How an Online Marketer’s Technique Can Sell More Wine

Last week we discussed an important topic: How wine consumers are buying wine at lower prices and the two price ranges they’re buying in (here’s the post). Today we’ll talk about how we can sell more wine without lowering our prices.

But first, let’s address the question in your mind: ‘what the heck do online marketers have to do with wine’? The answer: they show us a technique that can help sell more. That technique is adding value.

Many online marketers sell their products through long hyped-up sales pages promising the wealth of the ages. And the “close” to get you to buy is they offer several bonuses if you buy right now before the price goes up. Using bonuses works. These people sell millions of dollars online every year. Many people buy the product based on the bonuses, thinking “Wow! Look at all the stuff I get!”. Cosmetic manufacturers have been doing this successfully for years. You buy their makeup, and you get a makeup bag with it.

We don’t want to sell hype, but…..
If we want to sell more wine, we don’t want to get caught in the trap of lowering our prices. We want to get into the habit of adding value to the customer’s purchase.

Here’s a marketing truth that’s worth remembering: People make their buying decision based on price only when they think there’s no real difference between the products they’re considering purchasing.

For example, white athletic socks. Honestly….is there much difference between those? Not really. So what do we do? Buy the cheapest! This applies to cars, too. If price was the only factor, BMW would be out of business and Yugo would be the most popular car in America.

People buy VALUE, they don’t buy price.
People buy whatever they think will give them the most value for their money.

Value = The product + other things that come with it. Therefore…..

BMW = Vehicle + high quality construction + prestige. That’s *value*.

If people are basing their wine-buying decision on price alone, it’s because they don’t see any difference between the wines. So you have to increase the value of your wine. And before you say “Hey…our NAME has value!”, that's true, but lately that’s not having as big an impact, so you’ve got to sweeten the pot a little.

How to use value to increase sales
Give the customers something along with the wine. It needn’t be expensive, it just needs to be perceived as valuable.

Here’s a non-wine example, when I worked for Hewlett-Packard, we sold a lot of one of our high-tech products based upon a simple giveaway item (see the photo, below). That’s a “Reflection Calculator”. It gave engineers an easy way to calculate the reflections of radio waves. It made the engineer’s professional life really easy. Those reflectometers were inexpensive. The high-tech product they accompanied cost more than $20,000, and we sold a lot of them because we’d throw in a couple of these reflectomers. The reflectometer was a valuable item that we added to the purchase.



Wine Examples of Value
At a recent tasting event, Jerome Winery (AZ) gave me a card after I’d purchased a bottle of their wine. “Bring this card to our tasting room and you’ll get a free gift”, they told me. Next week I’m heading up to Northern Arizona with a friend for a “weekend vacation”. Usually I don’t go to Jerome, but this time I will. Why? Because I get a free gift! That’s added value. The benefit to Jerome is that I’m coming back and I'm bringing a friend who’s interested in tasting Jerome’s wines.

I was at another tasting festival recently where a winery was offering tastes of their port wine, and pairing it with M&Ms (“here…taste it with chocolate”). You know how I would have used this to sell more port? I’d have brought along several bags of M&Ms and then surreptitiously told the tasters (as if I don’t do it for everyone) “if you buy the port, I’ll throw in a big bag of M&Ms along with it”. I’ll bet any of you that it would have doubled their sales of port. Why? Value! The tasters could then rush off to their friends and say “Try this with chocolate! It’s sooooo good!” (It is, too. Delicious!)

So before you cut your wine’s price:
Think of inexpensive ways to add value to your wine. Perhaps a compilation of recipes that are paired with your wine. It’s easy to format it nicely, and it’s value…most people buy wine to pair with food, so you save them the trouble of looking up recipes. Or perhaps a set of inexpensive wine-glass charms. Or a bag of M&Ms (!) Or even a free gift when they come back to your tasting room.

Add something of value that makes the customer think “Hey…I get more stuff when I buy this wine!” and you’ll never have to worry about losing a sale to someone with a lower price.

Five Days That'll Get You Publicity

Here are five more food holidays in February that you can use to get some publicity:

• February 18: National Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day

• February 20: National Cherry Pie Day

• February 23: National Banana Bread Day

• February 26: National Pistachio Day

• February 28: National Chocolate Souffle' Day

"How the heck do I use that to get publicity??" you ask? Easy.

The media is always looking for new and unusual food ideas for their audiences, whether it's TV, radio, newspapers, or online. Combine your food and wine knowledge to create something special for each of these days and you're in!

What Kind of Crab are You?
For example: National Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day. This dish has two different flavors to it: crab and fish. What kind of wine would you recommend? Even more so, different types of crab have different flavors. So what kind of wine would go well for what type of crab? That's the sort of thing TV looks for.

Chefs....how would you cook the flounder to make it more interesting? Most people (myself included) view flounder as a kinda-bland white fish. How can it be perked up so it's more interesting? Can you come up with 5 different sauces that'll liven up the flounder? That's the sort of thing that'll get you noticed.

A Match Made in Chocolate
February 28 is National Chocolate Souffle' Day. Red wine dealers, that's your day! There are plenty of varieties of chocolate (milk vs. dark, amount of cocoa, etc.), so there's plenty of variation on the theme. What type of red wine would go with a souffle made with milk chocolate? Or how about a dark chocolate souffle'? The perfect wine for that souffle' is something that is of interest to foodies everywhere.

Don't believe it? Hey...somebody came up with this recipe on CNN. Why not you?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/homestyle/02/12/mr.wine.chocolate/index.html

So take advantage of the national food holidays. There are at least five coming up. Dream up some interesting combinations of foods and wines, and send a news release to the TV stations and newspapers. You'll be surprised how receptive they are to your ideas.

What all wine dealers need to know about falling wine prices

Falling Retail Wine Prices Have Reached Two “Sweet Spots”, according to research in the February 2010 issue of Wine Business Monthly. Wineries and wine retailers would be wise to take note of these ranges so that they might adjust their sales strategies accordingly. Figure 1, below, shows the 2009 sales volume changes of wine within certain price ranges. The largest amount of growth was in two ranges:

• $3.00 - $6.00: Increase of 9.7%
• $9.00 - $12.00: Increase of 5.8%

Sales of wines in the $20+ range dropped 6.4%.


Figure 2, below, shows the value % change in wine prices from 2007 – 2009. The difference is stunning: in 2007, wines priced $15+ were in the growing category. Now they’re shrinking rapidly.




What this means to wine dealers:
The obvious: Wine is still selling, but people have traded down into the lower price ranges. How do you deal with it? That’s a tough call. You’d like more people buying your wine, but you don’t want to price-cut your profitability out of existence.

Two techniques:
Speaking as an ex-marketing manager (here's my LinkedIn profile), I’d like to suggest two tactics:

1. Consider slightly lowering the prices of your premium wines and let people know (through shelf-tags) that it’s on sale.
   
2. Consider raising the prices of your wines that are below the ‘sweet spot’…but don’t announce it (!). People judge wine by its price. If it’s too cheap, they’ll think it has all the bouquet and flavor of a good quality drain-opener. If you bump your $8.00 wine up to $10.00 or $11.00, they’ll think that they’re serving “quality wine” to their friends, and it’s still within their price range. What a bargain! It’s psychological, true, but it works (as long as your wine is not a high-quality drain-opener).

When employing those methods, take the time to calculate how you can compensate the losses of dropping the price of your premium wines by boosting the price of your not-quite-as-premium wine.

Best technique: Add value.
Adding value to your wines is a much more effective tactic than just lowering your prices. Why? Because people like value. “Value” is defined (simply) as “How much stuff I get for the price”. When people think they’re getting more “stuff” for the same price, they’ll buy what you’re offering. AND, they’ll come back to you. Rather than hunting for “The same wine at a cheaper price”, it’ll be “I’m going to visit Bob’s Wine Store because I got more stuff!”

The concept of value (and how to add it inexpensively) is a longer topic than a single blog post, so I’m going to save that for the next post. Watch for the next blog post when I go into selling more by adding value. I’ll have some great examples that you can steal and put into your own business.

Watch for the blog post titled: “How to Use an Online Marketer’s Technique to Sell More Wine”. It’s all about adding value and how to use it to get more long-term customers.

Combine "old" with "new" media for maximum impact.

I recently read an article online that talked about the impact social media is having on public relations. Specifically, the article stated that the “old” method of PR was dead…that newspapers were dying and that everything was going online, and that anyone who did “old” PR (contacting newspapers, magazines, TV, etc), was wasting their time. I disagree.

I agree that social media is big and getting bigger and that using social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) is very important. I use it all the time, especially with clients: it’s a great way to get your message out. What I don’t agree with is that the “old” media is dead so it should be ignored.

Should you use the “new” media? Absolutely! It’s very effective and you should use it as often as possible. But should you ignore the “old” media? Heck no! Wine dealers and restaurateurs should take advantage of the “old” media whenever they can.

Six Good Reasons why Wine and Food Should Continue Using the “Old” Media:

1. A newspaper or magazine article gives you instant celebrity – and customers.
An article in the paper or local magazine makes you “famous” on a local level. When people see you in the paper, they trust you more. They’re more likely to go to your restaurant or wine store because your smiling face has been connected with the name of the restaurant.

2. A print article is actionable.
People keep the food section of the paper specifically for restaurant reviews and special deals. If you’ve gotten your wine or food in the paper, you’re going to get customers.

3. A print article is permanent.
A tweet or a blog post lasts as long as the reader’s attention span. When the computer’s off, the story is gone. A newspaper headline, however, is forever. It’s printed. When the paper is left on a tabletop it gets read by as many people as walk by it.

4. Magazine articles get passed around.
A big factor of magazines is their “pass-along” value. People tend to hand their magazine issues to their friends, who read them. Tweets and online reviews, even when forwarded, are just one more electronic bit that’s easily deleted.

5. Newspaper and magazine articles give your establishment credibility.
Keep in mind…anyone can bang away at a computer keyboard and give a review of something. But when a newspaper writes an article about you, it’s automatically assumed that the reporter took the time to research the topic and your establishment. That’s a strong 3rd-party endorsement.

6. TV and radio connect you with a local celebrity – which is PR gold.
Local people recognize and trust the people they see on TV or hear on the radio regularly. When you’re on TV standing next to the local celebrity, that’s a huge boost to you. I’ve had many clients say to me “I had several people come into my store and say “I saw you on TV!””

So before you switch to all new media, remember the advantages of the “old” media. When you combine the “new” and the “old” media, your message will have four times the impact. In this case, the total is definitely more than the sum of the parts.