So many wineries to visit, so many wines to drink… Where to start? Robert Joseph’s, Reka Haros, Damien Wilson, Rebecca Hopkins and Cathy Huyghe‘s Wine Communication presentation at VINEXPO shared tips on how to drive a wine brand up the billboard and get rocking on the main stage. Watching the presentation online reinforced some well-known facts and brought many new understandings. Click to the following link to read more. www.slideshare.net/mobile/robertjoseph/30-lessons

Wine marketing advice via VINEXPO 2015:

• Know your base-line value and address these values in marketing material.
• Take note of your competition’s communication and marketing.
• Use the wine bottle and the label to communicate with the consumer.
• Include the website on all communication and size it up.
• Ensure that there is a call to action on your packaging.
• Know your audience and design your website (and other material) for your audience.
• Different markets with different languages/cultures/ages? Change your melody or instruments for a better fit.
• Good web design encourages interaction and measures what viewers do. Hear the audience singing along?
• Branding should be clear, legible AND understood.
• Approval from colleagues and friends for your website/label/pamphlet/tasting room does not help if they are not the ones buying your wines often and in big enough quantities.
• Apply the gravity principle – the closer your market is to your business the greater your influence.
• Don’t broadcast – engage. Have conversations with your market.
• Don’t hide the bad stuff. It makes your brand human.
• Use different social media platforms in different ways.

Do your consumers wax lyrical when they experience your brand? It might be time to change the tune.