The Drinks Report

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Alcohol brands – time to get mobile

Annie Lord business development director, Positive Thinking

All year round, alcohol brands are constantly vying for consumer attention. It is estimated that the alcoholic beverages industry spends over £800 million a year in a bid to encourage drinkers to buy their products in store or at the bar, but why is so much money spent on some forms of advertising and marketing but not others?

Above the line ads, including press, TV and billboard spots have always been a core focus for alcohol brand campaigns, but other more recent innovations such as mobile, and in particular, SMS, have largely been ignored.

Mobile marketing has helped brands to reach consumers for over a decade, but alcohol brands are failing to explore this potentially significant medium. It’s true that ATL ads have the visual impact that suits the image of alcohol campaigns, but it’s also vital for brands to use a range of direct and interactive tools to reach consumers if they really want to build lasting and meaningful relationships.

Alcohol advertising is closely monitored, with a number of restrictions in place to protect children and teenagers from being targeted with alcohol-related messaging. SMS marketing allows marketers to build up a database of customers that have given their number and consented to being contacted by a brand, which allows a layer of segmentation that is not achievable with ATL campaigns, which can generally be seen and consumed by audiences of any age. Brand affinity can be engendered on a one to one level while the billboards carry the identity and ethos.

And it’s not just SMS. Mobile marketing has now evolved to the point where brands have a huge arsenal of tactics and technical features literally at their fingertips, through which they can reach their audience. Smartphone users now amount to 27% of the UK population, and 15.9 million Brits say they use mobile internet on their phones, smart or otherwise. Add to this the increasing role that near field communications (NFC) technology is beginning to play in UK marketing campaigns, and there is a vast array of opportunities for alcohol marketers to seize on in order to drive consumers to engage with their brand just as they line up at the bar.

NFC in particular could have real benefits for the alcohol market. The ability to attract consumers to bars and restaurants with bespoke offers, for example a half price bottle of wine or two beers for the price of one is a powerful tool when trying to create cut-through in such a crowded market.

The emergence of new technologies combined with an increasingly tech-savvy audience means that alcohol brands must be prepared to move their strategies forward, to keep up with the expectations consumers now have of brands. In fact Magners is the first alcohol brand to sell goods on Facebook and will be selling its new Specials range of blended drinks to users. It’s no longer enough for brands to rely on one or two channels in order to connect with people; brands need to be utilising communications across an array of media, from TV to press and social media to mobile.

Alcohol brands have an advantage over many brands in that they often already have a loyal base of customers or advocates, and they usually target groups of people who are by nature social, connected and willing to spread positive messages about brands they enjoy. Mobile and SMS marketing fits in well with such groups, as phones often play a hugely significant role in the social interaction people have with each other. It’s commonplace now to talk about or forward on messages or images that catch our attention, and if brands get their targeting and messaging right, this can be a very effective way of starting positive conversations with multiple consumers.

Some brands have already starting capitalising on this trend, for example Guinness’ mobile game and Smirnoff’s bar app, but not enough alcohol brands are capitalising on this potential goldmine in terms of customer engagement and really should start to jump on the digital and mobile bandwagon.

email the editor with your comments/story

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

PET in Wine – Obstacles in Ukraine

by Euromonitor International’s Packaging team

Globally, PET bottles are gaining share in wine. Over the 2005-2010 period this packaging format achieved a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19%.
With growing demand for convenience and changing consumer perception towards wine in PET, this packaging format has grown in popularity and become more relevant in many countries around the world. The US was the leader in terms of usage of PET bottles in wine in 2010, accounting for retail sales of 159 million bottles.

After long discussions regarding the quality of wine packaged in PET, it has been shown that PET maintains the characteristics of wine as well as other pack formats (glass, liquid cartons or bag-in-box). This has inevitably had a positive impact on PET's performance.

At first sight it may seem that PET in wine only performs well in countries which are open to packaging innovations, such as the US, or which do not have an established wine traditions, for example South Korea, which ranks second in terms of consumption of wine in PET. However, in 2010, ranked in top 5 in terms of consumption of wine in PET bottles was France, although PET is generally used only for cheap cooking wine and overall usage of this packaging format is declining in the country.

Despite mixed perceptions and performances, a bright future is predicted for PET in wine in many countries around the world, although there are exceptions, with Ukraine being one of them.

According to legislation concerning the production and trade of spirits, other alcoholic drinks (with an ABV of over 8.5%) and tobacco products, wine can be packaged only in glass bottles or souvenir packs made from ceramic, glass or wood, liquid cartons and bag-in-box formats. There is no mention of PET packaging in the legislation.

However, in 2010, Niva TOV, one of the leading local manufacturers of wine, managed to find a loophole in the law and obtained permission from the local authorities to use PET to package wine. This activity could lead to further discussions about the legislation and result in eventual changes.

The overall situation suggests that there is a great deal of room for packaging development in wine in Ukraine, in particular with the wider application of PET.
But the question arises as to why there is this law making the usage of PET in wine difficult or impossible? This could be due to protection of the local glass packaging industry, which is well developed in Ukraine and provides the market with fairly cheap glass packaging. However, at the same time, liquid cartons and bag-in-box formats are also trying to establish a presence in wine and these are not legislated against.

For wine manufacturers in Ukraine, PET does not currently offer as cheap a packaging solution as glass. Thus, if wine makers do decide to take advantage of the loophole in the law and choose PET, it is purely for differentiation purposes.

At the end of the day, it will be up to consumers to decide if they are happy to purchase wine in PET or would rather stick with traditional glass packaging, which in 2010 accounted for a 92% share of wine packaging in Ukraine.

email the editor with your comments/story

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Stella's recall of 'exploding' Cidre

Simon Pitman, director, GS1 UK

Product recalls are a brand manager’s nightmare and the news this week that 285,000 bottles of Stella Cidre are being recalled after the discovery of yeast contamination in three batches of the cider is the latest to hit the headlines. The fault means the cider continues to ferment in the bottle leading to a build-up of gas that may cause bottles to burst. For a new product that which launched recently with a major marketing campaign and which has experienced positive initial sales, this is particularly frustrating.

According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), product recalls are made to: minimise risk or injury to the consumer; ensure compliance with legal requirements; and to protect company assets (including brand reputation). Recalling products is becoming increasingly complex, with a greater diversity of products on the shelves; sophisticated distribution channels as well as online news and social media meaning there is a lot of scrutiny over how a recall is handled.
In the UK, there’s no official code of practice for issuing a recall, meaning that companies manage them very differently. Sometimes they’re not as effective as they could be and consumers are put at risk and companies are threatened with legal action as a consequence. The act of recalling a mass market product is not an easy logistical task and requires detailed and up-to-date knowledge about which batches of products are where.

As complexity increases, food and drink manufacturers need to look at ways of sharing trusted, up-to-the-minute information across multiple retailers, distributors, logistics firms and other partners. The difficulty many companies have when managing a product recall is being able to trace which of their products are affected and who they were supplied to. If you can’t identify which items are faulty or unsafe, how will you know who to contact?

Once you’ve identified which items are affected, you then need to find an effective way of communicating the recall to retailers. We’d encourage food and drink manufacturers to implement a single, standardised process for recall notifications. A standardised process can selectively communicate with the retailers who stock the affected products and track whether these items are returned and where follow-up is required. It also provides a means of coordinating handling and financial settlement instructions for retailers.

Risks to consumer health and safety can emerge at any time and can affect whole industries. Even the most health and safety conscious companies are not immune. Speed of response is what makes the difference and brand owners need to ensure that they have the most accurate source of data and the ability to share this rapidly. The quicker and more effectively it can manage the situation, the more effectively a company can minimise the financial and brand impact and, most importantly, ensure consumers are protected.

email the editor with your comments/story

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Wine in pubs:
The 250ml glass is an unexploded bomb

Jamie Goode, wine critic, columnist and blogger for the for the campaign site www.wineoption.org

It’s your round. You ask your buddies what they want to drink. Jim, a 15 stone bloke, wants a pint of bitter. Sheila, an 8 stone girl, wants a glass of Chardonnay. So you order at the bar. ‘Large or small?’ asks the barman when you ask for the glass of wine. Small seems stingy, so you opt for the large.
Now a large glass of wine in a pub is 250 ml. It doesn’t look all that big, but this is one-third of a standard bottle.

How many people realize this as they’re having a drink with their friends? And Sheila, who is half the size of Jim, is about to drink a glass that contains 35 ml of pure alcohol (14% of 250 ml), whereas Jim’s pint has 21.5 ml of alcohol (3.8% of 568 ml). It’s clear that Sheila’s drink is going to have a lot more of an effect on her than Jim’s.

Bear in mind, also, that one unit of alcohol is just 10 ml. So Sheila’s large glass of wine represents 3.5 units. If she has two glasses, by UK definitions she is officially binge drinking (defined as six units in a session for women and eight units for men), and she will have surpassed the drink drive limit by some margin (the single glass may well have already done this).

That large glass of wine is the liquid equivalent of an unexploded bomb. It should come with a health warning. After all, how many people would just assume they could drive home after drinking a single glass of wine? And it’s not as if 14% is a particularly high level of alcohol these days. New world reds commonly top 14.5% alcohol, and some push things even further.

I think pubs and restaurants who serve wine by the glass should be doing something about this. It’s just irresponsible to be serving people drinks with that much alcohol in them without some sort of guidance or warning. In an environment where rounds of drinks are the norm, anyone opting for wine is likely to be consuming a good deal more alcohol than those who are on beer or long drinks (a gin and tonic will have 25 ml of 40% alcohol, which is 10 ml of alcohol, a single unit). At least with beer, the alcohol level is clearly displayed on the font, so customers can make an informed decision. Have you ever seen this with wine?

Have you ever been offered a lighter alternative? Me neither.

But not only will the wine drinker be getting quietly pissed, they’ll also run the risk of getting fat. A 250 ml glass of wine at 14.5% alcohol and with no residual sugar contains 207 Calories. Now if this was a typical lighter-style wine in the same serving, at 8% with 8 g/litre residual sugar, this would be 124 Calories. As a comparison, a Big Mac is 540 Calories, and a Mars Bar is 280 Calories. Clearly, this isn’t as serious an issue as people unintentionally getting quietly drunk and then getting in their cars, but it’s a consideration.

It’s time for drinkers to be given the information that helps them to make informed choices.

email the editor with your comments/story

DESIGNER COMMENT: Europe and wine John Mathers, managing director Holmes & Marchant

Europe loves wine. Sure, Belgium has its beer and Britain (and France) its cider, but really, wine is the most popular drink on the continent.

And as the rise of ‘branded’ wines continues apace, Europe has not been exempt. While the modern focus on branded wine tends to look across the Atlantic and ‘Down Under’ (Blossom Hill, Jacob’s Creek et al); Europe was first on the scene with Blue Nun back in the 1920s and le Piat D’or in the 1980s. Although the market for these wines declined as the New World took off, now names such as Campo Viejo have opened up the market for quality wine brands across Europe.

But establishing a pan-European brand, particularly in wine, is not without its problems. And you don’t have to be a big brand to appreciate that what works in one market may fall flat in another. For example: a wine that is seen in Germany as modern and youthful, may be seen as familiar and tired in Italy – or any number of variations on the theme.

So how can you create a single brand and packaging design that reconciles, addresses and perhaps in some cases, sets out to counter these perceptions?

Understanding drinkers in each market is key, as well as looking at how wines are displayed and marketed – and even talked about. In France, brand names are irrelevant, as it’s all about the grape. But in the UK, we know that quite often brand names are relied on by less confident consumers.

So this insight means that something like ordering on labels is of key importance. So for example, in markets where variety is important, this will have to be prominently placed. But if a wine is also being sold in a market where the brand name is crucial, there will have to be a careful placing of both, with the two details prominent but nether dominating.

This is just one of dozens of insights that can impact on design of a wine for multiple markets.

Designers also need to consider what constitutes premium/youth/quality in each market. It’s at this point that you can discover incredible associations with things like typefaces, which can be perceived completely differently by different demographics in different countries.

Sometimes, a brand’s presence can be built by breaking rules. So a standard ‘Bordeaux’ style bottle will speak to traditionalists and those looking for a safe choice. Any deviation from this will make a wine stand out a great deal: potentially a good thing for those looking to create a strong brand. However – while this can be successful, gimmickry is never a good long-term strategy – particularly in something as central to a brand as pack structure.

There is no element of a design that does not make a difference in a project like this, and there’s no doubt that reconciling a wine brand design across multiple markets is a huge challenge. But get it right and you can be part of a huge and growing market.

email the editor with your comments

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Responses to the UK Government's announcement that it will ban the sale of alcohol below the level of excise duty and VAT

David Young, partner at international law firm Eversheds: Retailers face ban on loss leader drinks

The government’s proposed minimum pricing measures will mean that supermarkets will no longer be allowed to sell alcohol as a loss leader.

The measures are being brought in by the coalition government in an effort to tackle alcohol abuse, in spite of claims by the industry and independent analysts that increasing the cost does little to deter hardened drinkers.

"This proposal is both populist and non-populist but it is really playing to the gallery. Retailers and manufacturers, however sympathetic to the overall motives, had been concerned that voluntary measures would breach competition laws.

The hospitality sector felt that it had long been targeted through restrictive licensing and policing regimes when the problem had its source elsewhere (loss-leader sales in supermarkets and off-licences being often-cited) but beyond even the retailers lies the vexed question we appear unable to answer in the UK – why do we seem to have a greater problem with alcohol and public behaviour than anywhere else?

It is a political and social question whether it is reasonable to tackle a perceived problem with measures that impact all of us because this is not an issue that can be tackled by peer pressure or shock tactics (unlike wearing seatbelts and drink-driving), but these measures are unlikely to solve anything; the issue is deeper-rooted.

As for the drinks industry, it will no doubt feel demonised (again), but its markets are global not purely domestic, and in conjunction with retailers suitable adjustments will no doubt be made which preserve viability for both.

WSTA CEO Jeremy Beadles:

We have consistently argued for a ban on the sale of alcohol below the level of duty plus VAT on the basis that these are both consumer taxes and therefore the cost should be passed on to the consumer. This is the practical way to implement this policy.

It is important this policy is applied nationally. We are sure Ministers will want to ensure it is not undermined by separate and different price initiatives by local authorities.

It's equally vital to recognise that alcohol pricing and taxation cannot provide the solution to alcohol misuse. What's needed is education and rigorous enforcement of laws to address misuse and related anti-social behaviour.

Chris Sorek, CEO of alcohol awareness charity Drinkaware:

Tackling alcohol misuse requires a range of measures and pricing forms part of the solution. However, as supply and price are not the only factors driving alcohol misuse, it is imperative that we challenge people’s relationship with alcohol as well.

Educating people about the effects of regularly drinking to excess and providing practical tips on cutting down will help change people’s behaviour towards alcohol and discourage the acceptability of drunkenness.

Regularly exceeding the daily unit guidelines can increase people’s chances of developing liver damage, some cancers and mental health issues – as well as compromise personal safety and leave people vulnerable to crime.

Gavin Hewitt, CEO The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA):

Scotch Whisky distillers have campaigned for over two years for such a measure to be introduced as a legal way to set a floor price for alcoholic drinks. The SWA called for the same floor price arrangements to be introduced in Scotland. With a bottle of beer, wine or spirits displaying the alcohol content and carrying a known tax burden, enforcement of a ban on sales below excise duty and VAT is simple to operate and transparent.

The SWA supports the proposed ban as part of a two-stage approach to modernising the UK alcohol duty regime. A floor price, where a unit of beer is taxed at 21p and of whisky at 29p, highlights the differential taxation of alcoholic drinks and reinforces the need for a fairer excise duty system, with all drinks taxed on the same basis according to alcohol content.

A ban on alcohol sales below the cost of excise duty and VAT is the right way forward. The next stage should be reform of an outdated duty system so that tax discrimination between drinks categories is removed and consumers are treated fairly whatever drink they prefer. The Budget in March offers an early opportunity to begin to introduce a fairer balance in alcohol taxation.

email the editor with your comments/story

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Things are changing in the wine estates of Bordeaux

Says 33 year old Franck Moureau, one of the new generation of Bordeaux winemakers. Franck is owner and manager at Béard la Chapelle, an 18 hectare property in the small village of St Laurent des Combes

You will certainly not have heard of Château Béard La Chapelle, Grand Cru St Emilion despite the fact that it has been in the same family for nine generations passing from father to son over the years and that is located just outside of the world renowned medieval village of St Emilion.

Part of the reason is that many small châteaux such as Béard La Chapelle have been in the past cocooned, selling soley via Bordeaux's wine merchants, the "négociants", which isolated them from the market.

Things are changing in the wine estates of Bordeaux. The region of 10,000 chateaux, many still family-owned particularly the smaller ones, has woken up to the reality of today's competitive world wine markets. A new generation is taking over and having to improve their wines and radically change the way their family wines are sold. Today, they have no choice but to try to sell, at least a part of their production, 'direct'. For some properties it is too late.

Securing foreign markets is long term, takes time and requires new skills to vine growing and winemaking; an ease with languages, communication face-to-face and on the net, commercial and marketing expertise.

A big shift is underway but there is a lot of ground to recover. In the case of Béard La Chapelle there are 30 years to catch up on.

Béard la Chapelle is an 18 hectare property in the small village of St Laurent des Combes. Neighbours include well-known names such as Château Bellefont Belcier, Larcisse Ducasse, Tertre Roteboeuf. I joined my father five years ago. It did not me long to recognise the potential but also the ground I had to recover. My aim was to make a wine worthy of its prestigious terroir. It has been a slow process – you have to be patient before seeing the results and as it is a family property you have to take time to introduce changes. Vineyards were in need of replanting, the winery was in need of modernising, new barrels to be bought, additional work in the vineyards such as leaf pulling and green harvesting to put in place.

I now aided by my sister Laurence, also in her 30s. She started with reworking the basics; a website, brochures and revamped the packaging with a new smart black and silver label and capsule. Her main remit however is to develop the customer base. With little collateral and an empty contact file, the challenge has been a big one for both of us.

In terms of finding customers, we decided to start with emerging markets attending wine fairs organised by Ubifrance and Sopexa in Asia (Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul) and also in Mexico and Russia. Today we are making steps into the more traditional markets in Europe and abroad.

There has been help at hand with substantial grants for travelling costs of selling trips and recently we heard that we were accepted for a 30% EU grant for rebuilding the winery. Things are moving in the right direction although the figures do not yet stack up.

We remain optimistic. It is the start of a new era at the property. Every day I walk my vineyards. Each plot is different. We have very good terroir for making a very good wine. The past two vintages 2009 and 2010 of Béard La Chapelle is beginning to be what it should be – full of the rich purity of fruit of the Merlot grape. A Grand Cru.

email the editor with your comments/story

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Fall in alcohol consumption is a wake-up call for the wine trade

Tony Dann founder of Sovio – a 5.5%ABV Californian wine, available in a number of UK supermarkets, is heading a fight to have a lower alcohol category recognised by the wine industry and the sales outlets it supplies

As a leading lower-alcohol wine brand we welcome recent figures showing a dramatic fall in the level of alcohol consumption in the UK in the past five years. The dramatic drop is evidence the wine trade needs to pay more attention to its consumers to survive.

The UK is crying out for quality wines with a lower level of alcohol and says the industry is out of step with public taste..

The survey by the British Beer and Pub Association says alcohol consumption has been falling consistently over the past five years and is down 13 percent compared to 2004.

This survey, which comes from inside the alcohol business, proves that public tastes are changing. The people who sell alcohol from the larger supermarket chains to the small off licences need to recognise this.

It’s not just a matter of healthier drinking but of more enjoyable drinking and responsible hospitality.

We are leading a call for the Chancellor, George Osborne to think long and hard about the way he can influence duty on units of alcohol. The “imbalance” in the way wine is taxed has to be readdressed. The current system allows tax on a unit of alcohol to be lower in wines that have higher overall alcohol content.

This is a ludicrous situation – it does nothing to encourage people to drink lower alcohol wines.

email the editor with your comments

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Pre-vintage report

by Pierre-Henry Gagey president Maison Louis Jadot

The harvest in Burgundy will be a little later than usual this year. At Maison Louis Jadot we plan to start picking in Burgundy on September 23 and in Beaujolais on September 15. The 2010 vintage has been challenging but these first few days in September will have a great influence on the final harvest so we wait in anticipation.

This year particularly, we know that the quality of the harvest will be far from even all over the Burgundy and Beaujolais regions and that there will be many variations between Cru’s and producers.

In the Beaujolais the winter was very cold although the frozen soils before Spring, allowed them to collect good water reserves. Spring was somewhat shy and consequently the quantity of berries smaller than usual.. Flowering occurred in June with some ‘millerandage’. July and August helped the vine growing rather slowly but in good conditions. Today, the gamay berries are rather small but are quite concentrated with a good colour. The volume of the crop is expected to be reasonable.

“This month of September will have an even greater influence on the vintage than usual. . .

• the North wind would bring concentration and a good balance with acidity
•  sunshine would help ripeness
•  rain would increase the volumes but endanger the health status
•  the change of the moon on September 8th may have a great influence on the weather until harvest

The key to a successful vintage this year will be good selection of grapes in the vineyards and at the sorting table. It will be a winemaker’s year and at Maison Louis Jadot we have great confidence in our talented winemaking team so we are assured that the quality of our 2010 wines will remain high. It is similarly good news that our main cellars in Beaune, have their new extension in operation this year for the first time.

We are also very excited that our state of the art ‘Cellier des Pierres Rouges’ winery further south in the village of Givry, in the Côte Chalonnaise, will be operating at full capacity this year. Named after the nearby abandoned quarries of local red stone, the site was chosen because Givry is very central to the area where we were already sourcing red grapes for our classic Bourgogne entry level wines. Having the capacity to vinify grapes at our ‘on the spot’ facility means we can adhere to our own high standards of quality.

The objective of this 6,000-hectolitre winery, equipped with the most modern stainless steel equipment, is to lavish upon the theoretically modest wines of the Côte Chalonnaise, the level of loving care normally reserved for the finer wines of the famous Côte d’Or, just a little way to the north. This allows us to make Bourgogne Pinot Noir (5,000hl) and a little Bourgogne Blanc (1 000hl) at the fair prices expected of wines from the Côte Chalonnaise, but with added verve and polish.

One of the aims of the new winery is to support local growers. More and more are eager to sell grapes to Maison Louis Jadot. We make very careful grape selections in the vineyards before picking begins. On arrival at the winery, the grapes are placed on vibrating selection belts, where leaves, debris and damaged grapes are removed. For a generic Burgundy wine, grape selection like this is very rare, because it’s very expensive. I don’t know anyone else who is selecting to this extent. At Maison Louis Jadot we are very proud to be able to consistently produce wines of the highest quality through entry level and beyond, and we are very pleased that this Givry facility allows us to continue in this manner.

email the editor with your comments

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Flooding in Provence: the aftermath

Tom Schreckinger, Chateau d’Esclans, reports on the ensuing havoc the rain storm wreaked on the Var.

As we understand it, the aftermath of the horrific flooding in our region following nearly 24 hours of rain is that approximately 200 people lost their lives and over 700 went to clinics to be treated. Topographically, vineyards in the flat lands were inundated to the point of significant vine loss. The town of Le Muy’s major shopping centre was badly flooded and subsequently closed for repairs, which will be on going for some time to come.

President Sarkozy toured the Var and declared it a Region Sinistree. Some parts of the region including this property [Chateau d’Esclans] were without electricity for almost two days.

People who have lived here for many years claim never having seen anything like this.

Forty millimetres per square metre fell.

From this wine maker’s perspective, we managed to get through it and July is moving forward accordingly.

Interestingly and characteristically there hasn’t been much rain since the storm and meteorologists are predicting this summer to be among the hottest in France, which means quite hot and possibly very dry in Provence.

During the past 10 days the grapes on Chateau d’Esclans’ vines have grown to be noticeably larger in size suggesting an accelerated pace of growth after the rains. Drainage is swift on the hillsides of the terroir surrounding the property, which boded favourably for the higher elevated parcels though there was mud that slid down to the parcels at lower elevation.

A secondary – positive - impact to the heavy rain fall is that the wild boar, of which there are scores in this area, will be more likely to stay in the forest as the rain water will be in abundance for them to drink. Plus the flooding will have churned the earth creating upheaval and easier access to their delicacy of choice - earthworms.

The good news is that these conditions in the forest will, for the moment, pre-empt their inclination to come towards the vineyards at night and eat grapes hanging from the vines located in accessible areas that aren’t protected by electric fences.

email the editor with your comments on this subject

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Truly global brands?

Barnaby Rodgers, brands manager - J. Wray & Nephew UK

As the global economic landscape continues to change and evolve, what spirits brands are evolving into those that can truly attest to having a global appeal?

Having travelled relatively widely in the last 5 years, it always surprises me how leading brands in sectors differ across countries, continents and states. To this effect, I have been trying to put my finger on what attributes (besides £$€) do brands that transcend borders have and if they can they be replicated and learnt from? What emerging/challenger brands are demonstrating that intelligent strategic planning can cater for consumers the world over?

Thoughts please . . .

NB You also can followBarnaby's discussions on LinkedIn

email the editor with your comments on this subject

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Developing a strong brand image

Walter Marcinowski, CEO Walmar International and marketing and advertising specialist (New York) June 21, 2010

Developing a strong brand image is all about creating an emotional bond with the consumer. Targeting a specific type of event or lifestyle is a great way to get the program going.

Over the years a number of brands in various fields understood who their primary target was and focused on building that brand image by catering to that group or their aspirational lifestyle image. 

Examples I can think of include Moet & Chandon who recognized that their biggest market was younger women who were mostly administrative or just launching their careers and had jobs paying 30 to 40K. Their aspirational lifestyles however included romance and a climb up the corporate ladder. Whenever social or business goals were achieved these ladies would celebrate with their drink of choice, which was champagne. Moet made it a point to be there for them. The result was becoming the dominator of the market in that category with 49% of US market up from 9% a little more than a decade earlier. 

Brands can also capture a niche market as did Mount Gay Rum in targeting the sailing community. If there was a regatta or event that had a sailboat involved. Mount Gay was there. Their promotional hats became a badge to the sail-racing aficionado. Vast collections were accumulated with each event and year emblazoned on them. Many memories were made as well.

Combining lifestyles with your brand image can carve out your place in your consumer’s heart. Whether it be rap music, rodeo, ballet, poker, a social cause like breast cancer or AID’s or just the local annual festival for the small brand owner. Identify yourself with something that is authentic to your product and easily fits into the lifestyle or aspirational image of the narrow-casted target. Then own that segment! It will go a long way into getting your product on the shelf and keeping it there for years to come.

For me there’s nothing like Hellman’s mayonnaise.

Brand development and launch

Walter Marcinowski, CEO Walmar International and marketing and advertising specialist (New York) May 3, 2010

It seems like every day I come across another new product developed by people who ordinarily have good sense and are pretty decent business people but who don’t know the rigors of the beverage alcohol business.

They go into it the wrong way and end up burning through a lot of capital before they realized they did it all wrong and are on their way down. By that time there is very little I can do for most of them except to find them a buyer for their tax loss carry forward and help them dispose of their excess inventory. In response I have decided to share some basics on what to do when developing a new brand in beverage alcohol.

Rule 1. Research the market to find a niche where you are filling a void or demand in the market. It’s a lot easier to make a success in a pull market strategy than a push market with your brilliant new idea for chocolate vodka!

Rule 2. Write a business plan with a full marketing plan detailing all promotions, advertising and spending support at all three tiers! Don’t just design a bottle and some key chains and spend all your money perfecting the flavor. The marketing budget needs to be substantial to be successful. Match the budget to your launch and growth plan! The budget should carry the entire plan from manufacturing to promotions for 18 months without income! Promotions, promotions, promotions! Forget advertising unless you have more than 5 million in your budget it’s a waste for a new brand launch.

Rule 3. Interview prospective distributors in advance and get their input on what they think of your idea and what they would do to support your brand. Then don’t believe anything they told you. You will need to support the brand yourself! If you believe otherwise just send me the money and I will buy you a Goldman derivative. They are necessary in the three-tier system so you need to follow the rule “keep your friends close and your enemies even closer.” There are some great hard working distributors out there, but they are few and far between unless you are Diageo or Pernod. Start in your home area and do not succumb to the number one reason for failure in the business “Distributor Expansion” Because you can find distributors in 20 states it doesn’t mean you can support them.

Rule 4. Create a brand image that is more than the stuff in the bottle. You need it to make an emotional connection to your audience and become a meaningful part of their lives in order for it to succeed. Once decided on, stick to the brand image and reinforce it!

Rule 5. Leverage word of mouth, Public Relations and social media to get the buzz going and control the budget!

Rule 6. Promotions, tasting, promotions, tasting! Get the product into the hands of the audience and let them taste it! The product is its own best promotion!

Rule 7. Its ok to get celebrities to endorse the product and evangelize it, but do not tie it to any single celebrity. I guarantee it will eventually backfire on you!

Also watch out for the nightclub hustle. They get you to spend 25 to 50K on major promotional parties and then do not support your brand. There is a new sucker in them every night doing the same thing.

Rule 8. Brand Ambassadors should be hired to support the distributor’s efforts in each market, but they must be hired by you and report to you. Don’t go for the in-house guy at the distributor. You need them to be loyal to you and your brand. You need your own eyes and ears in the marketplace to give you real time feedback.

Rule 9. If you do not have industry experience go out and hire an old timer to be on your team with 20+ years of experience in the industry. They will save you a fortune in costly mistakes! They can pick up a phone and solve most of your problems through a friend or two. Most countries have laws concerning the industry but the US has 51 laws all of which are unique. You need to know what to expect! Also get an accounting firm that has industry tax experience in advance!

NB You also can follow Walter's discussions on LinkedIn

email the editor with your comments on this subject

DESIGNER COMMENT: Branded collateral John Mathers, managing director Holmes & Marchant

"Think about the branding you see on an average trip to the pub: bar towels, drinks mats, ashtrays – if you’re sitting outside – branded glassware and even the packaging of the products behind the bar. Maybe the odd poster or two dotted around the place to promote a special offer, and perhaps some giveaways if there is a promotion on, tied in with St Patricks Day or Christmas, for example.

"Now imagine a trip to a more upmarket bar. The branding that you’d see in a regular pub is absent: napkins and not branded drinks mats are used to place drinks on. You will still find branded beer glasses and perhaps the odd branded ice-bucket – but there almost certainly won’t be posters or anything else around. Even the bottles behind the bar might be a more unusual range of niche or specialist brands.

"This isn’t surprising. High-end bars trade on their venue’s look and feel and branding isn’t necessarily something they see fitting into this. Bars and clubs – and their owners – have highly developed senses of their own identities, and simply refuse to take the less-than-high-quality items that brand owners have developed in the past.

"But brands are starting to see the potential in creating collateral and partnerships that offer real value and fit in with the ethos of these high-end outlets too.

"From beautifully-designed glassware to cocktail-making events or co-created cocktail menus that carry branding; brands are starting to find interesting ways of working with new types of venues. But how can you get this right

Think about a premium look and feel. Bar and club owners may value individuality – but who’s to say that brands can’t too? If a brand can create collateral that can fit into the right environment, then bar owners are more open to discussion. This may mean looking into short production runs for more bespoke items, or rethinking how your brand can be expressed in this environment. Bright colours and logos may have to be toned down.

Have you ever seen the Virgin Atlantic first-class salt and pepper pots? Beautifully designed little metal planes with the words ‘Pinched from Virgin Atlantic’ on the bottom. Virgin has created something beautiful and eminently stealable – a perfect piece of brand collateral (not that you would want all collateral to be stolen, but it’s a nice compliment). There’s barely a student or 20-something in the country without a few lovely branded glasses in their cupboard too. Create something at a reasonably low cost that is durable and beautiful and you will find that people respond.

Be as imaginative as you dare. Regulation is becoming ever tighter and no one can predict how long it will be before any area is tightly controlled. The more iconic and imaginative the collateral you create, the more memorable it will be, even after any regulation has been brought in.

If you’re going to begin this sort of strategy, it’s important to stick to it. The worst thing you can do the minute a short-notice opportunity arises is to surround yourself with cheap plastic promotional items.

And finally, remember that it’s not just about creating physical collateral but about getting consumers more broadly involved with your brand. In Ireland, for example, there are now several ‘pour your own pint’ pubs, most offering Guinness and a lager brand. Customers who want to pour their own pints can book a table at these venues and help themselves to beer. It doesn’t need to be a branded beer glass or a drip tray – experiences can involve customers even more effectively.

Responses to the UK Budget which sees more unwelcome tax rises on alcohol (March 24, 2010)

Sarah Taylor of international law firm Pinsent Masons comments:

"Drinkers were hammered once again by the Chancellor in Wednesday's Budget, but there was no mention of minimum alcohol pricing. The Government now seems set to ignore calls to get tough on pricing in order to tackle binge drinking, even though the Commons' Health Select Committee has joined a growing band advocating minimum pricing as a means of addressing the damage done by alcohol to society (damage costed at £20 billion each year).

"The Government's caution is motivated in part by economic thinking: there is a reluctance to trigger an increase in shopping bills whilst households continue to be squeezed by the downturn. But it is hard to avoid a conclusion that political factors are also in play with a disinclination to promote such a controversial measure so close to an election. We are left then with the Exchequer's traditional approach - increases on duty, with cider singled out for particular attention this time. The drinks' industry will be, on the whole, heartened. Others will identify a missed opportunity."

Edwin Atkinson, Director General of the Gin & Vodka Association comments:

“The Chancellor cannot have it both ways,” said, which represents by far the largest sector of the UK spirits trade. “If he wants more revenue, there is no point in raising excise taxes on spirits. Revenue from spirits to the Treasury fell by £49m in 2009.”

This is because today’s tax rate is already so high, it is close the point of diminishing returns. The average tax on a bottle of spirits sold in the supermarkets was already 70% before this Budget.

The new Government should abolish the tax escalator. It is an out of date tool. Any further tax increases may only put revenues further at risk. We ask that more be done to retain the industry’s competitiveness and create an environment that will encourage investment. This will not be obtainable if producer suffers higher costs."

Jeremy Beadles, CEO of the Wine and Spirits Trade Association comments:

"Successive punitive tax rises on alcohol are taking their toll on household budgets and mean further job losses in the drinks industry are on the cards this year.
"The last year alone has seen business closures and 30,000 job losses and today's Budget means higher prices for consumers and more misery in a sector that ought to be part of Britain's economic recovery."

Gavin Hewitt, CEO of The Scotch Whisky Association, comments:

"The Chancellor’s duty escalator policy is totally misguided. The policy has failed. Revenue from spirits to the Treasury fell by £49m in 2009. Today’s duty rise by a Scottish Chancellor will not secure the increased revenue that he is looking for and undermines an industry that brings massive economic benefit to Scotland.

"He has hit Scotch at home and set a bad example for duty regimes in our export markets. Today’s decision is worsened by the announcement that the above inflation rises will continue for an extra two years to 2015.

"After the election the new Government needs to take a long hard look at the excise duty regime. The escalator should be abolished, duty on spirits should be frozen and the duty discrimination faced by Scotch, which the Chancellor has worsened again today, should be addressed through approximation of duty rates, and eventually duty equivalence for all alcoholic drinks over the life of the next Parliament.”

Certain savvy drinks manufacturers are using design strategically to create gift packaging that transforms their brands. Yes, to transform the brand, not just for a Christmas sales boost. Champagne brands are increasingly innovative here, especially at duty free, but can spirits brands learn anything from them?

Well yes. I can formally announce that the era of the free Edinburgh crystal tumbler is officially over. Gift packaging has finally grown up.

What we have here is a simple but beautiful solution to the problems faced by every successful drinks brand. When sales reach a plateau, brand managers ask the same questions - How do I find new audiences, and become relevant to different consumers, without totally reinventing my brand and changing my hard won brand equities? How do I appeal to all age groups, to both traditional and modern tastes? How do I get new audiences without alienating existing loyalists? Sound familiar?

The answer could be as simple as this…embrace strategically designed gift packaging. It can deliver on so many levels allowing brands to add depth, value and additional equity without throwing the baby out with the bath water. We all know good gift packaging drives special occasion purchases, but it can also deliver increased profits by adding extra premium cues, tapping into consumer aspirations and addressing consumers’ increasing desire for ready wrapped gifts. As a brand building tool it can also do so much more at a relatively low cost.

I believe it’s called a win/win situation. My, we’ve come a long way from the free cocktail recipe and swizzle stick days.

Brands can harness the power of design in their gift packaging to turn up the volume on specific brand personality traits this way - Imagine what well designed outer cartons could achieve for other classic brands. If for example Southern Comfort wanted to reassert its connection with New Orleans, if Bacardi wanted to highlight its links with its Cuban heritage, or if Gordon’s wanted to add a touch of English naughtiness – outer cartons can achieve this on shelf at a fraction of the cost of an ad campaign. It is a medium that is perfect for exploring new ideas with relatively low risk and low cost.

Gift packaging as a holiday special is over.
Use it to get your brand noticed at point of sale all year round and to take your brand to places it has never dreamed of. Use special edition outer packs as brand builders, as new audience profile exploration, as a premiumiser, as a brand story enhancer and as a fresh, affordable advertising campaign. With gifting opportunities increasing throughout the calendar year and across all markets, intelligent branding design for your outer cartons can help you exploit so many opportunities.

I am pleased to say the era of the novelty tumbler is over indeed. The gift pack’s star is rising at last.

Walter Marcinowski, CEO Walmar International and marketing and advertising specialist (New York) starts a discussion February 10, 2010

First some stats from WSD: "Wine and spirits pricing has gone down, while beer in general continues to lead pricing. Price change versus a year ago for beer grew 0.9%, while wine pricing declined -1.4% and spirits pricing grew 0.4% at a much smaller rate than a year ago. Coupon usage is steadily growing, especially for beer. Coupon distribution grew 37% for beer, which are also redeemed at a faster rate.

Meanwhile, growth of wine and spirits store brands are outperforming branded products. On a small base, private/exclusive wine and spirits labels are growing well ahead of the category "as consumers are looking for brands that provide them with value, meaning good product for a fair price," said Nick Lake, vp of beverage alcohol for Nielsen. Keep in mind, though that private label wines have 3.3% category volume share and private label spirits have 4.6%."

There is still a branding element of being cool with your brand but due to shifting economics the products are changing. Sipping the big headed fruit filled CA Cabernet at US$80 to $100 a bottle is not cool anymore but finding those same qualities in a $30 bottle is! Even though the end of 2009 saw an up trend in the purchase of premium wines, it did not mean people were going back to their old pre-crash habits. Most of the wines they were paying $30 to $50 for were priced at $80 to $100 just two years ago.

The sweet spot is still the $9 to $15 range of premium wines and spirits. Super premium wines and ultra premium spirits are the biggest losers at years end.

For those who like to brand themselves by identifying with the newest cool they are now doing it with a more affordable cool: craft beers, local, authentic, hip etc. And at much lower costs than those over-the-top vodkas.

As to the other cool its coupons and causes. Coupons are becoming de riguerre. Tie them in with a cause and you are bound to see a pop in sales. There is even a company called Coupons for Causes with a turn key that can take you through all of the necessary steps.

Private labels are also gaining in popularity and growth. If you are peddling one of those super premium wines or ultra premium spirits you should take a look at doing private labels to move some inventory without destroying the flagship brand.

The new Cool in a Carafe:
From a retail on-premise standpoint another growing trend is wine on tap from 20 litre kegs. High quality wines from around the globe can be served in this fashion at a cost of less than $1 per glass. There is no loss due to spoilage, there is no need for storage of countless bottles and empty cases and all elements are completely recyclable so its green as well. Available in NY and CA but rapidly taking hold in other areas.

add your comments on this subject

If you have ever whiled away a morning 'people watching' at a café in the Latin quarter of Paris by the Garden de Luxemburg or, indulged in a long lunch at a good restaurant in the Marie, you will at some point during the experience reached that sublime point when the sheer quality of life in Paris overwhelms you. Precisely which combination of elements - the architecture, the ambiance of the street, the chicness of the Parisian’s conspire to create this feeling is difficult to identify but there is no doubt as to it’s effectiveness.

Helpfully The French have a phrase for this indefinable quality. They call it “Jen ne se quoi” which translates literally as ‘I don’t know what.’ If taken literally as a definition this is a fat lot of good, but at least it reassures us that firstly the quality exists, and secondly that it really is too ephemeral to pin down using words.

Quality is like that too.

If you attempt to pin down quality in a design, it either becomes a soulless list of technical attributes which evokes very little, or it evaporates in a cloud of metaphors that mean even less.

However, everyone can understand it when it is present. This month we have been gifted two wonderful examples of quality in design. The first comes, quell surprise, from French design student Adrien Cussonneau, a graduate of the Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique. You can see his work on this site on the packaging page – it consists of a complete re-visioning of what wine bottles should be like.

Technically challenging (this is a good thing, technology should always be challenged, it’s how it advances) Adrien defined a new ‘two dimensional’ format for the 35cl bottles that enables the brand owner to offer a selection of wines for consumers to sample. It’s a nice idea, but would have remained merely an intriguing concept had he not put in the time and crafted something beautiful. The quality of thinking and design refinement helps elevate this proposal to a new plane turning a student concept into a full formed proposition.

Quality of design is what separates the recent Owens Illinois range of wine bottles also on this website's packaging page. There are four bottles in the range, a carafe which is voluptuous and graceful at the same time, a cylinder that restates minimalism in fresh and engaging way. The squared and the stackable are not quite as successful form me but that’s just personal taste-one very chic young woman I know thinks the squared is beautiful so what do I know? It is the quality of the designs that make them so beautiful, the intensive working of the proportion and detail until it is just so.

That all the examples given above come from France suggests there may be a cultural issue here as well. It takes time to craft perfectly formed designs and a sensitivity to minutia.

Maybe there is more to ‘Je ne se Qoius’ than I know.

Responses to the Conservative Party's Green Paper on Public Health January 13, 2010

Tim Wilson, author of independent research, The Wilson Drinks Report: a new independent, research based report on industry trends and changing consumer attitudes relating to the sale and consumption of alcohol in the UK.

Units, according to the Tories, should be replaced with labels which detail the volume of alcohol and the calorie content of each drink.

Mandatory labelling of alcoholic products is to be welcomed, especially given the farce we have witnessed in food labelling over the last few years.

However replacing units of alcohol with cl of alcohol will confuse the consumer even more. Especially since 1 unit is precisely 1cl of alcohol. Our unit system is several years old and has worked its way into our everyday understanding of how much is safe to drink. Removal of the unit system could trigger a succession of problems and questions. How much is safe to drink in cl before it is illegal to drive? How much is it safe to drink in cl over a week? People may not be clear on this. This requires education, time and money to turn us from a nation who relies on some knowledge linked to units to take us to a new system based around cl. How will 1.4 cl be any better information than 1.4 units?

The Tories propose an increase in duty on alcopops, super strength beer and super strength cider in an effort to reduce consumption. But this is simply tinkering at the edges and fails to address the core issue. Alcopops (ready to drink) are in long term decline and sell at relatively high pence per unit. The volumes sold of super strength beer and cider are tiny. A more radical restructuring of the duty regime is required which links the duty directly to the amount of alcohol in the bottle or can.

We welcome all proposals that support more responsible pricing of alcohol in the marketplace; the removal of below cost sales and preventing sales to under age consumers are an immediate requirement.

Wine & Spirits Trade Association (WSTA) chief executive Jeremy Beadles:

"We welcome steps to encourage consumers to make informed choices and take responsibility for their own behaviour and the opportunity for businesses to be involved in shaping and implementing agreements around responsible marketing of alcohol products.

"It makes sense to provide information for consumers about alcohol in a way that can easily be related to specific drinks. Equally, it is clear that standardised labelling would require European wide agreement.

"We welcome the Green Paper's emphasis on local partnership working. Our experience is that Community Alcohol Partnerships bringing together retailers, police and local authorities have a real impact in tackling alcohol misuse.

"We believe that policies to address alcohol misuse are most likely to succeed if they focus on problem drinkers rather than particular products. Evidence from other countries suggests that higher taxes and prices for certain drinks do not change the behaviour of those who misuse alcohol."

Responses to the Health Select Committee report calling for minimum pricing and further restrictions on the advertising of alcohol products January 7, 2010

Tim Wilson, author of independent research, The Wilson Drinks Report:

"The report is a good review of the issues and challenges facing everyone connected and impacted by alcohol in the UK

"However, there are some naïve errors in the report. Wine is not sold in 700ml bottles (it is typically 750ml) and very few wines are produced at 10% ABV so the example given of minimum pricing in the executive summary is neither usable nor helpful.

"The drinks industry will respond a lot better to minimum pricing if they could achieve higher margins on lower volumes

"The proposals on duty changes do not go far enough. There needs to be a radical review of the alcohol duty regime. Duty needs to be directly based on the amount of pure alcohol in each consumer unit rather than political objectives such as protecting the Scotch Whisky Industry."

Edwin Atkinson, director general of the Gin & Vodka Association:

“We recognise and share the Committee’s desire to tackle alcohol misuse. The GVA is committed to working in partnership with Government and other stakeholders to tackle alcohol misuse. But the Committee’s calls for minimum pricing are ill-founded as solutions to the harmful use of alcohol. Price is a blunt, inappropriate and ineffective instrument to deal with alcohol misuse.

“It is wrong to assume that an increase in price at the bottom of the price range will affect those who misuse alcohol beverages. International evidence suggests that those who misuse alcohol are least likely to change their behaviour because of price changes.

“The Committee’s proposal to increase taxation on spirits as a solution to harmful drinking is similarly surprising, given that spirits represented only 12% of male and only 16% of female alcohol consumption in England in 2008.

“There is already in place a robust regulatory framework to tackle alcohol misuse. It should be used effectively.”

Campbell Evans, government and consumer affairs director at The Scotch Whisky Association

“It is disappointing but unsurprising that the Committee has simply re-hashed restrictive blanket policies that fail to target problem drinkers, whilst penalising moderate consumers. Ever higher excise duties on Scotch and minimum pricing would do little to target the minority of people who drink to excess. Yet they would seriously damage a major contributor to the economy and one of the country’s few manufacturing successes, representing 25% of UK food and drink exports.

“The Committee is unfairly singling out spirit drinks, such as Scotch Whisky. Spirit drinks represent less than 20% of the UK drinks market and alcohol sold as spirits is already taxed more heavily than other drinks. In calling for minimum pricing, the Committee is seeking to introduce a measure that we believe to be both illegal and ineffective.

“Distillers are committed to tackling alcohol misuse and support measures to tackle loss-leading alcohol sales, ensure strict licensing law enforcement, and uphold the highest standards of responsible marketing practice.

“The Health Committee is right to call for more efforts to tackle alcohol related harm. However, it would have been far better for the Committee to examine what effective measures to tackle alcohol harm could be brought forward in partnership between government, retailers, and producers.”

Jeremy Beadles chief executiveWine & Spirits Trade Association (WSTA):

"There are no surprises here. This Select Committee report is just part of the concerted campaign by elements of the health lobby for a range of policies which will punish millions of hard-working people while doing nothing to tackle the problem few.

“The truth is that a minimum price of 50p or tax rises would force prices up for responsible consumers while proposed advertising restrictions amount to an effective ban which would put jobs at risk in the media and advertising industries.

“Government statistics show that 7% of the population drink 33% of the alcohol in the UK. On that basis we should be focusing our efforts on tackling problem drinkers rather than punishing the many.

“What’s needed is tough action against those who misuse alcohol with help for those who have a genuine health problem and mandatory school education about alcohol so that people understand the risks.

“The drinks industry is working in partnership with local authorities and others to combat underage purchase and possession of alcohol and investing in Government endorsed campaigns to persuade consumers to change their behaviour.

“Let’s focus our efforts on policies which make a difference rather than pursue a mantra of price rises and bans which will not address the root causes of alcohol misuse.”

If perception is reality does this mean every time we knowingly and pleasurably relax our senses with our favourite drink we are upsetting the very fabric of reality? That is a worrying thought and an obvious call to relax our senses even more as we are clearly somewhat overwrought today. As a creative tool, used with moderation, the reality softening possibilities of drink can provide some great inspirations. A lot of creative visionaries have employed the blurring of reality a great cognac or fine malt can deliver.

Hemingway is one obvious example of the an artist who took the approach a touch too far, but along the way managed to write some of the finest literature to come out of America in two decades and invented the Hemingway daiquiri at the El Floridita Bar in Havana and introduced millions of Americans to the joys of sipping a Pernod in a Parisian café.

Some of the Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, Dadaists, Fauvists and – well to be frank just about every art movement has at one time or another allowed themselves the luxury of a glass or two before during and after the creative act.

But that is Art. What about design? Do designers recognise the ability of a glass of wine or a spirit to open up the design envelope? Of course they do. This should never be taken to excess of course, and Vincent Van Gogh is NOT the role model that we would aspire to, but the reality is that the imagination is a powerful tool that just about any stimulus can provoke into creating something unique and beautiful. A fine Cognac or a classic cocktail is an excellent way to supply the analytical part of the brain with a minor sedative so that it goes and has a nice lie down and lets the irrational out to play.

Of course there is a direct hike in creativity if you love the product you are designing for in any case, this is also human nature. The fabulous care and attention to detail that is evident in Lalique’s decanter design for The Macallan’s 57 year old Malt is inspiring not just in its immaculate proportions and subtle detailing but also in its manufacture. It took 15 of France’s finest craftsmen to produce the decanters in addition to the labour of love contributed by the Lalique design team. I am sure that they were all sober men and women, however I am equally sure that they know the benefit of a glass or two to lift the imagination.

I am not entirely sure what provoked the Absolut Rock bottle with its studded leather jacket but perhaps the product immersion session went on a little too late into the night. I can picture it easily. It all starts innocently enough with some sampling and before you can say two o’clock in the morning you are in a biker’s bar down at the docks. Wow! I have just had this brilliant idea…!

Certainly that maps pretty well to some experiences we have had in the past - only you need to substitute market research in bars in Dublin for the quay in Stockholm and the black stuff for Absolut.

One day I am going to conduct a scientific experiment to see which of the many wonderful products available has what effect on creativity. Does malt provide increased conceptual depth or aesthetic daring? Does a good Rioja increase the use of colour or does Chablis improve a design’s proportions?
This is an experiment I have attempted many times. Unfortunately there have been no definitive results to date but one day, once I have found a designated designer, I’ll let you know my findings. I may even invite the boss to review the results.

Growers could be missing an opportunity

Roger Harris, Beaujolais specialist at Roger Harris Wines

Inter Beaujolais, the regional wine council, is understood to be considering a ban on wineries packaging Beaujolais Nouveau in PET bottles and cartons. A few of the main producers have started to bottle some of their Nouveau in PET, a move which was criticised by Daniel Bulliat, head of the Beaujolais-Beaujolais Village wine trade body at a conference in Japan.

I believe Beaujolais producers should be prepared to innovate and grasp new opportunities to help boost their businesses. Nouveau in particular is a young, lively wine and packaging it in modern, convenient PET bottles can really enhance its appeal.

Japan is a key market for Nouveau, and given the need for speedy delivery to meet the release dates on the third Thursday in November, air freight is essential. Not only does this add dramatically to producers’ costs, it has enormous environmental implications.

Almost every industry is looking at ways to reduce the impact of their activities on the environment. Supermarkets, wine retailers, restaurants and venues are all considering how changes to packaging can help them reduce their carbon footprint. PET bottles are 35% lighter than their glass equivalent, dramatically cutting the number of required freight journeys. Furthermore, the manufacture of PET bottles requires one sixth of the energy used to produce glass bottles.”

This year nearly 5.5 million bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau were air freighted to Japan . Of these, 756,000 were PET bottles, saving over 3,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. However, over 4.6 million bottles were glass. Changing these to PET would save a further 19,000 tonnes of CO2, equivalent to one person flying from France to Japan 15 times.

My company has helped develop a new long-life PET bottle, which provides a complete mechanical barrier to oxygen – it has been rigorously tested by an independent laboratory including chemical analysis and blind tastings by wine experts. The research showed that wine in the PET stayed fresh for at least two years and was no different from that stored in glass over the same period.

Overall, I believe Beaujolais producers should aim to embrace new developments rather than feel threatened by them. Certainly it seems an extreme step to take to restrict the sales of those wineries who are trying to move with the times.

Luxury and sustainability aren’t thought of as obvious bedfellows when it comes to brand. After all, they represent the antithesis of sustainability, surely? What counts, according to conventional wisdom, is the best and rarest raw materials, the most meticulous production, and the ultimate in extravagant packaging – whatever the cost. But the heart of really desirable high-end brands has always been more than bling. And bringing those deeper values to the fore is becoming a prerequisite if they are to build a connection with a new cohort of informed, aware and discerning consumers.

A strong part of the appeal of true luxury brands has always been timelessness, authenticity, longevity. These are not disposable fashion items and they’re not just the ultimate symbol of success. They’re about taste – made to savour, built to last, to treasure, to pass on to the next generation – whether that’s a tangible heirloom, an allegiance to a particular fragrance house or a love for a particular food or wine or whisky. At a time when high fashion is so easily copied by mainstream brands, luxury brands need to satisfy a desire for deeper meaning.

Concepts of luxury have moved on from the 19th century obsession with possessing the last and the only. Aspirations have changed and that’s a global shift, not confined to Western economies. The WWF noted back in 2007 that, contrary to conventional wisdom, affluent consumers in Asia and Latin America were increasingly concerned about social and environmental issues.

Yet in the luxury market currently, it seems to be only the relatively young pretenders that are making a stand. John Hardy, for example, takes its mission to be a people company responsibly creating handmade jewellery through its operations: its Balinese workers lunch on organic food grown in the workshop grounds, which double as a farm; its offices in Hong Hong were designed using natural, non-toxic materials; its print advertising is carbon offset. Sales of the Tesla electric sports car have defied the recession.

Having a strong story to tell about how the brand ensures that the beautiful and the precious will continue to be available in the future doesn’t detract from rarity or prestige. Value lies in the craftsmanship, care and pride with which the raw materials are sourced, the goods are made and the creativity of the vision that conceived them. There can be no more demanding consumer than those of luxury brands and they’re starting to ask hard questions. So now’s the time to get the record clean and the story straight and redefine the concept of desirability.

I just Googled the word ‘innovation’ and got 107 million references in 0.35 seconds. It’s clearly a popular subject. Most of the mentions are pretty learned treatises on how to think up successful new products. Many of them particularly focus on the question: why can’t big companies innovate like the tiddlers can?

This last question is one close to my heart. You’d think the multinationals would be much more successful, wouldn’t you? After all, they have all the money, all the best brains and all of the best processes. But despite all that, they’re often just not as good at coming up with the so-called ‘breakthrough ideas’ as the minnows.

I know why. And the answer is really stupid. Being successful at anything is all about momentum. Building up a head of steam. Getting into the zone. Focusing on the problem to be solved. Leveraging the enthusiasm, passion and excitement of the people involved.

This rarely happens in big companies. Here, three massive obstacles slow every step of the innovation process. First there is the need to communicate upwards and outwards so that everyone is ‘in the loop’. Second there is an insistence on finessing a research programme before doing it; and thirdly there is a demand to find out whether an idea can be done before asking consumers whether they want it.

These three brakes on innovation suck the lifeblood out of what should be an exciting and enjoyable experience. Inside big companies, the innovation drivers can lose their way in the maze of internal communications; R&D, when asked to put their name against feasibility studies can suddenly go coy and conservative; whilst outside, the various supporting service suppliers such as advertising and design, can lose interest and move on to other more urgent projects.

Innovation projects should be like a rocket – either building up speed and achieving lift off, or crashing and burning fast. In too many large companies they’re more like a learner driver behind the wheel of a car – short jerky forward movement followed by long periods of stall. You wonder, for example, if Sipsmith gin, the new authentic local ‘London’ gin, could have happened in one of the big drinks companies. As it is, it got on the market quickly and has quickly been embraced by consumers, bartenders and restaurant owners for its uniqueness.

So what’s the answer to the big company momentum killers? Treat new ideas like fragile green shoots that need protecting. Share the news about the idea internally once you know it’s wanted. Next, check its feasibility after you know consumers want to buy it. And finally: go quick and dirty on research, rather than building a consumer assessment ‘Taj Mahal’. In fact, dare I say it, just go and chat to your friends about the idea first and if they give you that weird look, then you’ve saved yourself a lot of time and money.

Finally, why should we look to start ups or small companies for guidance on momentum? Well it probably boils down to this: when the idea is all that stands between you and going bust, you really want to get things done in a hurry.

How is it that some brands achieve greatness while others fall by the wayside? Why is it that some drinks entrepreneurs hit the gold seam not just once but at least twice in a career and what does this have to do with design?

It’s all about clarity. Take vodka for example. Amongst the many things that had to go right for Absolut in its long haul from obscurity to becoming an iconic global brand was establishing an iconic brand design. Design has long been embedded in Absolut and it is clear from a visit to their HQ that Art and design has a central role in the corporate culture, after all, they are Scandinavians.

But lots of brands use design and designers only to sink without a trace a year or two after the launch. What is different about successful brands? A sceptic might be tempted to contrast Absolute with Grey Goose, after all grey Goose is a huge success and, although nicely designed it doesn’t have the purity of design thinking that Absolut has challenged since its birth.

The sceptic is entirely wrong. At a fundamental level Grey Goose and Absolut are identical. They have great clarity. Legend has it that the Grey Goose landed in front of Stanley Frank fully formed out of a clear blue Sunday sky. As a designer I find this entirely believable, inspiration works that way. The Goose came fully equipped with a wonderful set of associations, blue skies, freedom, naturalness, and flying high and far, all these associations clearly express the essence of the brand.

Absolut has the same clarity of vision. Purity lies at the heart of the brand, a single essential claim that has just as much power as the Goose.
Can it be true that clarity is the difference between success and failure for a new brand? We consider the alternative. If your new brand does not have a pure clearly articulated benefit how can you expect a consumer to understand it? The market is saturated with new launches every year many of them sadly believing that versions of existing themes will work. They won’t.

Any new launch needs a truth at its heart. Absolute is about purity, Grey Goose is about freedom.

Can you name me one major drinks brand that thrives on complexity and confusion? Thought not.

So why do so many new brands get launched when they fail to meet this simple need?

Now that is a very good question.

Campbell Evans of The Scotch Whisky Association comments:

"Today's debate showed growing consensus that major question marks hang over the legality and effectiveness of minimum pricing.

"We welcome cross party calls for effective alternatives, such as better enforcement of licensing laws and for the industry's proposed ban on alcohol sales below tax. By focusing on such alternatives rather than minimum pricing, early agreement on a Bill tackling alcohol misuse is achievable.

"That the Scottish Government, however, continues to ignore the damage minimum pricing will cause Scotch Whisky is deeply worrying. Distillers are clear that this policy will harm Scotch Whisky at home and overseas. Some £600m a year whisky exports are being threatened by copycat discrimination. It is astonishing that the Government tried today to suggest distillers shouldn’t worry about such discrimination because they will help us fight the very trade barriers they have encouraged."

David Williamson, public affairs manager, Government & Consumer Affairs at the Scotch Whisky Association says:

"Following the recent opinion by the Advocate-General of the European Court, there is a growing consensus that minimum pricing is illegal and ineffective. It will also damage Scotch Whisky at home and in our export markets, risking hundreds of jobs.

"International copycat measures against Scotch are of particular concern. On the basis of studies into Scotch Whisky's price sensitivity, the industry estimates that £600m in whisky exports every year - 4% of total Scottish exports - are threatened as the Scottish Government proposal gives the green light to export markets to discriminate against Scotch Whisky.

"We support the vast majority of what is likely to be in the Scottish Alcohol Bill and have also proposed a ban on alcohol sales below tax. Minimum pricing is not, however, the answer. It is time for the Scottish Government to listen to these concerns and drop a proposal that will damage Scottish business and jobs, and will not address the real cause of Scotland's drink problem."

British Medical Association calls for minimum pricing of alcohol and ban on alcohol advertising

The BMA says that it is not anti-alcohol yet with alcohol consumption falling since 2004 and Britain facing the worst recession since the 1930's they call for measures that would hit the pockets of millions of consumers and threaten the livelihoods of thousands of people working in the media, advertising, television, not to mention the drinks industry.

Britain already has amongst the highest taxes on alcohol in Europe. It should be obvious by now that higher taxation and higher prices don't curb alcohol misuse. The drinks industry is funding a major campaign to change drinking patterns amongst young adults. We believe culture change is more likely to be achieved through long term education and tough enforcement.

In response to publication of the Scottish government’s legislative programme (Sept 3), which includes plans to introduce minimum pricing of alcohol, The Scotch Whisky Association says:

“We support a firm line on alcohol misuse but government claims that minimum prices will not damage Scotch are wrong and worryingly blind to the long-term harmful consequences for Scotch Whisky sales globally.

"Minimum prices will hurt Scottish distillers at home and overseas. Government figures show little evidence that this measure will tackle alcohol misuse, begging the question how high the price of alcohol will have to be increased by Government, and penalising the majority in order to discourage the minority that drink excessively.

"To introduce a minimum price trade barrier requires Scotland to opt-out of international trade rules. Such an exemption can only be justified in very limited circumstances and no Government has advanced such a claim, even in relation to tobacco. The negative message the Scottish Government is sending out about Scotch is deeply concerning.

"If successfully introduced, the Scottish Government will give the green light to countries, already keen to protect local markets, to introduce spurious health-based trade barriers against Scotch, damaging exports and the wider economy.

"Our frustration is heightened because we welcome the vast majority of the alcohol strategy and believe it could have sent out a more positive message internationally if taken forward in partnership."

How should you take your whisky?

The issue of whether you should drink quality Scots whisky on its own, on the rocks or with a splash of water has divided drinkers the world over for generations.

In an attempt to settle the issue once and for all, the makers of Jura single malt whisky is hosingt an online video debate between Richard Paterson – master blender at the Isle of Jura distillery and Colin Field, head barman at the Ritz Paris.

Representing polar opposites in the argument over how good Scots malt should be enjoyed, the two men are primed and ready for what looks set to become an historic battle.

“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. For years I’ve been forced to stand by and watch as barroom dandies sully the world’s greatest drink with a range of inappropriate mixers and sacrilegious frills, but enough is enough. Whisky is something that should be appreciated in the pure, God-given form that its distillers intended, and now I’m going to prove that once and for all,” says Paterson who believes you should not even mix the golden liquid with ice.

Field on the other hand thinks anything goes as long as it’s a quality experience. “Single malt is a drink for anybody, anywhere, anyhow. The purists can complain about it as much as they like, but with the right mixers and a splash of imagination, it can be conjured into a world-beating taste experience that will knock the spots off anything the whisky snobs might offer,” said The Ritz barman.

“Their time is over, and I’m going to show the world how a new generation of drinkers takes theirs.”

The showdown sees Paterson and Field go head to head in a fierce struggle already being billed as the whisky world’s answer to Ali V Foreman.

• Watch the broadcast on the Jura website

The “revolutionary” new Champagne closure, the Maestro from Alcan Packaging Capsules (read the launch report), is at the heart of some heated debate in the region.

The stopper is not the traditional mushroom-shaped cork secured by wires but a metal cap with an easy-open mechanism. This variation has led to the DRCCRF (the Regional Directorate of Competition, Consumption and the Repression of Fraud) to object on the grounds that it does not conform to European regulations.

"This is not a mushroom-shaped stopper, as stated in the regulation of the European Community," reported Pascal Wattiez, DRCCRF interregional technical inspector Champagne in the region’s press, L’Union. "According to the law of May 6, 1919, Champagne must be closed by a cap bearing the word Champagne on the collar and this is not the case."

The growth in alternative closures, screwcaps and synthetics, in all wine producing countries is bringing regional rulings in favour of cork into question. In Italy, for example, some wineries frustrated with DOC regulations have actually pulled out of their denomination in order to use the closure of their choice.

But Alcan says it is is confident that its capping system is fully compliant with legislation, both European and national.

In a letter to the DRCCRF, Alcan points out that, when launched in May 2009, its Maestro closure was favourably received by Champagne houses and other wine producers as well as professionals in the drinks trade – distributors and sommeliers.

In fact, so confident is Alcan in the Maestro that, in anticipation of demand, the company is making substantial investments in production facilities in the Champagne region.

Almost one hundred years on, is it time to question the rules? What is your view?

Introducing Virginia wines to the UK market

Chris Parker, CEO, New Horizon Wines, Reston, Virginia and London, UK

The selection of wines available in supermarkets in the UK is extensive compared to the typical US supermarket. Walking down the aisles of Waitrose, Sainsbury, Asda and Tesco. shoppers have an opportunity to try wines from many countries. In comparison, most US supermarkets have a minimal selection of wines from Europe and other regions, and a vast array of Californian (most of which is not very exciting). The UK supermarkets have contributed to the broader exposure and education of the new wine consumers. The choice of handcrafted, premium wines is somewhat limited at supermarkets, and many new wine consumers will start to look to other sources for wines as their knowledge grows. The exploratory wine consumer is well served by the independent wine retailers, and specialist wine companies.

In May, at the London International Wine Fair 2009 (LIWF), after a year of planning and preparation for the event, New Horizon Wines introduced ‘new’ wines from Virginia to the UK wine trade. Well not quite ‘new’ – the history of Virginia wines goes back over 350 years!

Since LIWF ended, I have had time to reflect on the success of the event, to consider current market conditions, and how we navigate the UK market.

Our choice to participate in the LIWF was made after considering various options, including delaying until next year. Trade fairs can be expensive and an event in London is not the low cost option. We also had to consider the downturn in the economy and the impact that it is having on the UK wine market.

It was the right choice not to delay and to introduce an extensive selection of world-class wines from Virginia this year. We selected LIWF in preference to other events such as Vinexpo because we felt that the UK represents the largest market for our wines and the LIWF attendees would be the right audience. We expected the number of attendees to be lower than 2008, but for us that was irrelevant as it was our first year.

I have had to think carefully about where to promote our wines. When it seems that every supermarket, wine store, and wine warehouses is offering lower priced wines, it would be almost impossible to introduce a wine into this crowded and noisy part of the market at this time. We decided to introduce premium wines from small family owned, family run producers. It is our belief that well balanced, wines that truly reflect the terroir and the passion of the winemakers in Virginia, and the rich heritage of the region will be of more interest to the UK wine consumer than just another bottle of wine on the shelf. I am generally concerned that the rush to drive prices down will lead to too many inferior wines on the market which will make it harder for wine consumers to find and enjoy the best wines from around the world.

Having lived in Virginia for 20 years, I have participated in and witnessed the development of the wineries. It is interesting to me that the choices viticulturalists and winemakers made a few years ago about the grape varietals and the methods to apply in the region is resulting in world-class wines of a style that suit the British palate. It seems that we are coming full circle.

Whatever wine the early settlers produced was probably not very drinkable; 150 years later, Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, had a vision that Virginia would produce world-class wines, which was never achieved in his lifetime. So when I stood there in the vast Excel Centre, less that 40 miles from where the first settlers left England over 400 years ago, I couldn’t help but think about the successes of the American wine industry, the impact California wines have had over the last 30 years, and now Virginia emerging as a world-class wine region producing "euro-elegant" wines. Yes, Virginia wines are ‘new’ to the UK market, but the historical links, the heritage, and the roots runs deep!

Paul Wagner, president, Balzac Communications, Napa, California

Despite the stories we all hear from retail shops, very few consumers actually walk into a store and say they only want to buy 95 point wines. Most consumers just want a nice bottle of wine at a nice price...and it would be even better if they could tell a little story about the wines as well. So why do these scores seem to carry such weight in the American marketplace?

It is unfair to blame the critics for points. The reason points are so powerful is because wineries don't have leverage to communicate directly to consumers. Those who blame the critics are missing the point entirely.

First of all, we have a distribution system that puts wineries and any message at one end and the consumer at the other. Any useful, helpful or even interesting information from the winery needs to work its way through the distributor management, the distributor sales person, the retailer and the retail sales person to finally reach the consumer. The result is very much like that old parlor game ‘telephone’: you may begin with a story about a nice family that makes distinctive wines with style and grace but what comes out the other end has been slashed down to a couple of points: 93 or 83.

Whose fault is that? When you look at the number of wines most distributors carry, you quickly come to the conclusion that it is physically impossible for them to deliver much more than order forms and wine to their customers. With a book of 5,000 wines or more, each sales call is an exercise in elimination - only a few wines get mentioned and the rest are sold by request only.

I know this will offend those in the distribution network---but it's a bit like Santa and his reindeer. If you do the math, somewhere over northern Canada the reindeer burst into flames because they simply can't go fast enough to deliver all the presents to all the children.

The problem with distribution sales people is that they don't have the time. They will happily sell wines with 98 points because they are an easy sell. But if your wine got 88 points and is not backed by a huge corporation or don't have a long tradition in the market, then you won't exist for distributorships. At that point, it really falls on you to sell the wine yourself and just use the distributor for fulfilment.

Sorry Virginia, but when it comes to distributors building a brand, there is no Santa Claus. Distributors are there to take orders, not develop markets.
What's a winery to do?

Well, one answer is to make wines that do get 90+ points. Over the past ten years I have seen people pushing for more ripeness, bigger styles and higher points. That's a pretty consistent trend, and because it pays off in the marketplace it will continue.

And certainly there are winemakers who play this game. I know winemakers who have simply told me that they don't like the style of wine they make-but if it ain't broke, they aren't going to fix it. It gets great reviews. It sells out. And the winemakers are paid. There are many winemakers working today who were hired and specifically tasked in the next three years to make a 90 point wine "or we'll get someone else”.

Winemakers are absolutely judged not so much by delivering the wine the owner wants; but a wine the critics wants for the high point ratings. This is not true of all winemakers, not is it true of all owners. But when sales slow down, distributors say "the reason is because they don't have high enough points".
Some wineries have been accused of making special bottlings for critics or selecting lots for the critics to taste. Wouldn't you do the same? When you send off wine to the media you would absolutely make sure it comes from the right bottling, wouldn't you? If some go beyond that, and make wines only for the critics, we may never know. Ultimately it is up to the ethics and integrity of each individual winery.

That's why points matter.

What other options are there? There are very few wineries who have the economic muscle to spend millions of dollars for 30 seconds on the Superbowl, so we can't expect wineries to that kind of broad market marketing.

The only alternative to aiming at blockbuster big wines is to focus on your customers. This takes a very different approach, but there are certainly examples of wineries who have done this with great success. They build direct relationships with consumer wine tastings, get on the road and do wine dinners, build personal relationships with their customers and don't need those high scores to sell wine.

The U.S. wine market is not one market: not geographically, not psychographically, not demographically. Success in the U.S. wine market is not a question of trying to make wines for a single critic but of making good wine for a certain segment of the market. If you do that, you will be successful. And I think a lot of wineries lose sight of the fact that success in the wine business is not making a 95 point wine - it's making a wine that you can sell at a profit and volume that allows you to prosper and stay in business.

But many wineries forget that those critics do not speak for all consumers. In fact, there are major consumer groups who like different styles of wines, different kinds of wines, and who reject those big powerful wines at a tremendous clip. Unfortunately, these consumers are spread all over the country, not focused in a couple of offices in a few publications. So it is much more cost effective for wineries to aim at a few critics than at a much larger group of consumers.

But we have a spectrum of wine critics in this country and depending on the style of the winery, I recommend and send wine to one critic or another. If I ran a country music band, I would not send recordings of country music to the classical music writer for the New York Times. He wouldn't understand country music and would think it was awful stuff. Every critic has a wine style perspective. Among the top wine critics today, there are very strong differences of opinion on many of the top rated wines. Wineries need to connect their winery style with critics who share an appreciation for that style.
And we have a new generation of wine drinkers that is ready for very different styles of wine. They are the most open-minded wine consumers in history. They drink wine because it feels good. It gives them a sense of adventure and exploration. And they are not afraid to experiment - they are the click-and-go generation. They try one wine and if they don't like it, they simply click and go to another.

When it comes to this new generation, the wine industry has done just about everything wrong. The irony is that this new generation doesn't know Robert Parker or the Wine Spectator. They buy their wines based on a very different set of criteria, and to use an old expression from my generation, they don't trust anyone over the age of thirty.

It's an opportunity for wineries to build relationships with these new consumers, and to make the kinds of wines they like. That will only happen if the wineries themselves see the opportunity and embrace the future.
Will points still matter? Of course they will. But even as we speak, new critics are rising, and new point systems are being devised. Even more importantly, the new social media are allowing wineries to build personal relationships directly with their customers. That allows them to bypass the bottleneck of the distribution system, and build brands based on personality, character and style.

Isn't that what the wine industry has always wanted? What are they waiting for?

Jim Trezise, President, International Riesling Foundation

A famous New York comedian named Rodney Dangerfield rose to stardom with one classic line: “I don’t get no respect.” Riesling is the Rodney Dangerfield of wine. It is arguably the most noble white wine variety in the world, and yet it remains misunderstood, underappreciated, and under-consumed.

Why? Diversity. This is Riesling’s strength, but also its weakness. Riesling is one of the few grapes which can produce wines ranging from bone dry to intensely sweet and many taste sensations in between. That’s a strength.
The weakness is that consumers often can’t predict what taste sensation is in each bottle—dry, medium dry, sweet—and can be unpleasantly surprised if they guessed wrong and the wine doesn’t fit the meal they planned.

Happily much is changing in the world of Riesling, and the International Riesling Foundation (IRF) is trying to accelerate that change. First, there is clearly a Riesling revival occurring, at least in the United States where Riesling has become the fastest growing white wine and only a tad behind Pinot Noir among all wines. This renaissance began a few years ago, and the IRF was formed to catch the wave and turn a serendipitous blip into a long-term trend.
There are many strengths to promote. Riesling provides a great reflection of “terroir” not only among countries or regions but individual vineyards, guaranteeing infinite variations around a common theme. Riesling is the most versatile “food wine”, with the different styles acting as complement or counterpoint to an incredible range of cuisines as well as serving as a great, palate-enhancing aperitif.

Then there’s Riesling’s diversity. We’re seeking to turn that into a consistent strength by letting consumers know what’s in each bottle. The method: a Riesling Taste Profile developed by the IRF.

One of our first projects involved market research by Wine Opinions on consumer perceptions of Riesling. Not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority think of it only as “a sweet white wine”. More troubling, those who don’t drink it are not at all interested in trying it.

So we developed the Riesling Taste Profile, spearheaded by California wine journalist Dan Berger in conjunction with Riesling wine makers throughout the world. The concept is to use the interplay of sugar, acid, and pH to predict the taste profile of a particular bottle—Dry, Medium Dry, Medium Sweet, or Sweet.
The IRF Riesling Taste Profile includes technical guidelines for wine makers, including a summary chart, but it is ultimately up to the wine maker where he or she places the arrow along a horizontal continuum. That graphic, in turn, may be used on back labels, point of sale materials, and in other ways to help consumers.

Everything related to the Riesling Taste Profile is available on the IRF web site drinkriesling.com, including examples of some wineries already using it, downloadable art for those who wish to, and sample “neck hangers” as a point-of-sale options.

The largest U.S. Riesling producers, Chateau Ste. Michelle and Pacific Rim of Washington State, are both committed to using it, as are many smaller producers in the U.S., New Zealand, South Africa, and other countries. We expect that it will become an industry standard within a few years, helping consumers predict what they’re buying and helping producers sell more Riesling.

The IRF has focused on the US market to date due to its great potential for Riesling growth, but is truly an international organization with a prestigious Board of Directors from Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States (California, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, and Washington). The Board is listed in the “About Us” section of the web site.

Indeed, the web site is our window for consumers to discover the wonderful world of Riesling, with information about the grapes, the wines, the foods, the regions, the Riesling Taste Profile, and much else. Another key trend in the U.S., and perhaps elsewhere, is the importance of the “millennial” generation (essentially in their 20s) to the future of the wine market. They love wine, like to experiment, want to be educated (not “sold”), and provide great opportunity for Riesling. As a result, we’re now working on several web enhancements that will tie right in to the “social media” explosion.

Another promising trend is the increasingly broad coverage of Riesling by wine and food media throughout the world. Long-time proponents like Stuart Pigott, Jancis Robinson, Howard Goldberg and Dan Berger are now being joined by many others who in the past paid little heed to the greatness of Riesling.

But we still have a long way to go. At the recent London International Wine Fair, I asked a top wine shop representative how Riesling sells. He said better, but it’s still more of a case filler than a first choice. In other words, when consumers buy 8-10 bottles and have a couple slots left, they often choose a Riesling or two.

In other words, Riesling don’t get no respect. We need to change that.

Hugo Rose MW

It’s not as easy to understand what’s going on in the British wine market as many commentators appear to believe. You will have read, for example, that California is poised to overtake France for the number two position in the UK. Yet it’s not, and it’s nowhere near. The story has been repeated in the press and on-line so consistently that it is accepted as gospel. The same was true of Australia’s supremacy in the UK market, reported religiously for about two years before it actually happened. The generic bodies make hay of course. The problem lies the widespread use of AC Nielsen statistics by so much of the UK wine press. The statistics themselves are in fact excellent, which in itself is a good thing as they are about all we have currently, now that WARC has given up publishing its Drinks Pocket Book. It’s their use that is the problem.

The cause of these and other misapprehensions is the all-too-frequent failure to mention that the regularly reported Nielsen ‘MAT’ stats are, in almost all cases, off-trade only, sourced from data provided by retailers with electronic ‘point-of-sale’ facilities. So if you are interested in what multiples, co-ops and garages are selling right now, the data is as good as it gets, timely and accurate. But if you are interested in the broader retail market, including specialists, or if your concern is to capture the 30% or so of wine sold in pubs, hotels, restaurants, then the stats give a very partial picture. This is simply because the sales mix, including style, country and price point, is so different in the different trade sectors. Yes, California is currently doing very well in the multiples on a volume measure, but it is beaten handsomely into fourth place (behind Australia, France and Italy) when the bigger picture is observed – by reference to import data for example.

And if you look at value as opposed to volume, pound notes instead of cases, then the picture changes again. On this measure France streaks into the lead, country-wide, well ahead of Australia. Again, how significant this is depends on your position. If you are an agency house largely supplying the on-trade, you would probably be better off ignoring the off-trade stats altogether.

Why the rant? Apart from the simple niceties of accurate definitions in reportage, what this does is mislead people whose views have clout – supermarket buyers for starters. Look at the rosé boom as an example. When it started in 2003 it was one of the few good news stories in the wine press. The stats were taken to mean more than they should have and rosé shelf frontages doubled and tripled as retailers chased each other round the table. The news had a distinctly self-fulfilling feel about it. Producers took up the cudgel and pumped ever more rosé into the UK market in the belief that what was good for the goose must also be good for the gander.

What the bandwagon jumpers often failed to notice was that the stats were for off-trade only, and that in the early days the boom was driven by just two brands of off-dry blush Zinfandel. What we were actually looking at was not a stepchange in drinking habits but the return of Mateus rosé in a New World guise. Dry southern French rosé was caught in the crossfire somewhere between hope and expectation. And now that, inevitably, the rosé tumescence is subsiding, not a few importers have pink cheeks.

A lazy fixation with easily available off-trade data has another effect, that of ‘disappearing’ the on-trade, whose turnover is so rarely analysed it is effectively invisible. Yet none of this is rocket science and the ‘big picture’ is there for those who seek it. Indeed Nielsen itself produces credible estimates of on-trade wine traffic though, for collection reasons, not as immediately as EPOS data.

PS, is anyone who quotes ‘MAT’ figures actually able to explain the concept, and its relevance to the industry?

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

email the editor with your comments/story

DESIGNER COMMENT: Europe and wine John Mathers, managing director Holmes & Marchant

email the editor with your comments

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Responses to the UK Government's announcement that it will ban the sale of alcohol below the level of excise duty and VAT

David Young, partner at international law firm Eversheds: Retailers face ban on loss leader drinks

Chris Sorek, CEO of alcohol awareness charity Drinkaware:

Gavin Hewitt, CEO The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA):

email the editor with your comments/story

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

email the editor with your comments/story

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

email the editor with your comments

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

email the editor with your comments

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Flooding in Provence: the aftermath

Tom Schreckinger, Chateau d’Esclans, reports on the ensuing havoc the rain storm wreaked on the Var.

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Truly global brands?

Barnaby Rodgers, brands manager - J. Wray & Nephew UK

NB You also can followBarnaby's discussions on LinkedIn

email the editor with your comments on this subject

INDUSTRY COMMENT:

Developing a strong brand image

NB You also can follow Walter's discussions on LinkedIn

email the editor with your comments on this subject

DESIGNER COMMENT: Branded collateral John Mathers, managing director Holmes & Marchant