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December 7 2009

When “Altruism” needs to Equal “Cooperation”

The gravest, most sincere challenge facing the U.S. based wine industry today, tomorrow and into the future is cooperation – a “none of us is as strong as all of us” mentality that lifts market leadership and progress from iconoclasm to esprit de corp.

No, no, I’m not talking about helping somebody out with your bladder press when their press decides to pull up lame during harvest; I’m talking about cooperation on a level that fosters innovation and progressiveness in market development.

The wine industry has always been altruistic with a strong social conscience, but cooperation on the order that moves the collective sales needle forward has been elusive.

In August, Scott Becker from Global Wine Partners wrote a guest post on this site and outlined what he viewed as the future of the wine industry as the industry collectively turned the page on a chapter that coincided with the passing of Robert Mondavi.

In the next wave, Becker suggested that the industry won’t be defined by one man – real or inspirationally –who leads by putting the industry on his shoulders.  Instead, the value-chain of all segments of the wine industry, a vast network of people and relationships, working together for a common goal will be critical.  And, even more importantly, Becker also discussed the value of data within the context of these relationships.  He noted:

… more professional talent will be required to manage the network and mine the data, the glue that binds the relationships.  Speaking of data, the next chapter will need more of it.  Scanner data and depletion reports won’t be enough to readily understand what is happening in the market for fine wine.  The shift from a production focus to a market focus will accelerate through this next chapter.

Very incrementally, we’re starting to see germinating sprouts from the wine data planted seed.  In the past week an iPhone application, Cor.kz, with integration into CellarTracker, the largest user-generated database of consumer-based wine reviews, released bar code scanning functionality allowing a user to use the application to scan a bottle at home or at point of sale to find out information about the wine from various partners, like Wine-searcher.com or the aforementioned CellarTracker.

Elsewhere, an international wine social networking / tasting notes site called Adegga is trying to develop an international industry-wide wine identification code called an AVIN.  Presented on the back of wine labels, it would act as a unique product identifier similar to the way a book has a unique industry-wide identifier called an ISBN number.

Likewise, Cruvee, a business intelligence and social networking monitoring provider, just started a free service called OwnIT that allows a winery to create a central repository for their wine data ensuring that the wide array of third-party wine sites has consistent data about the winery and the wines.

This is all very interesting and well and good – but, the unfortunate challenge in each of these examples is the blending of bigger wine industry concerns with small business commerce.

That’s not the way things work.  A small technology-based wine industry provider isn’t the tail that can wag the dog.

Look at any business segment in the country and any real industry-wide collaboration and standardization has been created by a standards body or consortium that has the interests of everybody represented.  It happens thousands and thousands of times a year in virtually every industry.  It’s not always easy getting everybody on the same page, but once standards are defined innovation can occur thus allowing capitalism to proceed on its normal course.

Perhaps the great example of this is the Internet.  Nobody “owns” the Internet, yet working groups like the W3C and ICANN make very mission critical decisions about standards and definitions that subsequently flow downstream and benefit everyone engaged in business related to the Internet.

And, while there are large associations that advocate for the wine industry (Wine Institute, WineAmerica, etc) these are not organizations that have much (if any) technology related acumen—the next wave of progress for wine market development.

Now, more than ever, this wine industry-wide collaboration is necessary as the wave of innovation that leads to Becker’s data assertion is getting ready to gear up in a manner that touches us all.
I recently had the opportunity to dig into the very wonky topic of Top-Level Domain (TLD) names.  I’ll try to explain this with as much brevity as possible to get to my point.  We’re all familiar with Top-Level Domains.  They are administered by the aforementioned ICANN.  These are the web address extensions .com, .net, .org and a bunch of others that make having a web address possible.

The ownership of a Top-Level Domain has always been tightly administered and benevolent.  Nobody “owned” a domain extension.  However, marketers racking their brain to come up with a web address that hasn’t already been taken, provided their company applies for the TLD, they’ll simply be able to use .pepsi (for example) and whatever they want to precede it.

However, there are stipulations to this sponsored ownership.  The first stipulation is the not so inconsequential requirement that begins with an $185,000 application fee, associated legal fees and a technology infrastructure that some estimates indicate will drive the total cost to in between $500,000 to $1 million.

I expect many industry-wide TLD’s to be registered with subsequent “leasing” of domain names by a neutral industry group.  Think .movies for Hollywood, example.  This is important to the wine industry because, obviously, the Top-Level Domain .Wine is and will be available. 

Coming full circle, with the attempt at aggregation of industry-wide data there is also a need for an industry-wide domain extension, with altruism at its core.  While Amazon.com’s potential entry into the wine business has held interest for many it’s also the inverse of the age old problem of the White Knight Syndrome – looking for somebody coming to the rescue.  The reality is if the wine industry is interested in reducing its reliance on the 3-tier system and building out its direct-to-consumer business than the answers are starting to take shape.  But, it’s not easy, it’s not inexpensive in the short-term and it requires that the industry’s long held belief in altruism also equate to total cooperation.

In my next post, I’ll paint a real life example with the Top-Level Domain .jobs and the impact it can have on the way we look for jobs.  The translation to “buying wine” instead of “looking for a job” is easy (and eye opening).

December 5 2009

What’s Up with Wine Bloggers?

What’s up with wine bloggers?  It’s a question that reads like a Jerry Seinfeld punch line is coming.  Yet, that’s the question a new wine blogger posed in a wine business forum at the online professional networking web site LinkedIN.

The query by Tom Johnson, author of Louisville Juice, and cross-posted at the social networking site Wine 2.0, asks aloud about the lack of engagement intra-family amongst wine bloggers.

In his post and at the discussion forum he notes (emphasis in bold are mine):

I started Louisville Juice six months ago after doing a political/cultural blog for about five years. The thing that strikes me most about the difference is that political blogs interact with each other constantly. They link to each other, argue with each other, give credit to each other. The result of that is to build traffic for everyone and create a more vivid conversation.

All of which leads me to believe that winebloggers do not, in general, value interconnectedness with other wine blogs. My question is: Why not?

It’s an interesting question because for all of the bluster about how revolutionary the impact wine blogs is for the wine world rare is the circumstance that wine bloggers ask themselves a cultural question unless it’s in a defensive stance against a mainstream wine writer / personality / critic. 

Yet, to a certain degree Tom answers his own question in responding to comments to his post.  He says:

There are few great meta-topics that sweep through the wine community – no speech by the President or bill introduced into Congress …

Finally, status in wine(blogs) is dependent on being authoritative, and that’s interpreted by many as being omniscient.  Linking to others is interpreted by some as admitting a lack of knowledge.
This breeds a culture that isn’t as interactive as political blogging, and the result of that is a lack of connection (that) diminishes the value of all wine blogs – even the big, successful ones … because there is (a) less challenging give-and-take, the wineblogs themselves don’t make as much creative progress as they would in a more demanding environment.  Finally, readers never get a sense of how big and lively the wineblog universe is.

As I approach my fourth year of wine blogging with over a 1000 posts and 750,000 words written I have some perspective on this, all earned by observation and effort.

10 Truths about Wine Blogging

10) Credibility is Paramount

Unlike politics where everybody has a valid opinion, wine is predicated on deep knowledge, or analysis.  This is only demonstrated by a personal back story that leads to credible belief or a body of work that demonstrates it over a lengthy period of time.  At every turn you’re not trying to prove your point, you’re trying to prove your smarts.  It’s a meritocracy at its finest.

9) Top blogs have cultivated a specific platform / brand / voice / niche

If you look at Vinography, Good Wine Under $20, Fermentation, Steve Heimoff, Dr. Vino, 1WineDude, Lenndevours or other top blogs you immediately (or quickly) know what they stand for.

8) What you drank last night = ZZZ’s

There are several wine blogs like this that are well done, but the majority of them, if combined with a lack of #10 or #6, are DOA

7) Geography is important.

One correlation you can immediately draw from the list of top blogs is their authors all live on the coasts near or in significant wine culture.  Guys like me, or Tim at Cheapwineratings in Cincinnati have to work twice as hard to prove item #10.  Newcomers are better off focusing locally to earn readers because national awareness (which is validated by readers from the wine industry) is difficult to come by.

6) Networking and relationships matter

Unless a wine blogger is committed to building relationships on a one-to-one basis via email, using Twitter to cultivate mindshare in the online wine jetstream, being a part of OWC where the American Wine Blog awards originate, actively commenting on other blogs, doing different types of marketing outreach for your content and ensuring your site is optimized for the search engines, you’re going to struggle with awareness and traffic – and it will be a struggle that links from other bloggers won’t solve.  Oh, yeah, this is on top of your writing being good and original in the first place.

5) Content is king, as is the how you construct that content

Wine blogging is and has been different than other forms of blogging – it’s longer form, and only fractionally about current events.  Even if under the guise of current events, posts are typically longer and more reasoned.  This leads to less content output, but also less of the “fast food” type of blogging that is a pointer with a link and a snippet of snark, as seen in other niches.

4) Wine as a topic moves glacially with less controversy

One of the virtues of wine is that it is largely a joyous topic with much less controversy than other pop culture-oriented topics.  There are a couple of themes that reappear a few times each year, but by and large writing about original topics and crafting stories with unique insight is most important and certainly more important than quantity of output.

3) Wine as a topic – online and offline is predicated by stories and thought-leadership

Online, this leads to less comments, less intra-writer engagement and less viral topics, it also leads to less boredom with sycophants saying the same thing differently

2) Meta topics = Don’t mingle with the hoi polloi

Wine is reasonably genteel and a very small community.  Many, many people choose not to take the bait on polarizing topics

1) Life is competition

A significant factor to Tom’s perceived lack of community is the fact there is an inherent level of competition amongst wine bloggers.  It’s a competitive reality show unfolding over years and what’s at stake is the opportunity to burnish your star.  I think most bloggers are team players, but also motivated by a healthy self-interest – it’s pretty similar to any professional work environment.  Therefore, it’s less about collegial conversation and more about honing craft and personal development.

1A) What’s your success metric?

When I started blogging in January 2006 there were around 75 wine blogs.  Now?  There are over 1000.  In addition, wine blogging hasn’t monetized.  If your goals aren’t orientated towards self-satisfaction and scratching a personal itch WITHOUT exterior validation, you’re destined for disappointment because the ship has sailed for a new voice to ascend to the top of the wine blogging pyramid.  The shakeout of the masses is a more imminent reality over the next year or two.

Overall, Tom’s post gave me pause for thought – what does the blogging community look like from the outside looking in?  The answer is:  vibrant, interesting, with a high level of quality at the highest levels.  Unfortunately, I think Tom is correct, though – one thing the competitive wine blogosphere isn’t is conversational around cycle or news driven topics. Nor is it very nurturing.

Perhaps it’s to the detriment of fostering “conversation,” while being forbidding to newcomers (readers and bloggers alike), yet, I have a hard time taking issue because I know the next generation of wine writers, people who are serious and committed, are currently honing their craft and preparing for the time when preparation meets opportunity, even if its absent today’s feel good water cooler chat.

December 3 2009

News, Notes and Dusty Bottle Items – Wine Marketing Edition

Odds and ends from a life lived through the prism of the wine glass …

Is there room enough in this town for the both of us?

In June I got word from a Napa acquaintance, Tim Campbell, about the pending launch of Vinovisit.com, a project he was involved in as a Founder and President.  VinoVisit is an OpenTable-like online reservation system for wineries. 

Flash forward to November and I got word from Tim about the launch of CellarPass – an OpenTable-like reservation system for wineries that he is involved with.

Hmm.

I didn’t get details, nor did I dig for them, but Dan Lintz, formerly of Crushpad, is leading VinoVisit and Tim is moving forward with CellarPass.

Both are aligning with numerous partners for leverage and strategic strength in a game of wine industry “duck, duck, goose.”

Is there room enough in the wine industry for both of them?  Probably so, but likely as long-term feature of an ecommerce solution, not a stand-alone service, as they’ve launched to market.

CellarPass is partnered with Submerce and VinoVisit announced an alliance with eWinery Solutions.

Enough Already!

I just read the 975th article on Gen. Y / Millennial interest in wine. 

In other news, the sun is anticipated to rise from the East tomorrow.

When Wine Tastes Best

I ordered the biodynamic calendar called, “When Wine Tastes Best” by Maria Thun.

While I bought my copy from Amazon UK (it’s interesting to look at the wine books from the other side of the pond—it gives you a rounder perspective on international wine writers), the slim calendar / booklet is now available stateside at the US Amazon.

I’m a “live and let live” kind of guy.  I’m not in the camp that decries biodynamics.  I read my horoscope.  That said, a calendar whose premise is to chart the best days for wine drinking based on lunar cycles stretches me to reasonable doubt.

The premise is simple (not really) – every month the moon moves through the constellation and as it moves through its big cycle there are smaller rotating cycles it goes through. Each cycle corresponds to the day and the “type” of day it is – a “fruit” day, a “flower” day, a “leaf” day and a “root” day.

Only “fruit” and “flower” days are optimal for a wine to show at its best.

The 2010 calendar includes December ’09.  As I write this, on Wednesday, December 2, we’re on a root day.  Tomorrow (Thursday) we’ll have a “flower” drinking window in between 3:00 pm EST and 1:00 am EST.

Bad news for the holidays, too – Christmas Eve, Christmas and the 26th are not recommended for optimal drinking.  Will this stanch the holiday wine coverage with what goes with ham?  One can hope.

I’m planning on paying attention to this in 2010 if for no other reason than to scratch my head ponderously.  It’s worth the $8 bucks for you to do the same. 

December 2 2009

Hung by their own Noose

Hung by their own noose, the Australian wine industry continues to prevent the international wine marketplace from kicking the chair out from underneath them.

Battling problems too numerous to list separate from the very manifest issues of oversupply and a U.S. image of “inexpensive” with a yellow and black color scheme, the Aussies are valiantly fighting for reputation at price tiers more esteemed than plonk.

And, ironically enough, the popular opinion scourge that is Yellowtail wine is unknowingly helping the overall Australian wine image.  For sure, Yellowtail public relations have taken a turn to the curious.  More on that in a second.

Wine Australia, the task force charged with moving the global perception of Australian wine from “Shiraz with a critter label” to “diversity and regionality” are in the midst of a yeoman’s effort to create not only regional distinction for their wines, but also a stratification system for the various wineries and their public-facing place in the consumer landscape.

Wine Australia breaks their wines into two tiers with each tier having two categories.  This modeling system roughly mimics the domestic wine marketplace and price / shelf segmentation that has happened organically over the last 25 years.

For example, the Australian “mainstream” wine channel includes two categories:  “Brand Champions” and “Generation Next.”  The Brand Champion category is best understood as mass market wines – think Alice White, or, well, Yellowtail.  Generation Next wines are more refined by quality and driven by innovation and a greater mix of brand elements – think Kendall-Jackson, for example, populace-oriented but well-positioned, even if it’s not Aussie.

The “Fine Wine” portion breaks wine into the categories of:  “Regional Heroes” and “Landmark Australia.” Regional Heroes are wines that are akin to small production U.S. wineries with spot distribution, some retail presence, but mostly on-premise sales.  Finally, Landmark Australia wines are ultra-premium wines with reputation – Penfolds Grange being a notable reference point.

This is all well and good, as is the Landmark Australia education / immersion program that selected 12 wine influencers from around the world and educated them on the depth and breadth of the ultra-premium portion of the industry.  It’s a “tipping point” model that aims to create tide pools of affinity that can grow concentrically, person to person, influencer outward.

However, reputations and brands are built over years and characteristically take time to undo.  It’s a slow burn to create public perception that Australian wine is more than purple syrup and $8 1.5L’s of sugared Chardonnay.

That is unless you have help in which case your growing fortunes can rise based on the deceitful decline of another.

Enter Yellowtail’s PR campaign. 

Wines of Australia should be tithing into the Yellowtail marketing budget to have them keep up the brand dilution, if not help them double down on the effort.

It will certainly put the rest of Australia’s wine offerings (and marketing) in good stead.

Separate from the Yellowtail advertising campaign which has the tagline, “Open for Anything” their PR campaign focuses on wine[tails] – cocktails made with Yellowtail wine.

Groan.

The coup de grace for me is a collaboration with designer Michael Graves (he of Target house wares fame) who has created hybrid wine/cocktail glasses.

Double groan.

I’m still bitter at Graves’ for foisting $8 potato peelers on an unwitting public.  It all starts so innocently.  First it’s a potato peeler then it’s a pizza cutter and before you know it your whole kitchen is overrun with overpriced “designer” crap from Target; teeth gnashing ensues as you look bitterly at the $55 tea kettle on your stove acting as art object as you make tea in the microwave. 

I hear Graves thinks he can improve upon the paper clip too, so insidious is his mass market design with premium pricing. 

Ahem, back to my point … 

The easiest path to irrelevance is to try to grow beyond popular ubiquity.  Inevitably it turns to brand dilution. It’s a topic I’ve talked about in the past – the “derision decision.”  It’s when something becomes too popular or strains too hard to capitalize on its popularity – like movie sequels beyond the second one – anything else beyond that becomes a pandering mess designed with dollars instead of integrity and the public backlash that follows turns the tide of sentiment to mockery.  Anybody see the third installment of the movie American Pie – American Wedding?  I didn’t think so.

To me, the cross-pollination of wine and cocktails defies understanding.  Who opens a bottle of wine to use 1 oz in a cocktail?

Ponderous.

Yes, wine cocktails and the hybrid glassware certainly qualify as a pandering pass at trying to ascend beyond popular ubiquity. Marked by three press releases over the last six weeks, these wine[tails] are definitely a focus.  A PR rep. for Yellowtail’s agency declined to answer questions about the strategy behind the PR efforts or move off her message.

Sometimes it’s best to stay true to what you are.  Australian wine efforts at earning trust in the public consciousness (undoing much of what has been wrought by Yellowtail), is noble and it will be aided and abetted equally in its rise by the decline of a brand that got confused about what they are and who they wanted to focus on.

Color my confused, but don’t color me yellow and black.

Cocktails, anyone?

cartoon credit

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