Commerce Accelerator Program Series 2. Session 2: Marketing Strategy October 21, 2014

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1 Commerce Accelerator Program Series 2 Session 2: Marketing Strategy October 21, 2014

2 What s trending in our LinkedIn Group?

3 Series 2: The next 7 weeks Tuesdays at 3pm PT/ 6pm ET Session 2: Creating a marketing strategy Oct 21 Session 3: Google Analytics - Oct 28 Session 4: Events: What to consider when creating your own & participating in others Nov 4 Session 5: Facebook + Analytics - Nov 11 Session 6: Public relations - Nov 18 Session 7: Twitter - Nov 25 Session 8: Restaurant Marketing - Dec 2

4 What is a marketing strategy? This is a road map for how you plan to market and sell your wines. As a rule of thumb you should do a strategy BEFORE you start the design phase of your label / website. (or at least be able to articulate all of this information to a designer) The marketing tactics can be refined every year but the core of your brand stays the same. Basic strategy includes: Objectives Goals Target audience Competitor audit / brand positioning Strengths & opportunities Brand personality Marketing tactics Customer acquisition model Financial model / Budget 2015 Marketing plan / calendar

5 Objectives vs Goals You have to know where you want to go before you start. Without clear objectives and goals you are working blindly and will waste time. Knowing your objectives & goals is also beneficial when you have more than one person working on the company/brand so everyone is on the same page OR if you plan to involve investors Objectives are larger, more general i.e: why are you doing this? What do you hope to achieve? What is the bigger picture? Goals are specific and should be both quantifiable and also have a deadline associated with them

6 Target Audience The smartest marketing strategy comes from knowing your target audience so well that you know: how they THINK where they LIVE what media (or social media) they CONSUME (or PARTICIPATE in) what messages they RESPOND TO

7 Target Audience Nobody can afford to market to everybody that drinks wine Targeting does not mean you are excluding anyone Defining your target market is crucial in order to 1. build a brand identity; 2. understand where you need to spend marketing collars; 3. understanding how to talk to your audience Even when you define your target audience (based on demographics, psychographics or both) there is a halo effect where your marketing efforts will reach beyond Makes decisions much easier and less subjective Once you decide on your target audience, you can also further segment them to micro target them Keep in mind that while you may want to influence males, females tend to be (in most industries) the decisionmakers

8 Competitor Audit / Brand positioning Identifying and studying competitors can provide valuable insights and unveil opportunities Do you know who your competitors are? Consider your pricepoints Consider your distribution Consider your varietals Consider competitors in the AVAs where your grapes are sourced from Understanding where you fit can 1. help you improve your marketing choices; 2. help you see where the opportunities are

9 Competitor Audit / Brand positioning Consider ranking competitors by your strengths on a matrix or x y axis chart. This can also help you identify opportunities. Keep a list of competitors in a spreadsheet and collect information on each. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter to watch what they do. Sign up for their s to see what they are doing. Select a few and consider signing up for their wine clubs.

10 Strengths & Opportunities Think about what your strengths are, for example: Fruit sourced from Napa Valley / Sonoma County - well known, highly respected wine regions Fruit sourced from the highest quality vineyards possible: You are actually producing from fruit considered in the top 1% of California fruit. You have access to fruit that no one else with such small production can have because growers won't sell 1/2 ton or 1 ton. Boutique, small lot production, incredible attention to detail Winery based in Napa (underscores the quality and value perception) Now where are the opportunities? For example: Geographic advantage, if any (where you live): 'local' winemaker angle: are you the only game in town? With few exceptions if you are living outside of Napa/ Sonoma area, you will be the only producer of boutique Napa/Sonoma wines in your area. (Plenty of local PR angles!) Relationships (potential partners, event hosts), etc.

11 Brand personality Having a personality to your brand is absolutely key. Personality sets your brand apart, makes seem it memorable and unique. If my brand was a person, what would he/she be like? Smart, sophisticated and modern? Traditional, refined and old fashioned? Young or old? Fun, playful and energetic? Strong silent type? Describe as much as you can keeping in mind it should appeal to the target audience you have defined. An exercise like this helps you articulate to the designer what you need the logo, color palette (and later the website) to communicate. It is essential when you are briefing a copy writer or if you are writing the website, label and marketing copy yourself.

12 Marketing tactics Your target audience exercise should help guide decisions as to what marketing tactics you should employ. Tactics are how you will meet your time sensitive goals. Must do tactics are your website and marketing, but what about beyond that? Social media can differ by demographic but in general Facebook and Twitter are necessities. You need to think about tactics you will employ for each. For paid advertising and PR the audience should guide where you will place the ads, pitch media; male vs female focus, trade vs consumer, mainstream vs niche media opportunities Consider events or wine sponsorship opportunities where your target audience will be, ie: art exhibitions, hotel happy hours, dinners

13 Customer acquisition Design your own customer acquisition model for how marketing to your target audience will convert them into becoming customers Set goals of how many customers you want to convert per campaign, per month, whatever works for you Generally customers will come from 1. sign ups, 2. tasting events (yours or others), 3. any other interaction you can have that is face to face Think about how you will get them on the list, then what s you will send them that will work to convert them to customers.

14 Financial model It is important to plan financially how your marketing investment is going to pay off (even if it is time and not money) For projected revenue consider sales over time (12, 24, 36 months) Add in marketing expenses (generally these are in lumps, ie website costs, merchandise, collateral design & print costs, etc.) Plan out realistically how many customers you plan to get per month and how much they will spend (assume they will order say 2 x year) Add in wine club marketing costs and annual revenue This justifies your website investment when you consider it over a month timeframe Include your fixed costs for wine production, packaging, etc.

15 Marketing Calendar Stay organized and one step ahead by planning a one page calendar outlining what will happen when. (Annual or quarterly) This will ease your mind and help you prepare properly for opportunities, instead of a last minute struggle or even worse, missing out on opportunities: Plan month by month what you plan to do, how much you will spend and when you will do it Add in any tasting events, other events Add in s you plan to send Add in any significant times of year when you can take advantage of sales (i.e: holidays) Add in any PR opportunities you plan to pitch and when Add in production times for marketing /wine club materials Add in costs by quarter or month

16 Now, let s hear from you Questions, please! mindy@thewinefoundry.com 21 wineries have joined our LinkedIn Group: The Wine Foundry - Commerce Members