Banning Passion

Marketing wine in this day and age takes real imagination, creativity, and ingenuity. The US wine market is saturated with wine brands, numbering in the tens of thousands, filling shelves, wine lists, and cellars. In such a saturated market, creating a distinct, unique brand is a real challenge; after all, everyone is just selling fermented grape juice.

Part of any branding effort is finding a “voice”, a writing style that complements and reinforces the branding. For many, branding just means creating a unique logo – a graphical brandmark, distinctive wordmark, or the combination of the two – and then sticking with a typeface or particular font most of the time. But branding is so much more than that; that is really just the beginning of the branding effort. Creating a distinctive writing style that is consistently used on marketing, sales, and communications efforts can go a long way towards creating a more vibrant and memorable brand.

One would think that, with the internet so much a textual experience despite the boom in online video, writing would be a critical endeavor in marketing. But so much of what is written online for wine really could be written by the same person. Therein lies a point of distinction for those that make an effort (such as the renowned Bonny Doon Vineyard – no one has a more distinctive voice in writing in the wine industry than Randall Grahm), and a very inexpensive way to add a unique attribute to a brand to make it more compelling and interesting.

Hence the title, “Banning Passion.” If there is one single, overused word in marketing, and especially in wine marketing, it is that word, “passion.” Passionate about making wine. Passionate about drinking wine. Passionate about bathing in wine. Ironically, the word comes from the sacrifice and torture that Jesus went through after the Last Supper – not exactly the resounding image one conjures when viewing industrial machinery macerate grapes into pulp, or having snagged the latest Screaming Eagle release to continue a vertical collection destined never to be consumed.

It can’t be stressed enough that to write with correct grammar, and to write creatively will make any marketing more interesting and – at this time at least – a brand more distinctive. That’s something we at T&T are really passionate zealous about / enthusiastic about / have a fervor for!

Favorite Wine

What Is Your Favorite Wine?

Anyone who works in the wine industry – from the waiter to winemaker – gets asked that question. Often, the answer entails the usual song and dance of with what, when, who with, how much, etc. But to me, the answer is simple:

Any wine that expresses the hand of the winemaker, the soil of the vineyard, and the soul of the grape.

If you missed the Wall Street Journal’s “Open That Bottle Night” this last Saturday (February 23), then make sure to make an occasion and pop open one of those goodies and enjoy. Life is too short to save the best for last.