Closures are Marketing Gimmicks right?

No one in their right mind would close a Northern California wine with a screw-cap closure unless at least two of the following options were true:

1) If the consumers were not, yet again, let down by the bark (natural) closure industry in their attempts to prevent TCA (tell me you know what TCA is right?). We know the story of buying that perfect wine, for that perfect moment, just to find out it smelled like old socks. Or how about the wine you bought and just thought it was "off" - did you have the wine steward check it for TCA? Before you say "I'm never buying that wine again" check to make sure it was as the wine maker intended. (This is assuming screw cap can prevent TCA without some other yet undiscovered flavor nuance that would case greater harm to the wine..)

2) If there wasn't an opportunity to make a buck or gain attention in the press for being a pseudo pioneer? (Enter the PR department) Is that really what you want is it a blatant attempt to gain attention for a new wine or even a floundering wine? If you haven't noticed lately the only press about a new wine with a new closure is coming from within the trade. Consumer publications don't care if "xyz 20,000 case wine is now closed with a screw cap". It's just not interesting any more.

3) Or finally, it's just a for shelf precense definition. Positioning the wine, using unique packaging and want to stand out in your category.

If you selected options one and three, then fine, I get it. But trust me there are some serious issues with consumer perseption.

e.g.: Hogue Cellars says "We've done our home work!". The 30 month (five years according to their press release) study didn't even include the largest synthetic closure in the world - nomacorc (1 billion+ closures a year). Nomacorc out sells SupremeCorq and Neocork in North America 2 to 1. They talk about OTR (Oxigen Transfer Rate) in the closures tested - sure, these synthetics are out preformed frequently by nomacorc too. There's even more holes in the study but, ok so technically, maybe they did not do their home work?

Anyway, what about the consumer perception? I'm sure they care about the consumer perception right (Marketing Dept. are you paying attention?)?

In a follow-up study conducted by Emily M. Jorgensen’s thesis: “Effects of Closure Type on Consumers’ Perception of Wine Quality” (check it out at the Library). Using Hogue Cellar Wines:

On Taste:
Consumers could not determine a difference between any of the three closures type (bark, synthetic, and screw cap) samples based on sensory stimuli.

Quality Assessment Tests:
Chardonnay – For the Chardonnay samples, when the consumers were given information that the sample came from a natural cork, they did not change their opinions of how much they liked the sample compared to when they did not have closure type information; nor did their opinions of its quality change.

Similarly, the closure information did not affect their willingness to buy the sample, except for the screw cap sample which they were less willing to buy after knowing the closure. The price they were willing to pay for the sample did significantly increase from the UNKNOWN session to the KNOWN session for the natural cork sample and the price significantly decreased for the screw cap sample.

When it was revealed that the wine sample came from a screw cap bottle, the consumers liked the sample less, thought it was of lower quality, were less willing to buy a wine like the sample, and lowered the price they were willing to pay for the sample.

Merlot - For the Merlot samples, consumers increased their quality ratings from ‘average’ to ‘somewhat above average’ when they were informed of the closure. They were also willing to pay more for a bottle of wine when they were told the sample had a natural cork. The other two quality variables, purchase intent and price, remained unchanged.

When the consumers were told that the wine samples had synthetic cork closures, they did not significantly increase or decrease any of their quality measurement scores.

For the Merlot Screw Cap samples, the closure type information affected the price consumers were willing to pay for the wine by approximately one-dollar decrease.

Closure Related Issues and Attitudes:
According to the results of the closure related issues questions, consumer education is needed regarding the issue of cork taint in wine due to natural cork and the resulting benefits of switching to screw caps.

The closure attitude questions revealed that in general, the consumers looked favorably towards synthetic corks. However, they did not look positively toward wine sealed with screw caps.

So, if you want to change to screw caps for marketing reasons then fine, just don't think all of us are morans and can't figure that out.

Sincerely (dedicated to the "pop")
Don H

Preserving the Essence of Napa Valley

What is Napa Valley? What does the brand mean to those who can drive here - versus those who have to travel here by plane or other methods.

On Tuesday July 26th the NVCVB in cooperation with the NVEDC will be presenting a Program of Work that will support a Destination Strategy for Napa County, to the County Board of Supervisors. I plan to attend and will report back to the blog.

Is anyone going? Did you go and what did you think?

ButterCream Bakery Launches New Website

(07-15-2005)

Napa, California - ButterCream Bakery today launched their first website with the same ìlook and feelî as the day the family opened their doors for business in 1948. The website features information about how the Closs family first started the bakery, the diner menu, cake options including wedding, traditional, fancy, themed and novelty cakes, and donuts, donuts, donuts!

The website www.buttercreambakery.com also features interesting food facts like: On average, the bakery serves 480 people on the weekends and 300 eggs per day!

When they first started, David and Bobbi Closs came to work at 2:00 am, seven days a week, to open the Yajome Street bakery in Napa. Soon, word spread about their delicious donuts and the family began making cookies, pies and cakes. It wasnít too long before the bakery added a grill for breakfast and lunch.

In 2002, Gerry Closs, son to David and Bobbi, renovated the Jefferson Street bakery and diner with its trademark pink and white stripes. Open 7-days a week the bakery and diner are home to many Napa locals. The bakery and diner staff are some of the most welcoming and family-friendly people in Napa Valley.

For children 12 and under, the ìkids menuî offers all the favorites like French-toast, Mickey pancakes, corn dogs, grilled cheese ìsammiesî and hamburgers.

ButterCream Bakery is known for giving back to the community and continually donates food items and money to various organizations, including:

Napa Food Bank
Homeless Shelter
American Cancer Society "Relay for Life"
Hands Across the Valley
Molly's Angels of Napa Valley
Napa High School
Vintage High School
Hospice of Napa Valley
City of Napa Recreation Department
4-H Club
Napa Active 20-30 Club
Napa Valley Expo
Napa Valley College Foundation
Napa Police Dept.
Napa Fire Dept.

The next time you crave a Danish pastry, donut or are looking for a place to have a home-cooked meal, drive on down to 2297 Jefferson Street in Napa. ButterCream Bakery will welcome you with warm smiles, open arms and cookies.

Typeface logo solution

One thing that bugs me is when I see a sign or logo where a designer (or someone claiming to be a designer) fails to look for the subtle details that makes for decent design. Ok, maybe there is not the budget to go into full development of a unique logo? Maybe all you can do is work with a typeface to create an original look? Fine, I get it; sometimes that is what we get. If that is the case, work with the fonts a little.

Back in the 80’s, yes I said it - sans computer designers, I had the opportunity with work with a small software application used to capture the essence of a font. We had to create a “path” around the bitmap font to smooth it out if you will. Using a MAC 512 we swapped floppies until the application loaded. The application was the precursor to Adobes’ Illustrator®. Back then, while creating paths around bitmap fonts we learned the computer was not as smart as we hoped. We needed to print out the text, wax it, and then kern the heck out of it to make it flow. Today, computer do so much more then they did back then, however they’re far from perfect. So designers don’t loose the fine art of kerning and leading.

My suggestions may seem old school but it will certainly help in your final design.
- Print out your text solution as large as your printer will allow – black and white.
- Look at the art upside down, in a mirror or tape it to the light box or window so the art reads backwards.
- Study how the letters interact with each other. Does one character dominate another? Are there any gaps between the serifs, or descenders and/or ascenders?
- If there are issues, pull the font into an application like Freehand® or Illustrator® and play with the kerning.
- If you need to, convert the fonts to paths (outline view). Ungroup them and start manipulating the characters until there is balance to the text.

Virtually every word that appears in a logo or display, should go through this amount of scrutiny.

To our clients, (speaking on behalf of a my fellow designers) please give us the time to do this and don’t accept less from your designer. Recognize that this is what separates an OK design with one that has been carefully crafted specifically for your needs. Everything should be intentional and thought through.

Don

Can you capture a driver these days?

Have you ever tried to market to the person who is addicted to their ipod or mp3 player while they drive? Impossible? Are Podcasts the future for marketing?

Welcome

Welcome the first posting of “Marketing in the North Bay”. My hope is that this blog answers the basic questions, which frequently come up regarding marketing in the North Bay. Issues for example: Public Relations, Web Design, Graphic Design and even capturing the illusive, transient consumer of the North Bay.

First you have to understand that in the North Bay there are several types of consumers and each has their own way of engaging businesses. Not everyone is going to listen to the radio, read a newspaper, commute to work, watch TV, play video games, live in the secluded hills nor even listen to Pod-casts. So, a little homework is the best thing you can do.

Anyway, let’s discus the basics on this blog. Let’s talk about the audience. Let’s talk about branding or getting a little PR attention. There are so many experts in this region from free-lance journalist, designers to hard-core marketing people in the North Bay, let’s bring it!