The Wine Trade ignores Social Media at its peril

Posted 02 Apr 2012

The first forum convened by Harpers and Wineoption in November 2011 was very much concerned with laying bare the problems of the wine trade in terms of engaging with the consumer. Many speakers from both the rostrum and the floor eloquently pinpointed the issues, whilst few had any concrete solutions to propose.

The second forum, held on 22nd March at the premises of Corney & Barrow in Paternoster Square in the City, very much turned the attention towards one of the avenues down which might be found specific remedies for some of the trades perceived ills. In this case the spotlight was turned onto the opportunities for wine offered by Social Media, a subject about which everyone is talking but few really understand either in terms of how it works or how to tap its true potential.

Assembled was a selection of speakers with impressive credentials, representing in the main companies whose business is to work on behalf of clients to achieve the best outcomes in the field of social media. And in the course of an hour and a half, they managed to demonstrate quite clearly that there’s more depth to social media than exchanging a few tweets about your brand.

Richard Siddle of Harpers, acting as host for the day, was the first to speak, highlighting the revolution that has taken place in the way we shop, which has given rise to the “professional shopper” – savvy, bargain hungry, shops around and most importantly uses mobile technology to seek out the best deals. Richard stressed that it was no longer sufficient for the wine trade to simply be good at making wine and that technical expertise will be the next most important skill. Transferring data into knowledge is the key skill for the future.

“Creating a Mexican wave so your customers can wave back” was how Simon Green, founder of wineoption.org chose to illustrate how social media works, and he continued by pointing out that social media is now mainstream media, and with social media, each individual becomes part of the story. And in a reference to his opening proposition, Simon urged those in the audience to ensure that if they were to dabble in social media, make sure they’re waving and not drowning. In other words, understand what is possible, and accept that you may be in uncharted waters.

Barry Clark, of acclaimed experts in consumer behaviour trends, The Future Foundation, began by stating his overall message – Get Involved, and followed this up by outlining three themes. The first of which was entitled “The Assault on Pleasure” by which was meant the appetite for governments to curb individual pleasure seeking for the common good. These curbs eventually become acceptable – 41% now support a minimum price threshold for alcohol – and restrictions move rapidly between countries. Barry then linked the human desire to experience things fully with the enthusiasm for all things local and ended by reviewing the difference between Contextual Occasions (part of your life) and Pretextual Occasions (something that sparks an occasion leading to a willingness to celebrate small things) characterised by less emphasis on price.

Next up was Simon Bennision, of the improbably named Alienation Digital, a specialist digital media communications agency. He began with a memorable call to action “Transform your customers into brand ambassadors online” and proceeded to explain how this happened. Key was perhaps understanding that unlike conventional “one to many” advertising, social media was in fact “many to many” and the need was to build an online community talking about wine. Storytelling (the brand story) was faster online but there was a requirement to create a conversation about your product. An advantage of the fast expanding Pinterest site was the opportunity for visual impact as opposed to relying on text.

The differences between the “real” world and the “online” world were highlighted by Ed Lennox of Feefo, online customer management specialists, who declared that only feedback from customers gave true perspective of service. In the online world, personality has to be projected and the question “what did you think of us” has to be posed. Ed also pointed out that online shopping was not about the product, it was about the whole experience of sitting on a sofa with an Iphone and receiving a delivery to the door.

“A £121 billion economy and growing” is how Ian McCaig of web intelligence specialists QuBit chose to demonstrate the degree to which the internet now impacts on our lives. Ian continued to point out that the web now belongs to users, who participate, rather than just passively receiving advertising and sales messages, and therefore engaging with them to find out what they are saying about your brand is essential. In fact, he says, not only should this be viewed as a cost of sale rather than a marketing cost, but in the future, the big technology budgets will belong to the sales and marketing departments and not IT. A final thought from Ian “more data will be created in the next four years than in the history of the planet”.

Engaging, opinionated and great value, Robert Joseph called for a revolution in the way the wine trade communicates with consumers. According to Robert, the trade doesn’t appreciate how small a part wine has in the consumer mind, and still insists via incomprehensible back labels, that where the wine was made and by whom, is more important than what it tastes like. “We in the wine trade know best and we don’t talk and listen to the consumer” was his parting comment.

Perhaps it was the specific nature of the topic, but the post speaker discussion in this, the second forum dedicated to consumer engagement, generated much more involvement from the attendees than the first. Interesting views were aired by Dan Jago, of Tesco, who commented that 95% of consumers viewed social media as “playtime” as far as wine was concerned, and Catherine Monahan, Clink Wines, who pointed out the tendency of wine websites to be factual and therefore not appealing to the more emotional nature of women buyers. And in a similar vein to Catherine, Greg Wilkins of Brand Phoenix criticised wine websites for being typically insular and outlined how his company’s brands association with sport played a key role in the introduction of consumers to the wines. One thing on which everyone agreed was that there was a wealth of data being generated by social media, and if not handled correctly this might lead to more complications in communications – as described by wine consultant Mike Paul as “just an increasing barrage of tasting notes”

Finally, a last thought from the forum on the use of social media, “Twitter is like taking a dog for a walk – it needs to be done every day”.