WELCOME TO IWD
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(This is a sticky post, please find current news items below) By Richard Shaffer in Wine from Israel |
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We introduce Americans to outstanding wines and winemakers from Israel.
FOLLOW US ON OUR NEW BLOG ISRAELIWINEBLOG.COM
We Have Launched a New Wine Blog Site - Come Visit Us!
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Sunday, 08 June 08 - 08:05 PM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine Blogs |
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Thanks to Tim Elliott who heads our publicist Acan Media, we now have a new and much improved Israeli wine blog with a great look-and-feel for you!
Check out The Israeli Wine Blog here!
What I'm Reading in Wine + Marketing This Week
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Friday, 06 June 08 - 03:44 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine Marketing |
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Our Brains are Not Built for Multi-tasking
How to Build a Brand through Community
Israeli Microbreweries: Who Knew?
The Next Gen of Social Media: Mobile Internet
Making Google Work for You Even More
What I'm Reading in Wine + Marketing This Week
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Friday, 30 May 08 - 05:53 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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I was a bit swamped this week but I did enjoy the following!
Forget About Left Brain vs. Right Brain - Are you light-brained?
Steve Rubel's Nine Digital Trends for the Future
How to Distribute Small Production Wines from Israel
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Friday, 30 May 08 - 04:47 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine Marketing |
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By now, I hope many of you have seen the nice articles on Israeli wine and food in June's Wine Spectator. I'll have more to say about that with links to wines mentioned there you can actually buy from us, over the weekend.
One of the things Dr. Yair Margalit was quoted as saying in the article was that, "the future is in the small wineries."
And my question (with a lot of self-interest of course!) and I have thought about this one enough to have my biases in place is....WHAT is the proper marketing plan for wines from small wineries, whether they are Israeli wines or not?
If you caught my sort of fired-up YouTube video post earlier this week you may know my answer to this question.
First of all, in any business start-up I believe NICHE is the only way to go.
Niche + Community Development is THE marketing plan.
(Gary Vaynerchuk spoke about this at yesterday's TECH Cocktail event)
I don't think traditional distribution makes much sense for premium small production brands like the ones we're marketing from Israel.
As a general rule DIRECT TO CONSUMER and DIRECT TO TRADE are the right channels for these fine wines.
In fact, a major Napa producer wrote this in response to a note from me asking about his preferred distributors in key states:
Hi Richard,
I love your request. With all due respect, there is no such animal as a distributor that I like. They are a necessary tool but as a small brand fighting for shelfspace, the job is best done by yourself and not by a distributor who is naturally beholden to much larger interests. Sorry to bear this news but self distribution via the internet is the means to survival and success in the new age.
Hope my message is not too direct to digest.
talk soon,
xxxx
This is not a small production winemaker - you'd know his name, you've drunk his wines.
What an unbelievable message from a winemaker who, given his size and scale, needs to work with distributors all across this country and beyond.
Mostly since I believe that small production wines are a labor of love by the winemakers and their families and unless the person on the receiving end of the wines is feeling the love (i.e., the # of intermediaries is either ZERO or something close to zero), no one will give a damn about these dreams-in-a-bottle.
So your marketing plan for these Israeli wines has to answer the question (get ready for this)......
How do we market someone else's love affair? How do we market someone else's Dream? How do we then monetize Passion + Love in the marketplace?
Because these wines are the Dreams and Love Affairs from these winemakers and their families. And that's what we're selling.
There's just not enough juice from most of these small wineries from Israel for a major wholesaler to care - and as the number of wholesalers thankfully shrinks they'll even have less attention span for small production wines, don't you think? I've said before that commercial wineries SPILL more wine than these boutiques produce.
What's a guy to do?
create on-line substantove CONTENT about wine from Israel that's not "salesy" (stay tuned!)
and
create live experiences for more and more people to:
1) TASTE THE WINES
2) EASILY PURCHASE THE WINES
3) SHARE WINES AND WINE FEEDBACK WITH OTHERS
4) MAKE PEOPLE FEEL SOMEHOW A PART OF THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE MAKING THESE GREAT WINES IN ISRAEL
5) FIND WAYS FOR CUSTOMERS TO CO-CREATE CONTENT AND EVEN PRODUCTS (stay tuned for some cool stuff in this area)
6) TALK ABOUT LOVE AND DREAMS
What else?
LIVE Tweets from Me from TECH Cocktail Conference
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Thursday, 29 May 08 - 05:47 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine, General |
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Good morning!
I'm leaving home now for the TECH Cocktail conference in Chicago.
I'll be attempting to Tweet "live" from the conference out to my followers on Twitter.
If you want to hear the key messages from some of the hottest tech + marketing + startup people out there right now (including Gary Vaynerchuk), sign up for my Twitter Feed Fast!
IWD's Video Cast about The Importance of DIRECT Marketing
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Tuesday, 27 May 08 - 05:37 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine Marketing |
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Hey - here's a link to the 3rd videocast I have done to date and posted on our YouTube platform.
The theme is the importance of DIRECT MARKETING and messaging in all of your core life activities...like interviewing for a job, proposing marriage, or.....consumer and trade marketing if you are a small boutique winery in Israel.
Enjoy!
Are there other topics you'd like me to post a video with my opinion about? Let me know.
Kim Marcus of Wine Spectator Loves Clos de Gat Wine from Israel
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Sunday, 25 May 08 - 04:41 PM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine Marketing |
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The wine + mainstream media attention to great wines coming out of the re-emerging Israeli wine scene is a blast to watch!
Follow this link to watch a short tasting video from Kim Marcus of Wine Spectator tasting two wines he likes from Israel, including one wine from a winery whose wines we sell Direct to Consumer - Clos de Gat.
Wine + Marketing Links for The Week
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Friday, 23 May 08 - 03:38 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine Marketing |
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This week's short list of some things that caught my attention:
How Might the Recession Impact Wine Sales?
How Do Social Networking Sites Work?
Let's Get Upwind of Distribution!
How Meetup.com Can Drive Sales and Database For You
2nd Guest Post from me on Israel's Green Prophet Blog
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Tuesday, 20 May 08 - 05:33 AM (GMT -06:00) By Richard Shaffer in Wine from Israel |
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Here's a link to my second post in a series at Israel's Green Prophet Blog.
Enjoy!
The next post will cover organic wine production in Israel.
... More items are available in our News Archive
