It's time for industry to r-e-s-p-e-c-t women consumers
In the 1970s, the great filmmaker Orson Welles was the TV pitchman for Paul Masson wines. His intense eyes, full beard and baritone voice filled the black-and-white TV screens of America.
We will sell no wine, Welles intoned, before its time.
That became a very popular phrase, in part because of its simplicity. It also became popular because it solidified for many the image they had of a wine devotee – male, middle-age, financially comfortable, confident.
In short, one way to interpret that commercial is the following: Your Dad drinks wine; your Mom (not in the commercial) probably serves it to him.
This is the heavy season for wine advertising -- indeed for advertising (and spending) of all kind for all manner of commercial products. But this image of a male wine drinker is a myth.
Women buy nearly 70 percent of all wine. They drink more than half of all wine consumed. Indeed, if we were to make a commercial that typified our era it would be one where a bunch of professional, middle-age women are gathered around a table, sharing secrets, white wine and some food. Men, if they were in the shot, would be in the background.
I was struck by how women are associated with wine drinking recently when my wife and I went out to dinner at an Applebee’s. I ordered a glass of California chardonnay and my wife ordered a German beer. The waitress who brought us the drink order was not the same as the one who took our food order. She looked at us, looked at the drinks and then put the beer in front of me and the wine in front of my wife.
You made an interesting assumption, I said to the waitress, as I switched the drinks.
The issue I want to highlight today is the following: If women are a major part of the wine market, why doesn’t the industry’s marketing efforts reflect that?
I’m not sure I have an answer to the question. Maybe I should restate it: The wine industry should reflect in its marketing and advertising efforts that women are the major consumers of wine.
I am thinking of a pretty anemic attempt by the industry to market a wine to women. Called White Lie. Beringer Blas Wine Estates billed it as a low-calorie, low-alcohol wine.
Just the kind of wine you could enjoy with, say, salad and a spot of cottage cheese to keep that -- quote, girlie, unquote -- figure, eh?
I bought two bottles of this wine when it first came out on the market about six months ago. In a clear bottle, the wine looked light and the label resembled cherry-red lipstick.
The wine was really bad. It had a weak, off-brand taste. Do you remember how disgusting diet drinks tasted when they first came out in the 1960s? That’s my image of how bad White Lie tasted. I served it to a female colleague at a wine party at my house.
Try this,I said, pouring her a small bit. You be the guinea pig for the industry.
She tasted it. She looked at me and said: So, do you still have the receipt? Maybe you can get a refund.
I poured her a stiff glass of 2002 Sonoma Creek chardonnay, which, you see, is a guy wine because there’s a drawing of a horse on the label.
Is the introduction of White Lie wine to the market and the advertising/public relations blitz the industry’s nod to women consumers?
We hope not.
What the industry needs to do is sit down at the boardroom table and deal with women consumers as its No. 1 market.
It seems we need more deals like the one several wine companies is cutting with a Boston-based wine lovers’ group, Divas Uncorked. This is a group of 10 professional African-American women who for several years have been holding well-attended wine parties in Boston and, in general, have made a name for themselves as high-octane wine lovers. An associate of mine who is in the group is representative of the Power Drinkers of Divas Uncorked: She’s a television producer who also works for Harvard University.
Last year, Divas Uncorked formed a joint venture called The Divas Uncorked Collaborative Consortium. The mission, according to their website: To help wineries, distributors and retailers expand to reach new consumer markets, specifically women and people of color.
You go, girls. Maybe there will be other deals in the works soon.
(P.S.: In case you missed the reference, R-E-S-P-E-C-T is a refrain from an a classic Aretha Franklin soul ballad.)
In the 1970s, the great filmmaker Orson Welles was the TV pitchman for Paul Masson wines. His intense eyes, full beard and baritone voice filled the black-and-white TV screens of America.
We will sell no wine, Welles intoned, before its time.
That became a very popular phrase, in part because of its simplicity. It also became popular because it solidified for many the image they had of a wine devotee – male, middle-age, financially comfortable, confident.
In short, one way to interpret that commercial is the following: Your Dad drinks wine; your Mom (not in the commercial) probably serves it to him.
This is the heavy season for wine advertising -- indeed for advertising (and spending) of all kind for all manner of commercial products. But this image of a male wine drinker is a myth.
Women buy nearly 70 percent of all wine. They drink more than half of all wine consumed. Indeed, if we were to make a commercial that typified our era it would be one where a bunch of professional, middle-age women are gathered around a table, sharing secrets, white wine and some food. Men, if they were in the shot, would be in the background.
I was struck by how women are associated with wine drinking recently when my wife and I went out to dinner at an Applebee’s. I ordered a glass of California chardonnay and my wife ordered a German beer. The waitress who brought us the drink order was not the same as the one who took our food order. She looked at us, looked at the drinks and then put the beer in front of me and the wine in front of my wife.
You made an interesting assumption, I said to the waitress, as I switched the drinks.
The issue I want to highlight today is the following: If women are a major part of the wine market, why doesn’t the industry’s marketing efforts reflect that?
I’m not sure I have an answer to the question. Maybe I should restate it: The wine industry should reflect in its marketing and advertising efforts that women are the major consumers of wine.
I am thinking of a pretty anemic attempt by the industry to market a wine to women. Called White Lie. Beringer Blas Wine Estates billed it as a low-calorie, low-alcohol wine.
Just the kind of wine you could enjoy with, say, salad and a spot of cottage cheese to keep that -- quote, girlie, unquote -- figure, eh?
I bought two bottles of this wine when it first came out on the market about six months ago. In a clear bottle, the wine looked light and the label resembled cherry-red lipstick.
The wine was really bad. It had a weak, off-brand taste. Do you remember how disgusting diet drinks tasted when they first came out in the 1960s? That’s my image of how bad White Lie tasted. I served it to a female colleague at a wine party at my house.
Try this,I said, pouring her a small bit. You be the guinea pig for the industry.
She tasted it. She looked at me and said: So, do you still have the receipt? Maybe you can get a refund.
I poured her a stiff glass of 2002 Sonoma Creek chardonnay, which, you see, is a guy wine because there’s a drawing of a horse on the label.
Is the introduction of White Lie wine to the market and the advertising/public relations blitz the industry’s nod to women consumers?
We hope not.
What the industry needs to do is sit down at the boardroom table and deal with women consumers as its No. 1 market.
It seems we need more deals like the one several wine companies is cutting with a Boston-based wine lovers’ group, Divas Uncorked. This is a group of 10 professional African-American women who for several years have been holding well-attended wine parties in Boston and, in general, have made a name for themselves as high-octane wine lovers. An associate of mine who is in the group is representative of the Power Drinkers of Divas Uncorked: She’s a television producer who also works for Harvard University.
Last year, Divas Uncorked formed a joint venture called The Divas Uncorked Collaborative Consortium. The mission, according to their website: To help wineries, distributors and retailers expand to reach new consumer markets, specifically women and people of color.
You go, girls. Maybe there will be other deals in the works soon.
(P.S.: In case you missed the reference, R-E-S-P-E-C-T is a refrain from an a classic Aretha Franklin soul ballad.)
posted by McQueen | 5:48 PM
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