Busy building a business, but are you listening?
Getting into the weeds of a business is part of being an entrepreneur, but it can quickly push you off track from seeing how you need to drive the business forward, and where the opportunities are. Creating one-on-one relationships with customers have always been and will continue to be the #1 way to succeed in business.
Most of you know I’m a huge Garyvee fan and about this time last year I went to one of his book signings. Getting a pep talk from the wine and social guru did it for me then (see my video and blog post from Mar 2011) and then the other day I found his CNN segment taped last Dec, with the same topic. Gary uses social media to do what he calls “humanize the business” and “scaling caring” – he seeks out relationships, listens and contributes to conversations. He says he understands his customers to a level that he knows what their emotional hooks are, beyond their purchases. Thank you Gary for spelling out how to use social media to everyone once again.
If you need another reminder on how to use social media and why, here is Gary’s clip as seen on Piers Morgan:
This is what I used to tell brands when I was consulting but now that I’m thick in the weeds of building a business it doesn’t come as naturally as there are about a million other things to do. Gary’s CNN clip came at a good time. Last week I had another breakthrough. I called 30 top customers and spent a lot of time listening and asking questions. What I thought people wanted, why they wanted it and what they really thought were quite different things. I also learned about two very different customer profiles and how we needed to talk to them differently. Why did it take this long for me to wake up and do this? I have done calls, surveys and focus groups many times before in other companies, but when you’re busy it is easy to get sidetracked and forget the basics.
Giving customers the chance to tell me about their experience with the brand not only helps them feel more connected to the brand, but it creates a relationship that will ultimately pay off down the line. It is stuff like this that will get people even more tuned in to what we are doing, encourage them to tell their friends and feel like they can reach out to “a real person” as opposed to a brand. It says “we care”. Personalization of brands, in my opinion, is absolutely crucial in today’s competitive marketplace – and the insights I learned were so valuable. Sitting around conference rooms discussing “what people want to see” is a waste of time unless you have actual customer insights to discuss.
So what does social media and calling customers have in common? Actually, the goal is exactly the same – to develop one-on-one relationships with customers and build your brand. It gives you the chance to learn what people have to say about you, learn about what they like about you, and what they don’t, where they shop, how they see your competitors – and gives you the chance to start talking to them. The problem is that many brands don’t use social media in the right way and only use it to push out content.
Staying in tune on a day to day basis is important, but you can’t always be on the phone with customers. It’s the reason why tools like Twitter, Quora, Facebook etc are so powerful. Gary is right this is 100% worth dedicating time and resources to. It really is a matter of priorities – and using these tools to help you in the right way. Start listening and caring about what your customers say and you will quickly be a step ahead. Creating one-on-one relationships have always been and will continue to be the #1 way to market your business.
What do you think? Please post below or find me on Twitter @mindyjoyce
Michael Mondavi on the trip that inspired a global wine business
Believe it or not, when Michael Mondavi first traveled the country promoting Robert Mondavi Winery in the 1960s, he was commonly asked, “Robert who?” followed by “Is that a Chinese restaurant?” I had to chuckle – even big names like this start somewhere.
I’ve always been in awe of entrepreneurs, no matter what their line of business is. But in the wine world, it doesn’t get much more impressive than Michael Mondavi. Recently I had the chance to talk to him and learn where he started from, and what gave him the idea to branch out from California and start an importing company.
Today the Mondavi name speaks volumes in the U.S., having become virtually synonymous with American wine. But surprisingly, in 2004, Michael founded his own international wine importing company, Folio Fine Wine Partners. So I had to ask him: Why not just focus on California wine rather than importing? As it turns out, it all started with a trip he took 37 years ago.
“After my younger brother Tim graduated in 1974, Dad decided to take us to Europe. Day after day for two weeks, we traveled from winery to winery – three to five a day. I had been to Europe several times before that trip, but this time was different. This time, we met with the families, the winemakers, walked through the vineyards and tasted the wines.
“That trip was a real turning point. When we got back, Dad asked me about the most important thing I had learned. And I told him, ‘Everyone talks about how great French wines are, but I think the Italian wines are more pleasing and go better with food.’ I’d fallen in love with Italy, and realized that if people knew about these great wines in America, they would love them too.”
Over time he built relationships with wine families in Europe, and had to make a major decision after he was approached by Vittorio Frescobaldi to import his wines. Frescobaldi belongs to one of the oldest wine families in Tuscany, one that has made wine for over 30 generations and 700 years. Michael realized he couldn’t import just one wine – he needed to create a portfolio. But that wouldn’t come easy.
“In 2004, I sat with my son Rob and started with maps of Italy and Spain. I went down the list of people whom he would be proud to represent in the U.S. Then we traveled to each of the family estates two to three times with our winemaker, Tony Coltrin, who has worked with us for more than 35 years. Together we met the people, saw the vineyards, watched how they respected the soil and checked how clean the cellars were. With each family it took about five meetings before we started to talk about importing the wines into the US. And not everyone said yes. But it’s like relationships – you have to date a lot of people to find the right ones.”
Like many entrepreneurs, Michael is absolutely passionate about what he does, and he is driven by a deeper purpose. His passion is ignited by the thrill of discovery. And for him, the reward is the look on a person’s face when he or she really likes the wine. “Our ultimate goal is keeping our customers happy,” he says, “because if they’re happy once, they’ll come back.”
A rising tide raises all boats: The wine tourism industry gets a wake up call from Michael Mondavi
Last month I went to the first Wine Tourism Conference – a major contrast from what I’m usually doing mid November: learning from the travel industry’s heavy hitters and the hottest startups at the PhoCusWright Conference. For those of you that know PCW, the WTC couldn’t be more opposite. Thank goodness the wine tourism industry has banded together to help accelerate this potentially huge industry.
In the U.S., wine tourism is driven by having to sell wine in the winery and many wineries are dependent on wine tourism for survival. About half of their direct to consumer sales actually come from the tasting room – hence the importance of driving visitors to wine regions and into tasting rooms.
In terms of understanding how to tap into potential travelers and wine buyers online, the marketing mindset of the wine tourism industry is about where the travel industry was 10 years ago. The industry is made up of wineries and tourism boards that have been generally slower to adapt and just not as exposed to online tech and where the travel industry as a whole is going. But they both have big fish who are highly successful and continue to lead the industry (Mondavi, etc). The difference in the wine world is that although wineries are dependent on tasting room sales, a great proportion of them wineries are, what I’d call “marketing in a box” and are not able to see that collaboration will benefit them more than working in isolation.
Michael Mondavi
1. A rising tide raises all boats. When Michael Mondavi speaks, the industry listens. His message came through loud and clear: “Promote Napa first, winery brands second”. Obviously this message can be applied to wine from any region, but with over 400 wineries in Napa alone, the expense involved in producing wine, and the reliance on tasting room sales, means wine tourism is something every winery needs to be taking seriously.
Success in this business is dependent on these small brands seeing themselves as part of a bigger picture. So what does this big picture look like? Every year in the U.S. wine tourism generates $3B of tourism expenditure * (hotels, tours, rental cars, etc.). When you look at it this way, tourism actually generates more revenue for regions than the revenue wineries generate from tasting room sales. On average people visit 2-3 wineries on a trip* and marketing regions or travel packages and compelling winery experiences can help everyone. Looking at the effect of wine tourism in Napa alone, wineries had 8.5 million visits in 2007, generated $714 million in expenditures, 10,217 tourism related jobs, and $250M in wages. Big business indeed.
“The world doesn’t need another winery. Give yourself a reason to be.” – Michael Mondavi
2. Differentiation is key. “Wineries need to find ways to differentiate themselves” – Mondavi couldn’t have spelled it out more clearly. It’s true, finding a point of difference, something unique about the brand and presenting it as part of the visitor experience is the way to differentiate. Wineries that understand this have successfully created dedicated spaces for wine and taken time to really understand the visitor experience and how it speaks to their brands: “Super Cave” rooms, the additional of food, the addition of art, music, all to create a more specialized visitor experiences. More data discussed by Mondavi:
- Napa is 4% of the CA wine industry (by volume)
- 80% of 400 wineries in Napa are under 10,000 cases
- 95% of wineries in Napa are family owned
- $42B to economy nationally
- Ripple effects are way beyond individual vineyards and wineries
3. “Winery tourism is brand building”. People who visit wineries are brand ambassadors. People buy because of a personal connection, an experience or memory of a place they’ve been. There was a lot of discussion about measuring the ROI of wine tourism and the effect of the tasting room environment on the amount sold. Even though wineries differ on the level of sophistication in their measurement, everyone seemed to understand that winery tourism needs to be part of their wine marketing strategies.
4. The potential for direct to consumer wine sales is huge. It’s easy to forget that that wine sold direct to the consumer is only 3% of US sales. This breaks down into 2% sold in tasting rooms, and 1% of all US wine is shipped/sold direct. This presents a huge opportunity for change. In the National Economic Study from 2007, national winery D to C sales was estimated at $1.75B out of $23.8B total sales of US wine. And, even more staggering, 88.5% US adults have never bought wine directly from the winery (online or in a tasting room). Even though a very tiny amount of people have ever been to a tasting room, the ones that do visit have a huge effect.
5. Popular regions for wine production do not necessarily mirror wine tourism. There are 27.3 million visits to wineries across 50 states. I was really surprised to learn that New York’s Finger Lakes gets as much as 5 million visits a year, compared to the Napa Valley, with about 8.5 million. We also heard about the significant wine tourism focus from states such as MO, NC, OR, WA, and B.C. in Canada.
6. The demo doesn’t get much better: A heads up for luxury marketers. The winery visitor is about the highest quality consumer demographic you can have: $75-100K+ HHI, empty nesters, 45+, well educated, managerial/professional, entrepreneurs, children <18 not at home, with men being termed as “trophy drinkers”. They tend reside in wealthy suburban, ex-urban areas and also retirement resorts (ie Bend, OR, Sun Valley, Jackson Hole) & college towns (highly educated). Top interests of winery visitors include skiing, frequent fliers, tennis, charities, foreign travelers, cultural events.
“Selling wine is about communicating the place it comes from.” Paul Wagner, BALZAC
7. The importance of creating memorable experiences. Paul Wagner’s lively presentation hit home, and speaks to exactly what I’m working on at Lot18. Memorable experiences are ultimately what will build brands that will last forever. Creating opportunities to build relationships and create experiences for customers are they keys to ensuring future sales and loyalty.
8. Tapping into major events. Napa Valley was announced as the “official wine region” of the 2013 America’s Cup – just one example of the many bigger events that wineries can tap into. The America’s Cup alone is expected to drive 5 million visitors into San Francisco. Understanding how to be part of larger initiatives is better than struggling along to gain share of voice.
9. You want people to sign up for your wine club so why don’t you tell them about it? A staggering 75% of wineries are not presenting the wine club opportunity to tasting room visitors. I am constantly talking to wineries who have building their wine clubs as a top priority so this came as a big of a surprise.
10. Non-wine is important in “wine country experiences”. For travel packages and itineraries a well balanced experience is more appealing to travelers. Interests that have come through in research studies include skiing, tennis, adventure, charities, educational, and cultural events.
Interesting facts from Ship Compliant:
- 2% of wine is sold in tasting rooms, 1% of all US wine is shipped/sold direct, D to C is only 3% of US sales
- 98% of US wineries produce less than 30K gallons/12,000 cases
- 2% of US wineries produce 98% of wine (mainly grocery store wine)
- 49%-51% of wine sold direct is sold in tasting room
Sources:
- Barbara Insel – Stonebridge Research Group
- National Economic Impact of Wine study 2005-7
- Nielsen Study 2007 – Winery Tourism National Survey
- Paul Wagner from BALZAC
- TripAdvisor
- Michael Mondavi
- Ship Compliant
The other biggest opportunity in the wine business
Marketing tips for wineries in the hospitality business
The US Travel Association estimates that 27 million* Americans travel each year for the purposes of culinary or wine-related tourism. This is a big number, and it’s certainly big enough for many wineries to realize the opportunity and decide whether some fine-tuning is needed in their marketing strategies.
With the inaugural Wine Tourism Conference (#WineTourismConf) underway in Napa this week, the leaders of this ever-growing and substantial niche of the travel industry, and still underrated subset of the wine industry, are coming together for the first time.
At Lot18 we’ve just completed two successful hospitality marketing webinars where we had almost 40 wineries participate. Since then, I’ve had so many people reach out to me, from winery owners to tasting room staff for additional sessions. Wine tourism has never been in the limelight more than it is right now.
If you’re not involved in the wine business, you probably think the wineries are doing okay with this. The truth is that most wineries in America are not big names that have big marketing budgets. There are thousands of wineries with fabulous wines and/or winery experiences but they don’t have promotional budgets. Some of them focus their marketing activity solely on their wines, and by default this attracts some visitors, but many of them are looking at new ways of approach this – and they should. The most successful wineries see hospitality marketing this as a long-term approach to building their brands, which includes selling wine and getting people to visit.
Most of the wineries I talk to are small family-run businesses who are not looking to be tourism destinations. They just want the right people. One of the biggest reasons that wine tourism in this country hasn’t developed to its full potential is because there is a gap in knowledge. When it comes to visiting wine country, many travelers don’t know what they don’t know and go to the wineries they have heard of, or whatever is near the hotel. And, there are a lot of wineries that don’t know or haven’t thought about marketing strategies to reach today’s traveler.
I was really thrilled that so many wineries attended the our webinars and I’ve had a lot of requests since, so I thought I’d post some of what we covered here. This is the first of five posts geared to wineries. Most of this can be applied to other tourism businesses, and marketing in general.
Who do you want walking through your tasting room door?
Now, if you’re not in the wine business, here are the basics: Wineries want to: 1. Reach a large audience of actual wine buyers, 2. Introduce wine buyers to their brands, 3. Get people into the tasting room, 4. Turn them into lifetime customers.
There is a big difference between the connection a consumer feels about your product when they see it on the shelves, versus coming to the place it was made – and meeting the people who make it. In the case of many wineries that have a long-term vision for their businesses, appealing to an audience of travelers is critical to building a long-lasting, high value brand.
Tips:
- Many travelers are “Destination Collectors”: Luxury travelers particularly may have either already visited the region, or may be considering visiting, but need a compelling reason. What will it take to get them to return to your region, then your winery? Developing an experience that is unmatched and highlights what is unique and special about your winery (and wine brand) will get this on their radar.
- Travel marketers will tell you that travel decisions tend to be heavily influenced by women (usually about 70%) and the destinations they visit are heavily influenced by family and friends (81%). Think about it, how often have you heard about a friend’s great trip then planned your own trip to that place?
- Put yourself in the shoes of someone planning a trip to wine country: Where would you start? What are the touch-points online and offline, and in-destination? What are their expectations of a tasting room visit? You really need to walk through this process and then evaluate how your winery does in each of these consumer touch points.
Stay tuned for more tips & updates from the Wine Tourism Conference. Please post your feedback below.
* US Travel Association 2007 Survey
Don’t forget to remind people to like you
Wine IS Social
I often visit winery tasting rooms and I always love to see wineries, or any location for that matter, remind guests or customers to tell their friends. People do need to be reminded to check in sometimes, and they will check in or post information about your business. Nielsen reports that 70% of people turn to friends and family for advice when making purchasing decisions. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to be part of this conversation. Simple things like store front signs and stickers can really help remind people to tell their friends – all of this helps keep your brand top of mind and helps you attract new customers.
I was thrilled to see this at Kunde Family Estate in Sonoma when I visited, and again at Bodegas Torre de Ona in Rioja, Spain. All over the world brands are embracing social media to help tell their story. Wine is social and so is travel, and food, dining…basically any kind of location can incorporate simple marketing tactics like this to build word of mouth. I encourage everyone to think about the consumer touch points of their business and how they can make it easy for their customers to tell their story.
Is Rioja ready for wine tourism?
After visiting the Rioja wine region in Spain this week, and as a follow up to my previous post about whether or not the wine industry is ready for tourism, there appears to be a number of challenges this region faces, and perhaps some things other regions can learn from.
Rioja is an extremely impressive wine region to visit. I can’t think of another region that offers this kind of extreme contrast in winery experiences. From the hundreds of traditional wineries with their underground tunnels and caves, to the new, architecturally-designed modern wineries, Rioja is full of surprises and is visually stunning. There is so much old world history here, as you’d expect, yet there are many wineries with technically very sophisticated, and very modern production facilities.
The restaurant at Bodegas Baigorri
Here’s the challenge:
• Most wineries are appointment only: Rioja spans 3 different regions and consists of about 1,000 wineries. I visited Rioja Alta, the region known for the best quality wines. There are about 400 vineyards in this region. About 99% of the wineries are appointment only. Most of them are either set up for small groups or not set up for tourists at all. Visitors that come with expectations from other wine regions may be disappointed. It’s not like Napa, for example, and you can’t just drive to wineries and do tastings. The only one you really don’t need an appointment for is Marques de Riscal. It is one of the biggest wineries and they do several tours a day in different languages. But, if this was your only experience of a winery in Rioja it would only tell you one side of the story of this diverse region.
• Two other issues: language and language. If wineries are open to visitors, staff may or may not speak English. If they speak English, it may not be easy to understand.
• Popular producers may not offer the best visitor experiences. Wineries consumers may have heard of (i.e: wine that is imported into the US) either, may not be open to the public, may not offer a good visitor experience, and/or may not make good wine. At this point the consumer would need to do a lot of research to find the right wineries to visit.
• Iconic wineries may not offer the best visitor experiences. Wineries consumers may have seen in magazines and guidebooks because they were designed by a famous architect, may not necessarily offer great winery experiences or maybe they do not make high quality wine. In some cases, these were not designed with the winemaking process in mind and are more of statement by the architect. It does not necessarily mean they do not make good wine, it simply means that other wineries may offer a better experience, perhaps top quality wine is not the focus. The same goes for hotels, an iconic lobby may not mean the hotel rooms/staff/restaurant will be fantastic. Sometimes these architecturally designed properties set consumer expectations so high that it makes it very hard to live up to them. But, understandably, the reason for doing this is to attract attention.
Bodegas Ysos, Rioja, designed by Santiago Calatrava
The hotel at Marques de Riscal designed by Frank Gehry
I visited Bodegas Baigorri and it’s definitely one of the most impressive wineries I’ve ever seen. The winery is designed with the winemaking process in mind. It has a gravity-based production facility with state of the art equipment. There are about 7 levels that hug the side of a mountain so all of this is done underground. All you see from the outside is the top lobby area. They hare a fabulous restaurant that offers 5-course tasting menu with a spectacular view of the valley.
Production facilities at Bodegas Baigorri
Bodegas Torre de Oña was also fantastic. It has a beautiful tasting room, great information and excellent wines. It combines old building style with elements of modern design. I think what makes both of these experiences so great was my fabulous wine expert/guide Jenny and the tasting room manager Paola, whose English was perfect and very easy to understand. I got so much out of my visit with a guide than I ever could have on my own.
So where does the opportunity lie for wine tourism?
• For small group/wine tour companies: There are fabulous tasting rooms and incredible experiences, but you absolutely have to know where to go. I think the opportunity for Rioja lies in small group tours with a multi-lingual guide that is also a wine expert. I think these small companies need to let wine lovers know who they are and how easy an amazing wine experience can be. Small group tours are also the way to go to satisfy wine lovers. The last thing people want is to go through a factory with a lot of people with a guide reading a script of how wine is made.
• For wineries: Wineries that want to attract visitors should make it easy for people to book appointments on their websites and give them a way to signify which language they understand. Websites need to offer language options for all their content.
Rioja is ready for wine tourism, but it has to be done the right way. How does this compare with your experience in other wine regions? I look forward to hearing your feedback.
The guest house at Bodegas Torre de Oña
Hot on the tail of a $40 million round of funding last week, Bloomspot have now started a new email called “Bloomspot Travel”. Even I am having a hard time keeping up with who is doing what in the private sales and group buying space in this category. Here is a refresher on some of the happenings we’ve seen over the past few months:
Groupon and Expedia create Groupon Getaways
Ideeli & Voyage Prive team up to provide even more content on Ideeli, and Ideeli Travel is born
Off & Away goes private
Bloomspot adds travel email
BuyWithMe adds “Destinations” travel email
Jetsetter brings back the travel agent – adds Travel Planning Service
Mindy Joyce
