These days, companies that are marketing to a younger crowd often employ something called “street teams.” These teams are made up of groups of young people in the company’s target demographic that are paid to take a product out on the streets or any place where their customers are, and show it, use it, and talk about it to others in an attempt to stir up interest and sales.

Wineries can take advantage of this same tactic to help promote their brands to potential new customers. It’s as simple as effectively offering branded merchandise to visitors in tasting rooms.

“Once the wine is drunk and the bottle recycled, your customers could easily forget you,” said Vanessa Topper of TopNest Designs in Northern California. “If they take home a decanter or corkscrew with your winery’s name on it, chances are they’ll remember you.”

Most tasting rooms today sell merchandise along with their wine. These items for sale include things like ... read the rest of the article.

More Fans – More Interactions – More Sales

Why do we want more fans?

Every time a fan comments, “likes” or interacts with your fan page there is a good chance it will be broadcasted to the News Feed of all of their Facebook Friends. Lots of interactions will signal to Facebook that this is important information and it will be included on a fan’s News Feed. Each fan can have hundreds or even thousands of Friends. If only 10 of your fans interact with an event notice, photo, video or simple text type message, that information can show up on thousands of peoples Facebook News Feeds — and can be furthered shared with multiple levels of additional friends. This is how your information, special offer or call to action, can go “viral” spreading quickly to many people.

Seven Ways to Grow Your Facebook Fans

1. Have multiple influential users invite all of their friends to become fans of the page. If you can get 20 people each to invite 100 users, and encourage these users to invite their own friends, your fans will quickly grow. Use incentives if necessary – contests, rewards for joining, etc.
2. Leverage your other online resources including email lists, websites, blogs and any other place you have a digital presence. Start to call them to action to join your fan page. Add Facebook links to the homepage of your websites, add a link in employee emails, place links in your email and newsletter marketing. The key is to funnel enough subscribers to the page where a natural cycle of growth begins by virtue of more people becoming fans.
3. Leverage your “offline” media. Include promotions and calls to action in your printed advertising, brochures, press releases and telephone messages.
4. Make special announcements on Facebook first creating a place for the most up-to-date information. Give people a reason to Like you!
5. Offer “exclusive to Facebook Fans” discounts and invitations. This can be done with coupon codes, mentions in your tasting room or business or using QR codes or matrix barcodes. (To get a free QR code for your business, contact us.)
6. Consider targeted Facebook and Google advertising. This can give your page a quick boost of fans. Targeted ads focus on your potential customers.
7. Continually update page content. More content on the page is going to be more content for users to interact with. Users’ consistently engaging with fresh content is the key component to growth. By reaching into the news streams of individual users your brand can start to grow fast if your content is worth reacting to.

Don’t forget to leverage the new Facebook Timeline format. Communicate directly with Fans, promote your brand with custom pages and sell wine and wine industry products via Facebook!

Winery Advisor – Social Media Development, Internet Marketing, Online Advertising, Mobile Websites
info@wineryadvisor.com  | 805.543.1363  |  1241 Johnson Ave. #230  |  San Luis Obispo, CA 93401

“Wine Flavor Management Through Science and Technology” is the topic of an intensive winemaker workshop series offered at four different locations throughout California this April.

The seminar is a joint effort between Beverage Supply Group, distributor of the Phyterra Yeast, a strain that eliminates specific wine defects, and ConeTech, provider of the Spinning Cone Column technology, a system that uses vacuum distillation to extract and manage alcohol levels in wine.

Doug Manning, Sales Manager of Beverage Supply Group, is excited about the cutting-edge research and development both companies will be sharing with winemakers throughout the series – and about the revolutionary advances Phyterra Yeast brings to the winemaking process.

“After two years of trials, 230 wineries and 600 fermentations, we now have a statistically valid sample with which to evaluate this exciting yeast, “ Manning says of his product. “Phyterra Yeast, when used as a dominant strain absolutely eliminates hydrogen sulfite during fermentation.”

Stephanie Goss, ConeTech’s Sales and Marketing Manager, is similarly eager to share the benefits of the Spinning Cone Column technology with winemakers seeking to lower alcohol levels in their wines for either flavor or tax purposes.

“It’s a purely subtractive process that allows for the removal of unwanted characteristics such as alcohol,” Goss explains. “The fruit can be harvested at full phenolic ripeness without worrying about all those sugars turning into alcohol.  There’s no loss of flavor or of the components you want – just less of what you don’t want.”

Goss says one of the benefits of the Spinning Cone Column is that it allows winemakers to come in and taste their wines at different alcohol levels until they find their “sweet spot” – the place where the alcohol and flavor are perfectly balanced. 

Goss is also excited to announce the opening of a new ConeTech facility   on the Central Coast early this summer.

The  “Focus on Flavor” seminars will be held from 8 am to 12 pm on:

•   Wednesday April 11, 2012: Courtside Cellars, San Miguel, CA
•   Wednesday April 18, 2012: Napa Valley College, Trefethen Building, Napa, CA
•   Thursday April 19, 2012: Dry Creek Inn, Healdsburg, CA
•   Friday April 20, 2012: Hampton Inn & Suites, Lodi, CA 

Contact Information
For more information and registration contact:

Doug Manning, Beverage Supply Group, Sales Manager (707) 252-2550, dmanning@rahr.com

Stephanie Goss, ConeTech, Sales and Marketing Manager

(707) 577-7500, smgoss@conetech.com

Your top financial officer just quit and left you with a gaping hole in the management team. Your winemaker just told you she’s moving to New Zealand at the end of the month. You had to let your sales manager go because he can’t get along with the rest of the staff.

What do you do now?

In the past, many winery owners just sat down, wrote up a want ad and put it in the newspaper or on Craig’s List hoping the right person would see it and respond. This typically resulted in dozens of phone calls getting in the way of normal business, and dozens of resumes flooding the fax machine. Somebody then had to stop whatever it is they normally do in order to sort through all the applicants and try to choose which ones to call back for an interview. Then somebody had to schedule and conduct the interviews, a process that could take weeks.

In the meantime, all the work that would normally be getting done is piling up because of the distractions of the hiring process, including the work of the unfilled position.

Today, instead of do-it-yourself hiring, many savvy winery owners are utilizing the expertise of professional recruitment firms, saving them time, money, and headaches. Recruiting firms typically charge a percentage of the salary paid to the new hire in a one-time fee, and most offer a guarantee that if the employee does not work out within a certain period of time, the firm will either find a replacement or offer a prorated refund. This gives the recruiting firms an incentive to make sure they place the right candidate in the right position.

According to Carolyn Silvestri, partner at The Personnel Perspective, a recruiting firm in Santa Rosa, California, on average it takes 90 to 120 days to perform recruitment, develop a sourcing plan, obtain a resume pool, assess the candidates, do the interviews and select a candidate. If your employee gave you a two-week notice, this can seem an eternity.

With a professional recruiter, not only do wineries save time, but management staff and workers can continue doing their regular duties without distractions.

“A winery can benefit greatly by using a recruitment firm,” said Derek Stefan, winery recruitment specialist at Nelson Wine Executive Search in Santa Rosa, California. “It creates very strong opportunities for the owners to benefit from the expertise of a recruiter who knows the market. The recruiter can have people ready when you need them, reference checked, background checked and prepared to go. It’s a cost savings. You don’t have to worry about all of that; it’s done for you.”

According to Silvestri, 80 percent of employee turnover is based on mistakes made during the hiring process; using a professional placement firm can greatly improve your success.

“We’re dedicated full time to doing nothing but finding the best people for the wine industry,” said Margaret Baez of Recruiting Associates Network in Santa Rosa, California. “We’re mining talent five days a week, sometimes more. When using a recruiter, wineries are exposed to candidates they wouldn’t see otherwise.”

Making a bad hire can compound problems and cause a winery owner to have to repeat the laborious process of replacing the employee yet again.

“When you open a job up to just anybody, you never know who is going to walk through the door,” said Norm Mitroff, owner of Mitroff Consulting & Associates in St. Helena, California. “You may get a hundred people responding. Maybe three or four are qualified. When we seek a candidate, we don’t just throw an ad out there. We actually go out and recruit.”

There is an art to interviewing, and those with limited interviewing skills may find themselves at a loss when it comes to deciding which candidate is the best fit. Many recruitment firms will do the interviews as part of their service. The winery owner often sits in on the interviews. They can relax and observe the process, and not have to remember what questions to ask.

There is more to consider than a candidate’s paper qualifications. Does he or she fit with the culture of the company? Will your candidate get along with the person who will supervise them?

“A good recruiter meets with the manager that the new employee will be reporting to in order to understand not only the position, but the personalities involved,” said Silvestri. “We always take the time to find out what your culture, environment, and management style is so you can feel one-hundred percent confident. These factors can increase the likelihood of hiring the right person by seventy-five percent.”

Mitroff agreed. “We believe that clients can not afford to make a bad hire,” he said. “It is possible to train and develop skills within an executive, but near impossible to ‘fix’ someone’s attitude. Hence, Mitroff Consulting & Associates emphasizes the potential candidate’s fit not only with their skill set match to the position, but equally important, the candidate’s cultural and attitude fit to that of the client.”

In addition, a recruiting firm can help winery owners with the final decision process and help negotiate compensation. These sometimes-sticky areas can be difficult to navigate for the untrained or inexperienced.

Recruiters who have been in the business for a long time have contracts throughout the industry and are often able to reach out to candidates that the typical winery owner would never be able to contact. Professional, experienced recruiters know who is currently working where, who is available, who is qualified, and who may be looking for other opportunities.

“We always go back to the basics,” said Baez. “Technology has changed, but nothing will ever take the place of human relationships. People want to do business with people they trust and know. We learn the motivations and qualifications of potential candidates in advance for our clients and that saves everyone time and money.”

Confidentiality is the watchword when it comes to reaching these candidates. The best recruiters can quietly and confidentially search the available talent pool and contact those they deem best suited for the position.

There are two types of recruiters: contingency firms and retained firms. A contingency firm only gets paid if a winery hires a candidate they provided. This is incentive for them to present as many candidates as possible to as many wineries as possible, hoping for a fit.

A retained firm earns their fee no matter what happens, and so can take the time to dig a little deeper and find the exact right candidate for each situation.

“If you have the wrong person in a critical position his or her attitude can permeate the whole organization,” said Stefan. “It pays to hire a firm that understands exactly what your business is looking for so you only see the best candidates. We can help you understand why a person didn’t work out, and help prevent it from happening again.”

According to statistics provided by The Personnel Perspective, a top performer produces 48 percent more than an average producer. That means a manager making $80,000 a year who is not a top performer is costing the business $38,000 a year.

If you have an opening but don’t have time to advertise, interview, and screen applicants, a professional recruiter can help make finding that perfect employee a reality.

Learn more about Wine Industry Recruiment & Staffing Companies:

• Alkar Human Resources
• Mitroff Consulting & Associates
• Nelson Wine Executive Search
• Recruiting Associates Network
• Straight Edge Staffing
• The Personnel Perspective

Writers: Dr. Janeen Olsen and Dr. Liz Thach, MW, SSU Wine Business Institute
Printable PDF Version

Is a new press, a wine label design change, or a purchase of fifty new French barrels in your future? If so, how do you and other winery executives determine which supplier to use in order to achieve the highest quality product or service at a cost-effective price?

Positive supplier relationships have always been important in the wine industry, but even more so during tough economic times. With increased global competition and pressure to reduce costs, wineries often scrutinize suppliers more closely to obtain better pricing. At the same time, long-standing relationships are also a primary consideration. So what factors really drive a winery’s decision in supplier selection?

Some of the answers can be found in the results of a new study completed by the Wine Business Institute at Sonoma State University. An online survey was sent to wineries across the US, and the 117 respondents shed some light on factors impacting winery supplier choice.

About the Responding Wineries

Respondents to the survey were primarily winery owners, winemakers, and purchasing managers. The average number of years in business for all wineries was around 15, with a larger percentage (60%) of wineries located in California. Size of winery based on case production included 74% at less than 10,000 cases, 15% between 10,000 and 50,000 cases and 11% producing more than 50,000 cases.

Methods Wineries Use to Find A Good Supplier?

Survey results show that wineries use a variety of methods to identify and research potential suppliers. Figure 1 illustrates that word of mouth is seen as very important or extremely important by (67%), followed by the Internet (44%), trade shows (26%), industry organizations (15%), print publications (9%), and finally social media (5%). The greatest change over previous years appear to be a greater emphasis on the Internet and soc ial media as research tools, and slightly less emphasis on print media and trade shows.

Figure 1: How Wineries Identify Suppliers

What Are the Most Important Factors in Selecting a Supplier?

While pricing is a driver for evaluating new suppliers, it isn’t seen as the only critical factor in the purchase decision. Indeed, as illustrated in Figure 2, high quality

Figure 2: Important Criteria in Selecting Suppliers

products/services were seen as an important criterion in selecting a supplier by all wineries (100%). This is followed by excellent customer service (98.1%) and on-time delivery (96.1%). Low price was rated as an important factor by 80% of the wineries.

Interestingly, while only 14.6% of the respondents felt that a price increase would cause them to change suppliers, 41.7% felt a decrease in quality and 33.0% felt that poor

customer service would cause them to look elsewhere. Over 70% of the respondents felt that they should increase the number of suppliers as a way to become more competitive in the marketplace. On the other hand, almost 30% felt decreasing the number of suppliers would help them compete more effectively. For those who said they wanted to increase the number of suppliers they used, the areas in which they hoped to add suppliers were: packaging and bottling supplies (58%), winemaking supplies (50%), grape sourcing (38%), and legal/compliance advice (13%).

How Often Do Wineries Evaluate Their Suppliers?

More than half the wineries (52.1%) reported that they evaluate their suppliers on a yearly basis, with 35.9% evaluating every 2-3 years. However 66.4% said they will re-evaluate suppliers more frequently when market conditions are tough, such as the economic recession of 2008-2011. The vast majority of the wineries (92%) identified the primary reason for re-evaluating suppliers is driven by the desire for better pricing.

The Importance of Suppliers in Providing a Competitive Edge

Figure 3: Do the right suppliers help you maintain a competitive edge?

Survey participants were asked to respond to the question: “Do you think the right suppliers help your winery maintain a competitive edge?” As illustrated in Figure 3, a large percentage (67%) of the winery executives responded “absolutely” or “quite a bit” to this statement. 21% said “somewhat” and 10% reported “a little bit.” Only 2% of respondents stated that suppliers did not help them maintain a competitive edge.

In terms of examples of suppliers supporting winery business success, following are quotations from some of the winery executives:

A new label company won the award for our Fall bottling. Their unit price was lower, and quality and delivery time frame was wonderful. Our products now remain competitive in a very tight market.

We switched capsule suppliers to a domestic producer. They provided improved delivery times and pricing.

Pricing is the obvious answer, but the fact that I have run into absolutely horrible customer service from one supplier led me to seek another supplier for most of our wine making equipment.

A supplier offered me unique items that few others had at the time. They were tailored to my winery theme.

Implications for Winery Suppliers and Wineries

This study suggests several implications for both suppliers and wineries. In terms of suppliers, they need to recognize the new role the Internet and social media are playing in terms of wineries’ supplier selection process. Though not the primary source of information for wineries, it is definitely growing in importance. Therefore, suppliers should make sure the information on their websites is accurate, timely and provides useful data. In addition, suppliers may want to expand their use of social media to engage decision makers and encourage word-of-mouth.

Suppliers should also recognize that while being competitive on price has become more important, wineries still look for quality products, on-time delivery and customer service in making the final purchase decision. Reducing service in any of these areas as a way to lower prices will not likely lead to long-term success.

The main implication resulting from this study, is a clearer understanding of how wineries are managing supplier relationships to support their business strategy. Wineries should recognize that evaluating suppliers on a more regular basis, using new Internet and social media tools for research as well as relying on traditional sources of information, and deciding whether to increase or decrease the number of suppliers do appear to help with competiveness.

About the Authors:

Dr. Janeen Olsen (janeen.olsen@sonoma.edu) is a Professor of Marketing and Wine Business. Dr. Liz Thach, MW (liz.thach@sonoma.edu) is a Professor of Management and Wine Business. Both work full-time in Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute.

Dr. Janeen Olsen

Dr. Liz Thach, MW

Acknowledgements:

The authors would like to acknowledge the help of George Christie, Wine Industry Network, and the following Sonoma State University wine MBA students who participated in the research study: Jacob Avery, Sierra Burch, Katherine Doran, Palmer Emmit, Andrea Gonzalez, Kendall Hoxsey, Jody Jurgens, Gabriel Magee, Nicholas Rood, Regina Sanz, Regina Scurich, Michael Sipiora and Howard Wang.

A Wine-Drenched Life
Sue Straight, AKA, The Wine Wench®
Writer: Jim Brumm
 
Sue describes herself as a rustic, medium-bodied, slightly-aged-yet-still-enjoyable woman who loves wine and loves to share it with friends and family. She approaches her wine reviews the same way.

A woman sits across from me at a local coffee shop in Santa Rosa, California. She is animated and upbeat. As usual, she is talking about wine, and as usual, her story ends with a laugh and I can’t help laughing along.

“I think people take wine way too seriously,” she is saying. “I think that wine should be fun.” She goes on to tell a story of filling her bathtub with red wine and bathing in it. I form a mental picture of this . . .

Meet Sue Straight, AKA the Wine Wench®. Sue is not your typical wine reviewer/writer/taster. Sue is not your typical person.

Born in Santa Monica, California, Sue grew up in the San Fernando Valley (and she does a mean “valley girl” imitation). Living on a small ranch with her family, she said she was “riding before I was born.” As a girl she wanted to be a horse veterinarian when she grew up, but that was not to be.

“I’m a failed Jewish American Princess,” she said, laughing. “I was always too bohemian to fit into that world.”

After high school she worked for a while at a veterinarian hospital in southern California and met and married a man who was both a farrier and a musician. Sue trained horses during the day and waitressed at night. She would roller skate down Ventura Boulevard to work each day. (At one point she was offered a chance to try out for the Los Angeles Thunderbirds roller derby team, but that’s another story.)

In 1981 Sue moved to Healdsburg, in northern California’s Sonoma County. One evening, while working as a waitress, a regular customer who managed a nearby tasting room offered Sue a job at her winery. “I thought, okay . . . I like wine,” said Sue, with a smile. She accepted the position and fell into the world of wine. She never looked back.

There she met the woman who would mentor her into a life of wine. Winemaker Carol Shelton asked Sue to help with some wine tastings. “I got to taste and write up descriptions,” said Sue. “Carol noticed that I had a palate, that I could taste subtle flavors in the wines that others missed.” Carol took Sue under her wing and eventually invited her to be a judge on a wine tasting panel. Sue did her first wine judging in 1985, at the Cloverdale Citrus Fair, which has since evolved into the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. She is now a regular wine judge for that competition as well as the El Dorado County Fair, Pacific Rim, and others.

Sue has tenaciously pursued her love of wine, and of sharing that love with others. For five years she wrote a column on wine for the San Diego Union Tribune where she developed a following of loyal readers. In 2001 she hosted a wine-related show on two Sonoma County radio stations, KHBG in Healdsburg, and KRSH in Santa Rosa. On these shows she did live, on-air tastings and interviewed winemakers from the region. It was while doing radio one day that a friend first dubbed her with the moniker “Wine Wench®.”

“I tend to be irreverent and lusty,” said Sue. “Hence, the Wine Wench® is a title that suits me perfectly!”

From the beginning Sue approached her work with a different attitude from what people had come to expect from wine reviewers. Instead of dry, traditional wine-speak, Sue infuses her reviews with wit, banter, and irreverent analogies, all of which add up to fun reading, along with great information on the latest wines available on the market.

Here’s how she described one wine: “Slightly sweet and totally refreshing, like Drew Barrymore sitting on a picnic blanket in a sunlit field of wildflowers, wearing nothing but a crown of daisies in her hair.” (I’d buy that wine.)

And another: “Picture Lenny Kravitz lounging in his bedroom, wearing black leather pants and eating ripe blackberries.”

“I love what I do,” said Sue with a grin. “I lead a wine-drenched life.”

Sue feels that instead of wine being something lofty and cerebral, it should be accessible, fun, and a part of everyday life.

“Wine is unabashedly sensuous,” she said. “It smells good, it tastes good, it enhances your daily life, and it’s good for you.” She laughed and added, “It’s always an adventure!”

In 2008 Sue started her blog, www.wine-wench.com in order to, as she put it, “to gently educate the wine-glugging masses; to bring the tasting room to the Internet.” She is available to taste and rate wines for anyone. Rating on a scale of one to five stars, she only publishes ratings of three stars or above on the blog so everything you find there will be good.

Over the past 30 years Sue had been a part of the wine industry doing, as she put it, “whatever a Wine Wench® can do,” from managing tasting rooms and wine clubs, helping with crush, event planning, judging wine competitions, consulting, writing, and more. Today Sue is director of sales and marketing for J. Rickards Winery in Cloverdale, California, where her enthusiasm, energy, and excitement have greatly increased wine sales since she came onboard a short time ago. She is also a regular editorial contributor to the magazine Wine Country This Week.

Soon, in addition to wine tasting, her Web site will offer Wine Wench® products, from tee-shirts to wine glasses. She also offers a new service she calls “Back Label Girl™,” in which she helps wineries with the writing on their back labels to help sell their wines. As if all that weren’t enough, Sue is a talented blues harmonica player, and performs regularly around Sonoma County with her band, Wine Wench & Friends.

But her first love is always the wine. With her unique, refreshing, and sometimes cheeky approach, Sue Straight—the Wine Wench®—is helping to demystify wine and share it with a wider audience. She has made wine fun again.

To contact Sue, or to submit wines for review, visit her web site at  http://www.wine-wench.com

If you didn't visit us yesterday at UWGS booth #1820, we hope to see you today. Come by and meet Nick, Dan, Elizabeth and George, view our site demo and find out about some of the new supplier member programs we have to offer! We look forward to seeing you there!

Direct-to-Consumer Sales 
Are you getting all you can from your tasting room? 
Writer: Jim Brumm 

The most profitable way to sell wine has always been to sell it directly to the consumer. When you add middlemen such as distributors and retailers, the margins shrink as each takes their share of the profit off the top. For most wineries, especially smaller ones, this means that their primary hub of profitability is the tasting room.

For visitors wandering through wine country, whether in California, Virginia, Oregon of some of the other emerging wine regions across the country, the tasting room is often their first exposure to your winery. They come in because they saw a sign from the road, an ad in a magazine or a referral from a friend. If they don’t already know your wines they will be open—open to learning something new and having fun, and open to perhaps discovering a new favorite wine, one that will keep them coming back for years. The question is, are you doing everything possible during your customer’s visit to maximize the current and future selling opportunities?

What can be done to increase direct-to-consumer sales, and the healthier profits they bring? According to Tammy Boatright, owner of VingDirect, the first thing to evaluate is whether or not the winery is achieving its financial goals. “If they are, that’s a good indication they’re meeting their own expectations,” she said. “At some point however, they’ll need to measure their performance against their peers. It’s very important to set a benchmark and compare themselves against wineries of like size and in the same general location.”

Often wineries, like other small businesses, can lose sight of the big picture while trying to deal with the day-to-day business of keeping the doors open. “We sometimes find a disconnect in wineries that want to grow their direct-to-consumer sales but continue doing what they’ve always done while expecting different results,” said Boatright. “But it takes planning to be successful.”

The urge to discount in troubled times is tempting and difficult to resist, but it can end up cutting deeply into profits and threatening future sales as well. Elizabeth Slater, owner of In Short Direct Marketing, said that “Often when things aren’t selling fast enough the first thing wineries will do is offer discounts. But when they do this they are training consumers to only buy at discounted prices. Almost everyone offers case discounts; that’s fine. But when you start doing fifty-percent off sales you might as well have a tattoo on your forehead that says, we don’t think our wine is worth full retail.”

Instead of discounting individual bottle prices, said Slater, you can add value. She pointed out that wineries can give people things that will add value without reducing the wine price. For example, if you buy a case, you’ll get invited to the next winery event, or you’ll get two free wine glasses or a corkscrew. Or if you join the wine club your tasting is free. It’s a way to add value, but not on the back of your wine prices.

“If you give them a glass or a corkscrew it goes into a different place in their brains,” said Slater. “You’re doing something nice for them—it’s a gift and can inspire them to reciprocate.

The very best thing a winery can do to help increase direct-to-consumer sales is to capture their visitors’ contact information when they come to the tasting room, according to Sheri Hebbeln, director of marketing at WineDirect. “You’ll want to be sure that you can re-market to people who are visiting, so you need to get their contact information,” she said. “Once you have that you can reach out to them later with loyalty programs and special offers.”

Slater agreed. “If you get nothing else, get their email address and phone number so you can contact them. Just because they didn’t buy something when they were there it doesn’t mean they won’t buy something later. But they sure as heck won’t buy if you can’t find them.”

In order to increase their direct-to-consumer sales, many wineries are going outside of the industry for help with consulting, sales training, point-of-sale software programs and other professional help. Although most have been slow to get on board, many wineries are putting more emphasis on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. It’s actually possible now to sell wine on Facebook.

“We are seeing wineries becoming more strategic and actually focusing more of their budget and other resources on direct-to-consumer sales,” said Boatright. “They are using social media to draw more traffic to the tasting room. When it’s done well it can be successful. In the past, wineries utilized events mainly as a way to reward wine club members or attract attention. They are focusing now on quality, trying to get the ‘right kind of taster’ in the tasting room. The tasting room is still the primary acquisition channel. It all begins there. After they come in you can capture their contact information and that is what drives direct-to-consumer markets.”

Also, clear, definable, goals are essential, as well as a way to be sure those goals are being met. As Slater pointed out, “If you’re selling lots and lots of cases, but you’re discounting them, you may be missing your financial goals.”

There are high-tech systems available through firms such as VingDirect or WineDirect that can help your winery track sales and buying trends, capture customer information, and more. VingDirect offers a dashboard that collects data and statistics from members so they can track current trends through a point of sale system. WineDirect has developed an ecommerce Facebook site and an Ipad app that helps to easily capture visitor information. (Of course, technology aside, nothing beats a great tasting room employee who offers a friendly smile and a warm greeting for visitors.)

When you are able to connect with a customer, capture a customer’s contact information and use that information to skillfully build loyalty, those customers will become your ambassadors. Not only will they continue to buy from you, but they will proudly share their find with friends and family.

To print this article click here…

Writer: Jim Brumm

While few non-lawyers want to deal with the often scary and nearly always confusing world of law, a winery owner may find that a good lawyer who is well versed in winery law may be his or her best friend.

If you are part of a large, well-established winery, it’s likely that you have a good team of lawyers in your corner already. If you are a small, family winery, or just starting out, there are some important legal issues to consider before you make large decisions about your business. The dream of having a vineyard and bottling your very own wine for sale to the public is one many of us can relate to, but making it happen takes more than coming up with a clever name and designing a label.

In fact, let’s start right there-your name, or the name of your wine. Before you invest a lot of money with a graphic artist and a label printer, it will pay to make sure the name is not already being used. Jay Behmke, a partner at the Santa Rosa, California, legal firm of Carle, Mackie, Power & Ross, LLP, pointed out that there are six thousand wineries in the United States, and each has several different brand names for their different wines. “It is worth your while,” he said, “to have experienced, competent people do a trademark and brand search to find out if the name you have in mind is in fact available.”

If you are starting out, the first and perhaps most important thing to consider is how to structure the ownership of your winery. There are several choices ranging from sole proprietorship to partnership to corporation. Each has its own ramifications in the areas of management, sharing of profits and losses, tax liability, continuity, liability, and more. “Anyone who doesn’t set up a legal entity to run their winery is making a mistake,” said Behmke. “There are tax issues that follow each type of legal entity. For example, if you set up your business as a sole proprietor you are taking a big risk. Sometimes it’s very simple, such as a partnership between a husband and a wife; sometimes it’s more complicated. Are you going to be raising money from investors? These decisions apply to all wineries.”

Katherine Philippakis, chair of Farella Braun + Martel, a law firm based in San Francisco, California, pointed out that having an attorney well versed in the ins and outs of the wine industry provides a winery owner with a competitive advantage. “As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That’s very true in the wine business,” she said. “The wine industry is highly specialized. A knowledgeable attorney can spot issues that other attorneys would miss; this can help the owner save money and can save them from missteps that could potentially harm the owner’s business.”

There are many things that winery owners need to consider when it comes to compliance with law. Though it may seem obvious that an attorney’s services would be called upon before getting started, many still take the plunge without legal counsel.

“I have twice run across winery owners who got into the wine business and were happily selling their wine without a permit,” said Behmke. “You need different permits depending on how you are selling your wine. An attorney can help you figure out which permits are necessary.”

Another hot spot is business loans. “Winery owners often enter into business loans without consulting their attorneys first,” said Philippakis. “Business loans are not like residential mortgages; the terms can and should be negotiated by an attorney, particularly the covenants that a borrower must make which should be individually tailored to a winery’s unique situation.”

Contracts are also a potential problem area for winery owners, according to Mark Gladden of Passalacqua, Mazzoni, Gladden, Lopez & Maraviglia, LLP, in Healdsburg, California. “I think many winery owners don’t take a good enough look at contracts for purchasing grapes,” he said. “They can get ‘casual’ with it as time goes by. And sometimes they get into marketing programs but don’t look closely enough at the provisions for getting out of the contract if things don’t work out the way they planned. We can help them with these things.”

Not only is it a good idea to hire an attorney who specializes in the wine business, it’s a good idea to form a relationship with an attorney you trust and who understands your individual business. Every time a winery owner signs a contract, starts a new sales program, creates a new position for hire, negotiates for the sale or purchase of grapes or equipment, or decides to expand his or her business, having a trusted, knowledgeable attorney can be the difference between a smooth transaction and a legal nightmare.

“Someone with experience in winery law will know the animal and understand how best to handle it, and handle it quickly. This saves time and money,” said Gladden.

This doesn’t mean the attorney has to be standing over the owner’s shoulder every minute of every day. But it does mean that setting up your business correctly is something that is best left to someone who understands all the legal points that need to be covered in order to minimize or eliminate future hassles.

The winery business has long been one where many agreements are made with a handshake between neighboring farmers, or growers and buyers that have built trust over the years. This small, intimate, model of doing business has become more difficult as laws and regulations have changed through the years. Trust is good, but even better is a clear, legal agreement that guarantees that both parties know what has been agreed upon, and what to expect in the event of certain contingencies.

Clearly, as with any business, running a winery comes with its full measure of legal issues that must be dealt with correctly if the business is to thrive. Whether it’s a liability issue concerning drunk or underage visitors in your tasting room, negotiating contracts for land or easements, sale or purchase of grapes, hiring and firing of employees, or getting permits for signage, a good attorney who understands the specific issues facing wineries is a must. We may not want to think about legal issues in our daily lives, but when we find ourselves in a pickle, a good attorney may be the reason we are able to stay in business doing what we love.

Some of the other issues that have legal ramifications for wineries are:

1. Land Acquisition
2. Financing/Borrowing
3. Employees/Workers’ Compensation/OSHA
4. Environmental Issues
5. Water Rights
6. License Agreements
7. Construction
8. Business Succession
9. State and Federal Beverage Licensing and Permitting
10. Litigation/Lawsuits

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Wine Industry Trade Show season is fast approaching. For exhibitors, trade shows are an opportunity to showcase new products, advances and innovations, and to connect with thousands of potential new clients (and reconnect with old ones). For attendees, it's a chance to learn what's new and exciting in the industry, attend seminars or workshops to hone your skills or learn new ones, and to rub elbows with others in the industry.

"Technology is really changing the way customers make buying decisions, that's no secret and no one knows that better than us in this industry", says George Christie, President of the Wine Industry Network, "but there's no substitute for what happens when you put a supplier and a buyer in the same room. We attend every show and while they all offer something different, there is one common denominator....they all work like crazy to put prospective buyers in the room"

For exhibitors and attendees alike, trade shows save money. Suppliers can attract hundreds of potential...;read more

We are happy to announce the launch of our new Supplier Spotlight, a direct marketing program exclusive to WIN Members!

The WIN Spotlight provides additional brand awareness and highlights new products, special offers, and general company news. Spotlights are emailed to over 10,000 category specific contacts across North America.

• 300 words of copy & up to three photos
• PDF Version for reprints and repurposing
• Metrics recap

Spotlight Promotional Channels:

• WIN home page exposure
• WIN LINK campaigns
• WIN social media channels:
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Healdsburg, Calif., April 18, 2011 – George Christie, President of The Wine Industry Network (WIN) is pleased to announce the appointment of Nick Young as their new Membership Operations Manager and will be key support for the rapidly expanding industry resource and marketing platform. “Nick has extensive experience with membership retention and customer management. His technical knowledge and proven track record in direct marketing, web design and management will add value to our organization and push our level of customer service over the top,” said George Christie.

Young brings with him a versatile background in marketing, database management and design. He has spent his past five years working as Information Services Director for the Healdsburg Chamber of Commerce, an organization that has experienced tremendous growth and success in recent years. His contributions to the chamber have been numerous including the migration to digital communications, maintenance of database systems, and implementation and maintenance of social networking channels. Additionally, Young is a local Healdsburg native with a rich wine industry heritage as the grandson of Robert Young, renowned winegrower and industry icon.

 Young’s ability to build and maintain customer relationships along with his versatility and resourcefulness were the deciding factors for Christie. “His entrepreneurial spirit was a big plus for me,” says Christie. “I’m looking forward to Nick bringing his strong interpersonal skills, fresh perspective, and energy to WIN.”

 “The Wine Industry Network is breaking new ground in the industry,” said Nick Young. “Their model is extremely exciting and innovative and is a perfect fit for my interest and experience. I am eager to be a part of such a dedicated group of people.”

Visit the Wine Industry Network at booth #238 as we proudly sponsor and participate in Vineyard and Winery Management's Wine Sales Summit - Direct-to-Consumer on April 19th & 20th at the Wells Fargo Center in Santa Rosa, CA. Our very own Elizabeth "E" Slater will be guilding attendees through all facets of wine sales discovery  and the WIN team will be at our booth discussing some of the new member features and programs available on the network.

Join us for a two day event that you won't want to miss!

click here for more info : Wine Sales Summit

March 31, 2011 - The Wine Industry Network (WIN) expanded their foothold on the east coast at this week's highly successful Wineries Unlimited in Richmond, Virginia.  More than half of the attendees visiting  the WIN booth during the event were new wineries that were thrilled with the resource opportunities that the Wine Industry Network presents to the industry.

For more information on how to subscribe or to become a supplier member, click here

The information that WIN provides has become instrumental in the way buyers and suppliers connect in the wine industry. This was apparent by the reception received by WIN and its supplier members at Unified today. "Like every other industry in the world, wine industry buyers are relying on the internet to research products & services before they make a purchase and our goal is to help them  connect with the best suppliers in the industry" says George Christie, President/Founder of Wine Industry Network."

Last year, the 17^thannual Wine Industry Network GUTTERBALL ROCK-A-BOWL CLASSIC TOURNAMENT & FUNRAISER was a near sell out.  Wine industry teams participated from Napa and Sonoma.  Proceeds endow our education fund.

This year’s tournament is on Saturday, February 26th at Napa Bowl. Bowling times are 3:30 PM & 7:00 PM.  As in the past years, dinner is included for each player.  Additional dinners may be purchased for guests.  Rental of bowling shoes is also included.  In addition, there will be plenty of raffle prizes, as well.  Any and all donations for raffle prizes are greatly appreciated.

Please sign up your team(s) for the Rock-A-Bowl fun and dancing in the lanes before we sell out!

Dennis Connolly, Co-Chair; Cell: 738-1137, E-mail: rookie_14us@yahoo.com

Cathy McQueen, Co-Chair, Sutter Home Winery; Cell: 637-3590, E-mail: Queencat28@sbcglobal.net

So how are the new year’s resolutions going? I have already discarded a couple of mine but have high hopes for some of the others.  In addition to making (and subsequently breaking) my resolutions for 2011, I have decided that one resolution that I am very much planning on sticking with is one that encourages me to challenge my assumptions.

We assume so much and create so many phantom rules by which we live, that we end up with a brain full of “facts” that actually are dubious opinions with no real evidence that they are indeed… facts.  Turning opinions or assumptions into facts can be prevalent when you retail staff makes assumptions as to whether visitors to the tasting room are, or are not, going to purchase wine or join the wine club.

Many times visitors walk into a tasting room and the staff sizes them up, deciding that these particular visitors aren’t going to buy anything. Based on these assumptions they don’t talk to visitors in terms that will trigger a buying response or present them with reasons that will make these visitors want to join the wine club.

Create a different outcome when you’re selling wine or wine club memberships. Do it by simply changing your attitude or assumptions. Instead of assuming that your visitors are not going to join the wine club because they probably already belong to too many clubs already, imagine that the visitors to your tasting room that day are planning to join eight different wine clubs and so far they have only joined two.

Our assumptions can just as easily be positive as negative. We really can make it happen. It’s not too late to add one more resolution, especially if you have already broken one, there should be plenty of room.

For a copy Elizabeth Slater's one-page handout:  Challenge Your Assumptions email contact@wineindustrynetwork.com

The WIN Facebook page is one of the channels that we use to engage industry supporters, provide relevant industry news & information, and promote the products & services of our supplier members. We have successfully grown our fan base to 3850 + due to the support of our current fans, friends, & followers and hope to reach our goal of 4000 "fans" by December 31st, 2010. To help us grow, please "like" our page and "share" this with your friends! 

Thanks for your continued support!

Wine Industry Network (WIN) recently appointed industry veteran Dan Eliason as their new Director of Membership Development.  Eliason brings publishing, hospitality & event coordination, and sales & marketing experience to the wine industry B2B website team. Combined with Co-Founders George Christie and Elizabeth Slater, WIN now boasts more than 60 years of wine sales, marketing, educational and administration experience. In the last year, WIN has established itself as the most complete wine business marketing platform and on-line resource connecting industry buyers and suppliers.

A must read new study from Tim Hanni MW and Virginia Utermohlen MD takes an indepth look at taste and smell sentitivity, why the differences matter and why the wine industry could be missing a large number of potential wine consumers. In Beverage Preferences, Attitudes, & Behavior of 'Sweet' vs. 'Tolerant' Wine Consumers, the take-home messages include, "There's a new market opportunity for wine out there: primarly female---but with a significant percentage of males as well---young, adventurous and willing to try new wines---on their own terms."  See the study summary

Online Network Unites Wine Industry Suppliers

Jul 21, 2010 3:06 PM

Thick, heavy directories were once a mainstay for B-to-B marketers trying to reach peers and prospects within their sector. They all had at least one such well-worn book on their desks.

The winery and vineyard business in the United States—going back well more than 100 years in many regions—is no exception. It's a business organized around small, geographic pockets, which puts a heavy marketing burden on the suppliers who are trying to sell equipment and professional services to those firms.

The best way to reach such a diverse audience today, of course, isn't with a tome that becomes outdated even before the ink dries but rather online.

The Wine Industry Network (WIN) is an online marketplace that launched October 2009 to help foster a sense of community in the industry. "In the old print directories, there just wasn't enough information to make an informed buying decision," says George Christie, a long-time wine industry marketer who founded the site. "Now, they can have the whole market in front of them in one place."

About 175 wine industry suppliers—everyone from what Christie calls the "bottle, barrel and cork guys" to attorneys and accountants providing professional services—now have profiles listed at wineindustrynetwork.com. Some of them are small companies with few marketing resources and less marketing acumen. Others are big corporations, but looking for a venue where they can appeal to a focused customer niche.

The WIN has four categories: winemaking and production; vineyards; professional services and operations; and sales and marketing. Visitors to the Web site sign up for e-newsletters distributed every other week that are aimed at their specific categories. The newsletters contain the logos and information from suppliers that fit the particular category. As of June, the WIN had about 17,000 of the sector suppliers' B-to-B customer targets signed up, including 12,000 alone in the winemaking and vineyard categories.

Vino by the Numbers: The Metrics of B-to-B Networking

Suppliers pay monthly dues to be listed on the site, ranging from $45 per month for a basic membership to $90 per month to be highlighted in multiple product search categories.

Christie said the WIN builds its subscriber and member lists not only through direct site visits but also by signing up wine industry members at trade shows, via social media and even by phone. Ultimately, Christie knows the top thing B-to-B suppliers in his sector are looking for is proof of return on investment, which he is more than happy to provide by making site metrics and reports available to them.

Information on monthly reports includes:

 

• Number of clicks per month on a supplier profile.
• How many site visitors found a profile by searching for products and services.
• Top items searched.
• Number of pages clicked overall.
• If a visitor found the site via a newsletter.

Christie said many people advised him against providing too much information about the site's effectiveness, but "to me, one of the benefits of the Internet is you can provide transparency. With print marketing, you often don't know who is seeing you."

Top-Shelf Ideas: Tips on B-to-B Community Building
 
Christie offered some thoughts on what you should keep in mind if considering creating your own niche B-to-B networking community.

1. Online, even small guys can look big. Smaller suppliers can achieve a greater reach online and be listed in close proximity to larger competitors

2. Big guys can look small too. In sectors like the wine industry, Christie says, big companies can benefit from looking like smaller, more intimate operations ready to make their customers feel like part of the family.

3. Social media is often free but has indirect costs: Leaping into places like Facebook and LinkedIn is free upfront, but the indirect cost comes in the ability to maintain and frequently update your social media presence.

4. Have realistic expectations. The WIN, for example, is a B-to-B marketplace focused on a defined sector, so monthly clicks are not going to number into the thousands. "If 30 to 50 people have clicked on your logo in a given month, then you are doing fine. The people who need to see you are seeing you."