pleasure.

Would such a strategy be possible in Bordeaux? Bordeaux has the privilege of having many Classified Growths – about 5% – leading the way in term of image and price. Hidden behind this massive tree, there is a forest of small properties and estates. Some of them have a very hard time surviving and selling their wines at a decent price.  In the mind of many international consumers, Bordeaux means “quality” and “expensive”. The down side of this excellent reputation is that, when seeing a Bordeaux wine sold around $10, the consumer thinks it can not be a good Bordeaux wine because too cheap.

Is there a solution to this problem? I’m not an economist, just a marketer. As such I would answer: “Change your image”. At $10, a Bordeaux can be a very good wine. There were some efforts made at changing the image of Bordeaux in the US. Did you hear of “Bordeaux MatchMaking“? It is such a fun idea as explained on the web site : “Just tell us who you are, your interests and the wine you enjoy and we will match you with the Bordeaux wine that best suits your palate. You’ll get to enjoy this amazing evening with a group of new friends who share your way of life and most of all, your interest in affordable Bordeaux. Wine experts will be present during the evening to answer all of your questions, while our hostesses will ensure your group has an unforgettable experience. The soirees will all take place at exclusive venues in Boston, Chicago, NYC and Miami.”

“Bordeaux wines are meant to celebrate everyday occasions”, says the tagline. A little like Champagne ? What kind of Bordeaux wines ? Red, white, rosé ? All of them? In fact it seems a little difficult to match one Bordeaux with one occasion. Bordeaux wines are so different and complex it is hard to pair an occasion and a wine: birthday and white ? party and red ? pizza party and rosé ? Do you understand what I mean ? The complexity, the variety and the number of styles of wines make it a marketing nightmare.

Bordeaux is not a wine brand, not even a potential one but there are many wine brands in Bordeaux you should enjoy in every occasion. Cheers!

The IPAM Marketing School in Porto, Portugal, kindly invited me to be a speaker at their conference on Wine Marketing on April 28-29. I’ll speak on “New technologies and Innovation, success strategies for wine brands”.  It will give the opportunity to visit some Douro wineries and visit the port wineries in Porto. I look forward to the event.

Millennials are the dream target of many wine brands. They have time, they have money and they crave learning about wine. Really? Think twice. Or, as 29-year-old journalist Nadira Hira put it, “think authentic, don’t think marketing!”.

Is it bad news? Not really. Millennials are a generation of zappers, with short attention span but they have strong values: they believe in authenticity and honesty. No more marketing stories but the truth, nothing but the truth: who is the winemaker? What is the story behind a brand? What is really in the bottle? No fairy tale, but a true story.

Technology can’t be ignored either. Every Millennial (at least almost) has a mobile phone and a laptop. They love searching the Web for videos and various “fun” sites. How does it translate for a winery? Wineries can’t ignore Facebook, Twitter, videos, mobile sites and social media if they want to reach the 76 million of Millennials.

The Millennials are really a difficult target but they are worth the effort: wine is part of our common culture and what better job than teaching the beauty of wine to young people?

Some thought it was a good idea, making it clear that Laville was the white wine of La Mission Haut-Brion while others were sorry to see an old name disappear from Bordeaux. Re-branding a well established wine brand is usually a very well thought out decision. In the case of Château Laville Haut-Brion, both names were historically justified. For almost 100 years, Château Laville Haut-Brion belonged to the Laville Family. Marie de Laville bought the estate on July 16, 1611. Ten years later it passed to her brother, Bertrand de Laville. It was only in 1717, that the Laville family sold the estate to a surgeon called Bernard Gaussens.

It made a lot of sense to name the wine after the place it came from. Even after the Laville family didn’t own the place, the successive owners kept the name as part of the tradition. But, at some point during the 20th century – around 1930 if I remember well my history – the owner of Château Laville, M. Bibonne, changed the name to La Mission Haut-Brion blanc. The Woltners went back to the original name.

What does this story tell us about re-branding a wine? For three centuries, the name of the Laville brand was associated to a family who did not belong to the place anymore. By changing the name to associate it to a place currently existing, La Mission Haut-Brion, two factors were accounted for at once: the historical value of the name and the consumer. The latter will gain a better understanding of a rather complicated system since there are three wines available in the La Mission Haut-Brion range: Château La Mission Haut-Brion red and white, La Chapelle de la Mission Haut-Brion, the second wine (red) of Château La Mission Haut-Brion. It is always positive to help the consumer better understand the world of our wines.

In spite of the financial crisis or maybe because of the financial crisis, a recent study of the 2008 edition of The U.S. Wine Market: Impact Databank Review and Forecast show that Americans are drinking more and better wines. The study seems to confirm that US wine drinkers keep away from low-end brands and favor smaller brands. The Wine Spectator reported in depth on the subject:

“Smaller brands will continue to drive the U.S. market. The 50 largest brands nationwide, all selling at least 1 million cases, are projected to post a collective 0.2 percent decline in 2008, according to the report. Wine brands beyond the top 50 will account for less than half the industry’s volume but are once again expected to significantly outperform their much bigger counterparts. Currently, well over 7,000 wine brands are sold in the United States, but less than 300 labels sell more than 100,000 cases annually.

Fifty brands sold between 500,000 and 1 million cases each last year, combining for a solid 4.3 percent increase, including such brands as Fish Eye, Menage à Trois and Santa Margherita. Another 61 brands sold between 250,000 and 500,000 cases each, led by the likes of Kim Crawford, Red Diamond and Edna Valley, and posted a combined 7.2 percent gain. But the hottest segment, comprising the 118 brands that sold between 100,000 and 250,000 cases, surged 8.2 percent last year, thanks to such brands as Acacia, Bohemian Highway and Oyster Bay.

The bigger brands still make up a large share of the market. Last year, 28 brands sold more than 2 million cases each, and another 26 labels sold between 1 and 2 million cases.”

This report confirms there is room for small and creative brands – as we suggested yesterday.

Next week I’ll be on my way to the European Wine Bloggers Conference in Lisbon, Portugal. I’m one of the lucky one who’ll get to speak twice – once on Social Wine Brand and the second time on the Future of the Social Wine Brand.

But what is exactly the social wine brand? More and more winery owners are getting aware of the importance of social media to reach their consumers. They start writing blogs, create a page on Facebook and an account on Twitter. Those are great initiatives but they’re far from being as efficient as they could be. Indeed being part of a social media network means a lot more. It means interfacing with other wine professionals – even peers – and, of course, consumers. One of the weaknesses of the European wine network is the lack of communication and cooperation between winery owners and wine makers. Europe is more individualistic and competitive than its New World friends – i.e. Americans, Australians or South Americans. It impairs the launching of efficient networks. Indeed, networks require trust and sharing information and tips. Europeans are usually more retentive and don’t give away information or tip to an unknown party.

Is there a solution for this situation? Yes, we see in Europe innovative initiatives coming from wine makers who understood how working together (and not against each other) is important. The French “Mes Vignes” network is one of the best examples. Several winemakers from various French producing regions got together to offer wine lovers the opportunity to rent some vines for a year and create their own wine. In Cahors, the wine makers “banded” together to promote their wines in the US through blogs and buzz marketing. I’m sure other countries have many success stories they’ll share during this panel on social wine brands.

Blogging is certainly one of the best social media a winery can develop. But it is not enough to write posts on the state of the vine or how the wine is doing in the vat or in the barrel. The blog needs to bring value to the winery or the shop owner by creating a special relationship with the final consumer. The blogger needs to create links with other bloggers by sharing information, giving away ideas or starting interesting discussions. Topics can vary. I recently read a discussion on Facebook initiated by David Corey on : “would you rather buy high priced wine discounted or small production wines with consistenly fair pricing? let’s say $29 and under?” The question is a very good example of the kind of topics consumers are passionnate about: over 30 people answered and commented upon each other’s comments.

Don’t hesitate either to join professional networks such as OpenWineConsortium or LinkedIn with its Wine 2.0 or Wine Business section. Be proactive, create relationship and emotion around your brand. Comment on other people blogs, give away information to help somebody, get involved in discussions you are interested in – “just do it” or “think differently” but whatever you chose to do, do it in a spirit of cooperation and with an open mind.