What now? Well, there’s the obvious – make wine, enjoy your new life talking with other oenophiles all day, et cetera. But there’s more to it than that (isn’t there always?) You’re now the proud owner of a small business. You have (or will have) a unique product that no one else in the world can quite reproduce. But you also have a very large problem.
There are a thousand answers to this. Most people who think about small business marketing will send you straight to the internet. But that’s a quagmire waiting to happen – The patchwork of state and local regulations about shipping any kind of alcohol to the consumer make it difficult at best, a regulatory nightmare that can ruin your business and your life at worst. You wouldn’t hire someone to work the register without knowing they’ll play by the rules, and the natural extension of that is that you wouldn’t trust the UPS driver (who you’ve never met, and whose name you’ll never know) to verify customers either.
Wine marketing online is dangerous even for business owners who have done it for years.
The next best answer, of course, is the liquor store. Most states have tons of independent or semi-independent stores that sell liquor and/or wine to the consumer, and are responsible for confirming the purchaser is legal and all regulations are complied with. Once you work out an agreement with those stores to distribute your product, you’re all set, right?
Congratulations, your product is sitting on a shelf with a thousand just like it!
No, no, that won’t do at all. You need to differentiate yourself from the competition, especially since many consumers don’t know the first thing about wine. An admittedly unscientific study suggests that many consumers have a preference for a type of wine, but can’t tell the difference between a bottle from South Africa versus a bottle from South San Diego. This leads to consumers going based on name recognition or whose bottle is prettiest. If that’s not a terrible way to judge a good wine, we’re not sure what is, but the fact stands that it happens more often than you’d like to admit to yourself.
Your wine has got to stand out on the shelf if you’re going to make money.
Wine bottles only come in so many shapes and colors, and the more unique the physical packaging, the more it will cost. That’s no good. You’re left with things you can print to distinguish yourself to the uninformed consumer. Now, we know a few folks who run restaurants and will print out table tents on their inkjets and call it a day. If you don’t mind looking low-budget, we suppose that might be a solution in small quantities, but it’s no good if you have any sort of distribution network. You need liquor store printing in quantity, not just table tent printing for twenty tables.The first place to start is with bottle toppers. They’re obvious to the customer and grab interest quickly. Printing bottle toppers is the ideal way for you to increase interest in your product while keeping your marketing budget reasonable. Print Farm has the experience to help you print glossy bottle toppers that will fit within your budget as well as your marketing plan.
Statistically, the people who operate wineries aren’t marketing or layout geniuses, and that’s fine.
They’re quite good at what they do, and that’s what’s important. But to be successful, you need expert consultants. You need someone with graphic design and layout experience who can help you create the best possible product to drive consumer interest without breaking the bank. Ideally, you’d have graphic design and printing capability combined in the same business, with a single point of contact. Now you can. Print Farm has this experience and can ensure the best results from start to finish. Contact Print Farm today to see how we can best increase wine sales with short run digital printing.
