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wine

What is Your Wine Label Communicating to Consumers?

April 29, 2019 by Rich Stimbra

By David M. Schneer, Ph.D./CEO

Part 1

I’m constantly amazed at the vastness of my local wine store; it does a great job organizing thousands of bottles by region and varietal within region—all with enticing endcaps and displays. But unless I’ve arrived with a specific bottle in mind, I still have to decide which one (confession: it’s often bottles, plural) makes it into my cart. After I narrow down my desired region, varietal, and price point, what else is there to draw me toward a particular bottle?

Truth told, it’s the labeling.

I’m no sommelier (though I’m married to one in training) but I have been around the wine industry and purchased and consumed more than my share of bottles over the years. Still, labels—cosmetic presentations of contents and quantifiable characteristics—consistently break ties for me in the wine aisle. And I’m not the only one.

I’ve researched the alcohol beverage category on and off for over twenty years and have worked with winery teams on countless objectives, from sensory evaluation with product development teams to brand perception for marketing teams. Having talked to consumers at every stage of their wine-purchasing decision, perceptions, and consumption behavior, it is crystal clear that labeling is an increasingly critical component to the consumer experience.

Curious then, with the importance of labeling to a consumer’s purchase decision and the immense competition on retail shelves, why aren’t wine producers more inclined to leverage consumer research during their labeling efforts? I suppose one could argue that wine labels are largely artistic, and thereby their appeal is simply too subjective to be quantified in such a way so as to drive corporate investment decisions. But I would argue that with the ever-more creative labels appearing on store shelves, it is more important than ever that your label effectively communicates what YOU want your brand to represent, thereby solidifying your place on your target consumers’ tables and minds.

I ran across a quote recently that reads: “It’s always the ones who know the least about you who judge you the most” (author unknown). I’m inclined to agree. When it comes to wine, it’s your label that opens the door to the first nonverbal communication with prospective buyers. Your label is your brand’s face and the most visible means through which you market to your target audience. Label styling, artwork, and overall tone are likely to define consumer perception of your brand over time. I’ve worked with producers whose labels were effective 20 years ago, but now find themselves losing share to competitors largely because that 20-year old label is now perceived as stodgy or “wine my parents drink” (read: “not for me”).

If you’re a legacy brand with declining sales, you need to understand whether your labels are effectively communicating your intentions over time. Your brand identity may not have changed over the years (or has it?), but consumer perceptions may have, and label design trends almost certainly have. This is reflected in how different retail wine shelves look today versus a couple decades ago. But fear not! Updates to your label do not necessarily need to be total overhauls or significant departures from your current look. Sometimes a gentle refresh is just what the doctor ordered. Conversely, if your brand is a line extension or relative newcomer, it is more important than ever to start off on the right foot.

Either way, can you really afford NOT to conduct labeling research?

Stay tuned for my next blog, where I’ll talk about a few practical methods for labeling research. Till then, don’t hesitate to ping me to learn more about how we can help you in your wine labeling efforts.

Merrill Research—Experience You Can Count On.

Filed Under: David Schneer, Research Tagged With: blog, wine, Wine Industry, Wine Labels, Wine Research

What Makes a Wine Club Successful? It’s all About the Experience

February 26, 2019 by Rich Stimbra

By David M. Schneer, Ph.D./CEO

You might be tempted to say that people join wine clubs because they love great wine. Well, that’s only half right. Yes, members who remain part of a wine club year after year love wine, but they also love a special experience. Can you customize your wine club experience to appeal to the individual tastes of your members? Merrill Research has spent countless hours finding out what wine lovers want and don’t want from their wine club and we’ve put that into a high level infographic. From communication preferences and offerings/benefits to shipments and nurture tracks there are a number of points to think about and take action on. If you need deeper insight into improving the experience of your wine club members, contact Merrill Research. We’d love to help you make your wine club the best it can be.

Merrill Research—Experience You Can Count On.

Filed Under: David Schneer, Wine Clubs Tagged With: blog, wine, wine clubs, Wine Industry, Wine Research

What are consumers looking for in a wine club?

January 27, 2019 by Rich Stimbra

By David M. Schneer, Ph.D./CEO

Wine is a multi-billion-dollar industry. To stay competitive, wineries have introduced wine clubs to their marketing repertoire. Wine clubs inspire loyalty in customers and are a creative way to deepen the winery/customer relationship both monetarily and emotionally. If you own a winery, there is a good chance that you have a wine club.

Today I’m sharing a few results from our wine club survey. Specifically, a quick profile of wine club members. According to our research, the vast majority of members have personally visited the winery. They’re largely driven by access to hard-to-come-by wines, and personal winery experience or recommendations from others. It’s likely that your club is not the only club to which a member belongs, and a good portion are willing to bolt from one club in order to join another.

We’ve addressed this and other questions from our wine club survey, such as:

  • Why do consumers join wine clubs in the first place?
  • What suggestions do wine club members have regarding how to improve your wine club?
  • What is the number 1 reason why members quit a wine club?
  • Are there segments of consumers who are more likely to join a wine club? Who are they?
  • How important are non-local members, and how can you make your club a better experience for them?
  • How do shipping costs effect the wine club purchasing dynamic?

If you have asked yourself these questions and want to learn how to differentiate your wine club from your competitors, reach out to me at Merrill Research to learn more about our wine club study, and how you can benefit from talking to your own club members. In the meantime, take a look at our Wine Club Members at a Glance infographic to start you on your journey of creating the best wine club for your members.

Just Ask Amy is Amy Walters, Vice President of the food and beverage practice at Merrill Research. Amy has more than two decades of experience working in wine and spirits, foods, and technology. The foundation for Amy’s deep passion for consumer research was based on a wide variety of research projects she conducted in support of the largest, most recognizable wine and spirits, foods, and other consumer category companies in the world. If you have any questions for Amy, you can send her an email at awalters at jonathand149.sg-host.com.

You have a great wine club. Let Merrill Research help you make it even better.

Merrill Research, Experience You Can Count On

Filed Under: David Schneer, Grapes & Grain, Research, Wine Clubs Tagged With: blog, wine, wine clubs, Wine Industry, Wine Research

WINE INDUSTRY COMPETITION: Making Your Wine Club all it can be.

October 10, 2018 by Rich Stimbra

By David M. Schneer, Ph.D.

Wine. It is the elixir of the gods. It is the stuff of poems.  It is a very competitive multi-billion dollar industry.  With so many different wineries and wines to choose from it has become imperative for wineries to inspire loyalty from their customers once acquired.  We all know it is much more efficient to keep an existing customer than to spend resources finding new ones.

ENTER THE WINE CLUBS

Wine clubs began in the 1970’s and, in the new millennium, have provide a much-needed boost to the bottom line for thousands of wineries. Today, it is practically unheard of for a winery not to have one.  The clubs inspire new customers to invest in a relationship with the winery both monetarily and emotionally and to have that relationship grow over time.  Wine clubs work, but with so much competition and with savvy customers expecting different perks for joining a club, wineries must now work double time to cultivate the winery/customer relationship to keep members continually interested and not thinking about leaving.

EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT WINE CLUBS

At Merrill Research we get that there is a lot of competition by wine clubs for member attention and we also get that understanding more about how wine clubs are currently run and how they can run better will maximize membership retention.  We conducted deep research among wine club members and created a now-available report to help you understand:

  • Why do members choose to join a wine club?
  • Are they satisfied with their wine club experience?
  • What motivates them to stay?
  • Why do they leave?
  • How can you win them back?

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Beyond providing access to great wine, the wine club member’s experience with the club is the key to a long and fulfilling relationship.

Our report Wine Club Dynamics 2018 will provide you with the valuable information you need to grow your wine club membership and keep existing members happy.  Here is just a taste of some of the information you will receive in the report:

  • What wine club members buy, how much they buy, and where they buy it
  • Ideas on how to get and keep current, lapsed, and never before members
  • Unique characteristics of Napa Valley club members
  • Insight on why members join, rejoin, and leave a club
  • Three unique wine club consumer segments that explain
    • Motivation for why people in each segment stay in wine clubs
    • Price point sweet spots
    • Number of preferred shipments per year
  • Wine club members’ advice to wineries
  • Ideas to develop and enhance your relationship with members

You have a great wine club. Let Merrill Research help you make it even better.

Download the Wine Club Dynamics 2018 Report Today

Merrill Research, Experience You Can Count On

Filed Under: David Schneer, Research Tagged With: blog, David Schneer, wine, wine clubs, Wine Industry

Electronics and Wine, an Unlikely Pairing: The Merrill Research Story

August 16, 2018 by Rich Stimbra

By David M. Schneer, Ph.D.

Welcome. We’re launching a new blog here at Merrill to spread our story to more people, in a different format, and in greater detail. We anticipate this will also be a good way to share more research-related information about our two abiding passions—technology and wine and spirits.

We’ve weathered the ups and downs in both industries and have learned that the same problems we study at Merrill in one market are often similar to those in another. These similarities allow us to move quickly, effectively and with little learning curve. We’ve applied these learnings to countless projects across the travel, banking, healthcare, and other industries as well.

Technology and wine might seem an incongruous pair at first glance, we’ll admit, and If you didn’t know us better, it would be easy to think of us as an anomaly. For example, one of our key areas of expertise—high technology, has only existed since the mid-twentieth century and tends to have product life cycles ranging from 6 to 18 months. In the wine business—our other expertise—it’s just the opposite. Mankind has been making wine for roughly 4,000 years, and some leading brands are over one hundred years old and ticking, and cyclicality is also part of the wine industry; explains Merrill Research Founder Pat Merrill, “Varietals go up and down in popularity, but really don’t go away.”

These two industries have more in common than you might think, starting with the concentration of each as an industry in Northern California. From our headquarters in San Mateo, we’re literally well-positioned to share the deep expertise we’ve developed over the last three-plus decades in both domains, so to speak—Napa Valley to Silicon Valley.

We’ve learned as market researchers that the technology and the alcohol industry also share some big similarities as do the techniques we use to help solve their problems. Consider the similarities between the wine and semiconductor industries:

– There’s complex science behind both. Winemaking is really all a matter of chemistry, while electronics manufacturers are marvels of physics, computer science and chemistry too.

– Both have highly specialized manufacturing processes. With its clean rooms and highly specialized tooling, semiconductor manufacturing is one of the most sophisticated industrial processes there is. In winemaking, vintners obsess over barrels, aging, the vagaries of grape cultivation; also, much fretting is done about closures, bottle shape, color, crown, and label design. Winemakers may not don chipmaker “bunny suits,” but their environment certainly needs to be clean.

– Both can generate incredible profits or losses. A modern semiconductor plant costs enormous capital daily to operate. When business is good, the chip market is a money-making goldmine. However, when plants are idle, it can lead to a financial bloodbath.

Similarly, with a good vintage and positive demographics, the wine industry can flourish. But with changes in the environment (e.g., drought, pests, fungi, wildfires) or demographics, it’s often said the best way to make a small fortune in the wine business is to start with a large one.

–Both industries show incredible innovation and change: The semiconductor technology is poking Moore’s Law in the eyes, enabling products with astonishing power and smarts. The wine industry continues to evolve, albeit more slowly, from corks to enclosures, from bottles to boxes.

Why should this matter to you? In 1986 we formed Merrill Research to support new product development and communications initiatives for many of the great products introduced over the years, from components to software and PCs, from laser printers to smart phones, from digital television technology to medical electronic products, to travel and banking services, and, of course, alcoholic beverages.

Looking ahead, the coming years are likely to be filled with even more varied change. And if current events are any indication, the velocity and volatility of that change will be even greater with even more products and services becoming more integral and intertwined.

So, why write a blog at all? Not only have we been exposed to a lot, we’ve done a lot. From package evaluation to advertising tracking, development and evaluation, to new product development and ethnography. We think we have some useful things to share. Paul Wiefels, Managing Director of The Chasm Group, and one of our ecosystem partners, once told a client the following about his company’s experience, echoing the well-known Farmers Insurance ads: “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.”

We’d say the same here at Merrill Research.

We can help you stay ahead of the curve.

Come check us out.

Merrill Research – Experience You Can Count On!

Filed Under: David Schneer, News Tagged With: blog, David Schneer, Electronics, wine

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