In marketing our shops and the product we sell, we need to realize that wine is only a part of it. [level-members]
Yes, that’s what folks are buying, but the all important “why” – as in, why should they buy from you – has more to do with everything but the wine.
That’s because every single one of your competitors has the wine. Before you say, “Duh! That’s what makes them competitors.” or “They don’t all have the same wine I do.” realize for a moment that the most important swath of your clients – meaning those with the best “lifetime value” to your business – shop with you not just because of your wine, but because you reflect something important in themselves and their relationship to wine. That might be a focus on wine and food together, or high-end California wines, or just wines from Burgundy.
All can be winning niches, but all say something powerful beyond just convenient location and easy parking.
So don’t focus your marketing – whether by direct mail, email, social media or any other channel – on the wine. Focus on the wine as part of a your customers’ lives, not just as a product they purchase. [/level-members]