Education, Education, Education?
Posted on Sat 21st Feb 2015 at 13:43
Are you spending significant amounts of time and effort educating your customers about the more complex aspects of wine? Before you write that next lengthy synopsis, or plan your next in-store wine tasting, it’s worth looking at what Master of Wine Justin Howard-Sneyd told the recent Digital Wine Communications Conference:
“They (customers) don’t want to be educated in wine, but they do like bite size pieces of information. The dinner party one liner. They are fascinated by stories about winemakers, but you have to make sure it does not feel like being educated about wine”. This doesn’t, of course, mean that you should give up on teaching your customers about your wines - how else can you persuade them to make a purchase? But it does mean that you need to think carefully about what information you provide, and how you phrase it - particularly when it comes to the aspects of wine that are often seen as 'snobbish'. As global wine consultant for Laithwaites, Justin knows what he’s talking about, his recommendation that retailers copy Laithwaites’ model of providing clear, concise messages to customers should not be ignored. When you next change your in-store information, rather than delve too deeply into the characteristics of a particular wine, why not do a short paragraph on the team that grows it? You can also link styles of wine together - why not do a set of bullet points on why the Vranec is perfect for Christmas, and place them at strategic points around the shop? History of the vineyard, and local wine making traditions, are also popular facts with customers.
Justin is also Master of Wine for Signature, a perfect partnership thanks to Justin’s love of “regions of the ancient world that are just now beginning to re-emerge as winemaking hotspots – Greece, Turkey, Georgia, Macedonia etc.” Justin recommends weaving this interesting heritage into your description of the products, making sure that the facts are fun and easy to digest. If you have some of our beautiful Stobi wines on your shelves, you could accompany them with key facts such as:
• The ancient town of Stobi is the largest and most famous archaeological site in the Republic of Macedonia, dating back to 200 BC
• The Tikveš wine region stretches along the same latitudinal line as the Bordeaux wine region in France, the Tuscany wine region of Italy, and the Napa Valley wine region in the USA
• The Stobi winery symbol is inspired by Roman mosaics found in the area These memorable facts will bring a smile to prospective customers’ faces, and entice them to buy a bottle so they can relay these details to their guests later. If the exotic provenance of Stobi takes their fancy, you can then tell them more about the unique Macedonian grapes, the production process and the flavours in their chosen wine.
As Justin observed, customers learn best when they don’t think they’re learning, which is why storytelling can be such an important tool to get them to ask for more details - not to mention buy the wine! For more details on the fascinating background to Stobi wines, or how you can use this to expand your customer base, please get in touch with the Signature Wines team.