Evelyne Resnick, author of
Wine Brands (great book) has a blog post about
promoting collective brands:
One of the most interesting challenges for a wine marketer is promoting a collective brand. Champagne was certainly the most successful example of such a strategy: it is now synonymous with party, special occasion and pleasure. Unfortunately we know it backfired: consumers don't see Champagne as an everyday drink but more as the special drink open for a specific event. High prices, down economy and depressed consumers halted the trend.
The second side effect of this collective promotion was the emergence of a few internationally recognized brands and a lot of brands left in the shadow of the leaders. That's at least what a lot of smaller Champagne producers complained about. It's the case also in other areas where an umbrella brand is carried to the front. But is it really the case? Wasn't there a missing step in the Champagne smaller producers' strategy?I see two different ways this type of collective branding occurs. The first occurs in homogenous regions like Champagne and Bordeaux, where the style of wine is similar across all producers. In this case, I think Bordeaux has actually done a better job of marketing its brand then Champagne has.
While I agree with Evelyne that Champagne has done a great job of associating itself with special occasions. I think Bordeaux has done a better job of associating itself with good wine. of course, like Champagne, it is has also come to be associated with expensive wines. Hopefully that will change with campaigns like
Enjoy Bordeaux that highlight some of the more affordable Bordeaux wines while still focusing on the quality of those wines.
But, I also see the collective branding in emerging wine regions. For example, Loudoun County has its
DC's Wine Country Campaign, the Winegrowers of the Grand River Valley in Ohio have
Ohio Wines, Love at First Sip, and Georgian Wines have the
Georgian Wine House.
These efforts are different because they aren't marketing a style of wine, instead the focus is on the region. All of these regions boast wine producers with a variety of types and styles of wine. I think this makes it hard to associate these regions with a type of wine, instead they work as a destination, or a new region to explore.
Labels: blogs, Bordeaux, Georgia, Grand River Valley, Loudoun