The Grapevine

Wine Shop Marketing: Emotion or Education?

August 30th, 2017

When you look at them marketing you do for your wine shop – beyond promotional materials about special offers, discounts, etc. – do you see attempts to educate or appeals to emotion? [level-members]

If you’re like a lot of wine shops – and small retailers in general – you stick to “the facts, ma’am, just the facts,” because that’s what you’re comfortable with. Most of us, myself included, have a limited comfort level with the more conceptual – and emotional – marketing and advertising that surrounds big brands.

On the one hand, you have to wonder why: the advertising for big brands frequently engages us, brings a smile to our faces, even makes us desire something we have no real need for.

And yet, taken out of context, it loses that power. And in the wrong hands, it just seems silly. That’s why we don’t attempt it ourselves.

But we don’t have to be a household name to appeal in the same way. For example, instead of a simple offer of 20% off all Italian wines on Fridays, you can focus on something like:

Take-out Pizza Taken to a Whole New Level

Add an interesting Italian wine and dinner becomes so much more than a night on the couch. Save 20% off all Italian wines every Friday.

My example copy may not be the best, but it can be refined. (And can be adjusted over time, as well.) And it paints a picture for folks who, even though they may love decompressing on the couch on Friday nights with takeout food, Netflix, and family, may also want to feel a little less trapped in a rut.

Think about this as you’re consuming ads in your daily life – most don’t talk about horsepower and braking distances, or brewing processes and alcohol levels. They talk about the lifestyle being a consumer of the product implies. Even though the beautiful models in those beer ads are conspicuously lacking beer guts …

Facts and details matter, but only after you’ve engaged your audience emotionally. [/level-members]