If you look around the winery talent pool and you can’t find content Creators you may need to hire a “ghost writer” for you or your winemaker or whoever that persona is you want to be positioned front and center on your social site; remember that more people view videos and photos on-line than articles and blogs.

Additionally, you will need Editors who will edit content created by others or submit content created by others. Critics are a plus, not a negative. If you make good wine you should not have to worry about criticism of your wine. Nobody likes mean-spirited hackers and, if lacking spam-filters, most SNS’s have applications for the community to self-police, register complaints and remove disruptive miscreants (ex.: Craig’s List). In the social atmosphere critics comment on the content submitted by others, such as, photos, videos and jokes that may have surfaced at your last wine tasting event.

You want lots of Sharers who will forward content to others. If your Creators and Editors are engaging your membership then you will attract more Sharers. Finally, you need Consumers. This is the silent majority who are attracted to your site, contribute to traffic but only passively consume content and either post by personalizing it, OR NOT. The graphic up above shows the levels of influence and impact of participants in a social networking community. Think about it, the guy snapping photos on his smart phone at your tasting bar is a creator. 1st try to get your wine label in the picture and then ask him to post his photos on your site.

Remember that you are creating your social site for your friends. Provide some incentives for your friends to contribute content, edit, share, and invite other friends to your site. Free invites to events at the winery always get attention and here’s an idea featured on Oprah. Invite your content contributors from anywhere in the world to a Skype wine tasting. Now that is what I want to do next time I’m flying cross country on a crowded 757!

The paper focuses in on Facebook and Twitter for B to C social networking and Linkedin for B to B social networking. It highlights these sites as the best high-traffic SNS’s to put your resources behind. I agree with their logic and their selections, including eliminating MySpace when bandwidth is an issue.

Also included are in-depth profiles of a number of Wine-Social sites including Adegga, CellarTracker, Cork’d, Snooth, VinCellar by Vinfolio and WineLog. Though the list is incomplete, forms are made available for those missing wine-social sites that want to be included going forward. Personally, I would have included Wine.Meetup but I’m sure that they will get added to the list in the future. The message is to “pick a pew” where your highest concentration of customers and prospects reside, map out a strategy and get busy generating content and building “buzz”.

In their purest form, Social Networks are all about connecting with people you know and keeping them informed of what you are doing. Activity is in the forefront and connections are secondary. Social networking sites work well for announcing wine events and for publishing digital media after the events. Before you jump in thinking that Facebook is the ticket to selling out your inventory consider the etiquette appropriate for social media marketing.

It takes time to build and deploy your social network for marketing purposes. While you are considering how you might leverage your friends and associates on Facebook and on other social networks be prepared and write up a plan. This is, after all, your network of friends so let your wine do the talking via tasting events with candid photos and videos that don’t look staged (Fun is infectious).

Importantly, you don’t want to garishly broadcast your sales and marketing messaging as you would with traditional advertising, but rather create the environment where friends influence friends. Join the conversation but don’t attempt to dominate or force your friends to say what you want to hear. By all means recruit content creators and editors and encourage photos and (short) videos that you can put on your site and publish on Flickr and YouTube (According to “The Global Web Index,” from Trendstream, with research conducted by Lightspeed Research, early this year 72% of US Internet users watched video clips monthly—making video bigger than blogging or social networking).

Your social site should grow organically with a little cultivation and by getting to know your friends who visit your tasting room, attend your events, sign up for your wine clubs and enjoy chronicling and sharing the social experiences/events they participate in along with the great wines you make.

The New Vine story provides a link to the article “Getting Wine to the Consumer,” which offers a non-comprehensive list of logistics service providers, classified as Consolidation/Logistics companies, Transportation companies, Case Goods Warehouses, Fulfillment Houses, and Common Carriers. Another link to the related article “How to Select a Third Party Fulfillment Center,” provides additional information on logistics choices that need to be made in the wine business. These articles offer a good start in the process of thinking through an optimal wine logistics strategy.

The message for all wineries is not to take logistics for granted. Working through the complexities of what to do in-house and what to outsource, let alone which companies to use for outsourced services, requires significant expertise. The first task for wineries is to determine whether they have adequate expertise to make these critical business decisions alone. If they do not, then deciding where to get help in evaluating logistical alternatives is critical. Many elements are involved in running a successful direct to consumer shipping operation, including allocating available product, picking and packing accurately, billing, complying with a myriad of state regulations, financial and regulatory reporting, timeliness, and cost.

Poorly thought through fulfillment can have significant impact on a winery’s sales, profitability, and customer satisfaction. Making the appropriate decisions and investment, in addition to picking the best business partners, should not be taken lightly. The wineries that heed the “wakeup call” and take the appropriate steps to ensure that their logistics strategies are appropriate for their business will be more successful than those who ignore this event and just continue with business as usual.

The grapes used in this award-winning zinfandel are from 50-year-old vines – the first vines planted by winery founder John Van Ruiten. Leeman aged this big-bodied zinfandel in new American oak for 10 months to bring out deep notes of blueberries and cherries. The WSJwine selection adds to the 2007 Van Ruiten Zinfandel’s accolades: the wine also received a Double Gold medal and was rated “Best of California” Zinfandel at the 2009 Lodi International Wine Competition.

For some restaurants, this situation will result in permanent changes in their business, creating opportunities for wineries who respond appropriately to these changes. Recognizing what restaurants will be buying when they replenish their wine inventories and having the appropriate product to satisfy this demand will be critical for capitalizing on these opportunities. Targeting the best restaurants and having the means to present their products to these restaurants will also be necessary to leverage the situation, as will educating the wait staff on the benefits of wines that reach restaurant menus.

Wineries must deal with other changes as well. Distributors can be expected to reduce their restaurant sales staffs in response to the decline in restaurant sales, making it harder for wineries to rely on distributors to push their products into restaurants. Retailers can be expected to buy more wine, but their price points will decline as they react to changes in consumer demand patterns. Retailers will try to offset the decline in average unit prices by pressing wineries and distributors for longer margins on items they sell.

In times like these, wineries would do well to remember the close relationship between danger and opportunity. Making good business decisions about deploying appropriate resources in support of a well thought out business strategy that takes into account the current realities of the market will result in new opportunities and new growth for wineries. The dangers wineries face revolve around their abilities to identify the right strategy and desired outcomes, to assemble the necessary resources, and to monitor the application of resources to achieve the outcomes.

NAPA, CA (PRWEB) 05/20/09 — eWinery Solutions and WineCircle Consulting announced a new partnership to help wineries build wine sales and wine distribution. Wineries can now take advantage of WineCircle Consulting’s success building wine sales in conjunction with eWinery Solutions’ web services and direct-to-consumer marketing tools. This unique partnership offers wineries new, cost-effective strategies and tactics to grow direct sales and channel sales.

Led by Peter Grossman, former Senior Vice President and General Merchandise Manager at Beverages and More! (Bevmo!), WineCircle Consulting provides analytics, product plans, team assessments, and channel sales support for wineries seeking to sell more wine, further extend their brand(s) into retail distribution, and achieve sustainable sales growth.

“Many wineries offer high quality wines but cannot get to first base with retail and wholesale buyers,” explained Grossman. “WineCircle is uniquely positioned to help wineries work within the system and leverage their resources.” WineCircle works closely with clients to identify opportunities and deliver the right product offerings to retail and wholesale buyers.

According to Grossman, even in a down economy, retail buyers are always looking for the right products to replace slow sellers in their stores, and wholesale buyers are looking for products that will be supported at retail. “WineCircle helps wineries understand product mix and pricing strategies that meet these buyers’ criteria.”

eWinery Solutions offers innovative Web Content Management, CRM, eCommerce, Wine Club, and Internet Marketing solutions to wineries and third party marketers. eWinery Solutions attributes their success to hard work, essential insight into the global wine industry, creative web development and marketing techniques, and an adherence to the core values of innovation, passion, excellence, and mutual effort.

“Our focus combines expert wine industry knowledge with leading technology and service providers to help clients meet their business goals,” said eWinery COO, Ron Sharman. “WineCircle Consulting has the experience and expertise to help our clients achieve their channel sales objectives.”

About WineCircle Consulting
WineCircle Consulting is a marketing consultancy that improves wine sales for its clients as it develops product, pricing, distribution, personnel, and outsourcing strategies that achieve sustainable sales growth. The WineCircle Consulting team includes retail sales expert Peter Grossman, channel sales specialist Mike Sullivan, a wide-ranging Advisory Board and a network of marketing, sales, operations, financial and business planning professionals that can be deployed depending on the scope of the project and the needs of the client. For more information, please visit www.winecircleconsulting.com

About eWinery Solutions
eWinery Solutions provides a comprehensive consumer-direct solution for the wine industry. The company’s state-of-the-art ecommerce platform provides all of the tools necessary to help wine retailers sell more wine online. Website content, products and member information can be easily managed from any computer, anywhere, at any time through an easy-to-use online editor. For more information, please visit www.eWinerySolutions.com

eWinery Solutions Contact:
Ron Sharman
Chief Operating Officer
Tel: 707-227-1609
Email: rscharman@ewinerysolutions.com

WineCircle Consulting Contact:
Mike Sullivan
Executive Vice President
Tel: 925-348-9300
Email: msullivan@winecircle.com

The biggest brands in Bordeaux like Haut-Brion, Lafite Rothchild, Latour, Margaux, and Mouton –Rothschild have cut their 2008 prices dramatically. Ironically, many people think that the 2008 vintage will produce better wine than the 2007 vintage. As a result, retailers and brokers who purchased earlier vintages, including futures not yet delivered, will probably have to reduce their prices on vintages from 2007 and earlier to sell this wine.

These developments could be a blessing or a curse for California wineries. Cheaper French Bordeaux will put California wines under additional price pressure, particularly at the high end, where the French price moves have been most dramatic. The cost to brokers, retailers, and distributors who are long in French Bordeaux will increase frustration around Bordeaux futures and potentially reduce futures purchases. This will create an opportunity for other wine growing regions to sell their products. Brokers, retailers, and distributors can be expected to shop more carefully for wines, looking for great value and attempting to minimize their inventory risks.

The smart wineries, both in California and elsewhere, will respond to this situation with a clearly thought out, logical plan that addresses both their challenges and their opportunities. They will modify the appropriate parts of their sales and marketing strategies, including potentially their brands, their price points, and their “go to market” approach. They will simultaneously address the price compression in the category and the increased willingness of the channel and the consumer to substitute other wines for wines grown in Bordeaux. They will find ways to minimize the risks that buyers perceive in their products. The wineries that do not respond in some way risk further deterioration of their business.

Many wineries offer high quality wines but cannot get to first base with retail and wholesale buyers Having trained and managed buyers and merchandise managers at Bevmo!, and other retail chains, Grossman brings extensive “behind the scenes” management experience and expertise in new product introductions to help WineCircle Consulting clients create actionable plans to sell more cases of wine.

“Many wineries offer high quality wines but cannot get to first base with retail and wholesale buyers,” explained Grossman. “WineCircle is uniquely positioned to help wineries work within the system and leverage their resources to identify voids and opportunities and deliver convincing presentations to retail and wholesale buyers to fill the voids and opportunities with products from their clients.”

According to Grossman, retail buyers are always looking for the right products to replace slow sellers in their stores, and wholesale buyers are looking for products that will be supported at retail. WineCircle helps wineries understand product mix and pricing strategies that meet these buyers’ criteria.

Grossman’s expertise as a consultant includes experience as a senior level executive with deep technical expertise in the wine industry and in product assortment and pricing strategies, inventory management, supply chain, marketing, team building and operations. The WineCircle Consulting team includes channel sales specialist and WineCircle Founder, Mike Sullivan, an eclectic Advisory Board and a network of marketing, sales, operations, financial and business planning professionals which will be deployed depending on the scope of the project and the needs of the client.

WineCircle is committed to delivering results by selling more cases of its clients’ wine while increasing gross profit margins on its clients’ direct to consumer sales. Grossman said, “WineCircle shows growing wineries how to get a foothold in the distribution channel and helps bigger wineries to grow their brand and profits”.

Visit WineCircle Consutling at www.winecircleconsulting.com, e-mail info@winecircleconsulting.com, or call 925-348-9300.

These changes have forced the retail and restaurant industries to rethink their price points and promotional strategies. In general, retailers have reacted more quickly than have restaurants. Distributors, responding to changes from their customers and pressure from their big suppliers, have in some cases stopped bringing on new wineries. They have also dropped smaller wineries, exacerbating the problem smaller wineries already had getting shelf and menu space.

The wine industry, in effect, has “fallen off a cliff,” particularly at higher retail prices, and we can expect a variety of results from this disruptive event. Wineries that have good business plans will fare better. Wineries that are well capitalized are more likely to survive. Wineries that have the ability to adapt to the changes forced upon the industry by wine consumers will perform better than those which are less well prepared. Some of the wineries that are less prepared will end up for sale at “fire sale” prices. Wineries that can survive the “storm” and put in place the building blocks for future growth, which will come, will reap handsome rewards when the new growth does come.

Small to medium sized wineries still need to solve the same key problems. These wineries typically make great wines that represent great values to wine drinkers. They often have no effective way of telling a large number of wine drinkers about the quality and value of their wines. They need to increase consumer awareness of their products and their brands. They need to find ways to attract and retain loyal customers who can “spread the word.”

To be successful, a winery needs to clearly identify its goals for the next three to five years. It needs to evaluate its current strategy and resources available to achieve these goals. It needs to identify “leverage points” that can best accelerate the achievement of these goals. It needs to understand industry “best practices.” Its management team must be clearly focused on the same goals and have the technical and personal skills to achieve the goals.

Management must be able to measure its performance taking the necessary steps to accomplish the goals. Management must hold itself accountable for results. Adequate resources must be deployed. If these building blocks are in place, a winery’s chances of success increase dramatically.

State of the Wine Industry 0910