Shock! Wine blog helps to sell wine
20 Jul 2010
What is a “social media sale”? The answer is simple. A bottle, or more, of wine purchased where a post on a social media platform significantly influenced that behaviour. Measuring how much of this happens is another thing altogether.
Did this wine sell because of Social Media? YES! (see below)
Would a survey on “Does Social Media affect your wine buying habits?” have picked it up? I HIGHLY doubt it.
This is why I find critics of the potential of new channels to promote and help sell wine frustrating (as discussed on Rebecca Gibb’s interesting post here).
I happen to like wine (you may know that). I happen to enjoy Spanish wines (you may know that too). I like to explore the subject, and read others’ suggestions. I also respect certain writers more than others, so when they recommend something, I listen.
All these things came together when Jamie Goode recommended the “thrillingly good mencia” called El Cayado on his blog, so I set out to try and taste it.
Unfortunately for me, Oddbins is a pale imitation of its former self*. There are no shops in my part of London, and when I did make a trek to find an open shop, neither of the shops I found had even heard of it, never mind stocked it. I was out of luck. I gave up. One LOST “social media sale”.
Then a few weeks later I was on my way to a friend’s house for a BBQ and forgot to bring a bottle (it happens to the best of us). I knew there was an Oddbins around the corner so I popped in and asked the staff if they had “that new Mencia on their list?”.
“No, sorry sir” came the answer. Then I turned around and I happened to see a whole shelf of these wines. Oh dear! Almost ANOTHER lost “social media sale”.
I did pick up a bottle and gave it as a gift to my friends, along with the disclaimer that I had not tried it myself, but that it came highly recommended by someone I trust. Finally, 1 GAINED “social media sale”.
1 week later I received an email from my friend saying;
“Hope you don’t mind me asking but over the weekend we opened the red wine you very kindly gave us the other week – and I have to say it was amazing. Hit all the right notes. … (we) both loved this one, wondered … where I could get a case from?”
BINGO! [Robert does a little "social media wine sales rock!" dance]
Now, if you ask my friend … “Do you use the internet to source wines?”, guess what her answer will be? No!
You tell me, can you imagine any other ways that blogs, twitter, facebook et al might also influence people directly or indirectly to buy wine? Of course you can.
Saying that it is hard to measure what effect blogs and twitter have on wine sales is one thing, saying that they don’t influence behaviour because you can’t measure it is another.
Have you got any stories of how you, or your friends, have bought (or sold) wine as a direct result of online content? Do let me know so we can help to correct this perception.
* This is true of the stock in the shops, the motivation of most of the staff I have met, and … what the hell is going on with their website? Note, for example, that this MENCIA wine is categorised as 100% Monastrell.
Tags: "wine intelligence", Jamie Goode, london, Mencia, oddbins, social media, wine
July 20th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Well said, Robert. It's all true: when I read on a wine blog that I trust a review about a wine I don't know, my first impulse is “wow, I must try it!”. So, last time I wrote about an Italian sparkling wine (red!) who nobody knows, a lot of my friend/readers wrote me: “I don't know this wine, where can I buy it? Is it expensive? May I drink with appetizers?” etc. Wine blog may be very useful for wineries, if only the wineries had more confidence in them!!
July 20th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
thanks! I agree that some of us, probably not that many, act DIRECTLY as a consequence of what we read online, but that there is a lot of indirect activity too and that is not recorded, or is too hard to measure. What about all the people you tell about that wine you read about? Or the sales sparked by those who try the wine at dinner of someone who bought it as a result. Do they count? They do in my book
July 21st, 2010 at 7:52 am
“Have you got any stories of how you, or your friends, have bought (or sold) wine as a direct result of online content?”
Well, in the last six months I've completely switched my wine-buying from the companies I used to use (primarily Laithwaites and to a lesser extent Virgin Wines) to a variety of newer and more innovative players (NakedWines being the biggest winner for my £) through what I've read and recommended online – with yourself, @thirstforwine, being the source of a fair number of those recommendations…
July 21st, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Hi Rob,
Here's a very good example on why you're right and need to keep doing what you're doing.
http://vinosambiz.blogspot.com/2010/03/who-says...
Greeting from boiling Tel Aviv
Gal
July 21st, 2010 at 1:55 pm
As anyone who has ever conducted research properly would know, the quality of findings depends on the quality of questions asked. Back in the day I worked in advertising and would sit in on focus groups. Ask your average shopper if their purchasing habits are influenced by advertising and they firmly refute the suggestion (“what, clever old me, influenced by the evil power of advertising? never!”). But ask them about what brands they can cite, what logos, jingles or slogans they're familiar with, investigate their emotional response to certain products, and it's a whole different story. Now where would those relationships come from? Advertising, perhaps? Same story for social media. Of course it has influence and effect. We need to refine how we calculate and quantify that, but hey, it's not rocket science. SM: those who get it, do it. Those who don't…. pfff.
July 21st, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Enjoyed your post and totally agree. I think it's just hard to track the indirect influences so perhaps when marketing people are so used to being online and tracking results from social media perhaps something like wine looks like it's not being influenced in the same way because the transaction doesn't take place online or is a few steps removed from the first blog post etc
I'm not as immersed in the industry so I don't see it but who is it that's being critical of blogging/social media etc?
July 21st, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Follow the link in the penultimate paragraph to see more, and check put rebecca Gibbs post
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:50 am
Excellently put, Robert and I totally agree. This is simply a case of 'Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose', nothing changes: so many small wineries, brands or even wine shops among many other businesses have, over the years, hesitated about spending money on any sort of PR campaign as they didn't believe in the unmeasurable word-of-mouth knock on effects on sales.
Social Media is 21st century Public Relations direct (or indirect/word-of-internet) to the consumer at a much lower cost than before. And, even if it is, technically, more measurable than the old type of PR, it's far from an exact science as you have proven.
July 22nd, 2010 at 11:52 am
Thanks – had read Rebecca Gibb's post but somehow missed the link to Wine Intelligence and hadn't read that before.
July 26th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
[...] Wine conversations shocks us all when reviling that a wine blog helps to sell wine [...]
July 27th, 2010 at 6:00 pm
Great post and somehow missed it a few days ago. Might just have to go out and get a bottle just to show it works! Another thing that works: just had a look on the Oddbins website and the wine is now categorised as Mencia. (Although their search engine doesn't bring it up)
July 27th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
We (bibbywines.com) sold our first case of Sauvignon Blanc this month to someone who had come across our Facebook page due to the fact he shared our surname and therefore our wines name too!!
July 27th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
sounds like as good an excuse as any to me
July 27th, 2010 at 11:06 pm
*blush*