Virgin to tempt US consumers?

June 25, 2010 in marketing with 8 Comments

 
Virgin Wines
Image via Wikipedia

It’s a bit if speculation, but I’m guessing that Virgin Wines is about to start targeting US consumers having been built up in the UK.

Since they started they’ve always been at www.virginwines.com which, when they started (as one if the longest lasting players in this space), was sensible as country specific domains such as .co.uk were still misunderstood and mistrusted.

It seems that they are transferring their existing site to the www.virginwines.co.uk URL and asking bloggers who had included links to their old site to change all their links (a PITA for no specific reward other than doing a favour for our readers and their Google visibility).

Why would they do that? Presumably because they have separate plans for the .com URL

I have not seen any announcement about a US consumer launch, but it makes sense to expect one. It will be interesting to see how the model works in the complex US market, and what that means, also, for the UK business.

If they have a much bigger market they could end up simply sourcing more volume lines, or they could increase their buying power for more, small parcels of greater interest, we shall see.

Anyone know any more about this? Presumably someone at Virgin Wines is watching ;)

Enhanced by Zemanta

About Robert: Robert McIntosh is a wine blogger and online communicator on WineConversation.com, a prolific twitterer (@thirstforwine) and an occasional contributor to wine magazines as well as speaking at wine events. Robert is co-organiser of the annual European Wine Bloggers Conference and Born Digital Wine Awards, promotes international online wine communication, and advises companies about how to engage through social media. Robert also has some trouble communicating in the third person.

All Posts by  |  Website  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Share By Email
  • http://www.sourgrapes.ie Lar

    Bigger US market, yes, but very fragmented with the strange interstate shipping laws.

    • http://thirstforwine.co.uk thirstforwine

      I agree, which is why I thought it was particularly interesting considering that other BIG players (e.g. Amazon) have not managed it. However, Virgin is part of a much bigger empire with experience of this, so I guess they’ll have that part sorted

  • Catherine

    I believe you are correct Sir…. They are already involved with some big direct mail wine vendors in the US – Wall St journal etc. They are part of Direct Wines… Lionstone in the USA etc.

    • http://thirstforwine.co.uk thirstforwine

      thanks Catherine. Yes, I know they are part of the bigger business, but I don’t think they’ve traded as Virgin Wines in the US before and the messages/wines are a bit different from the rest of the portfolio (I believe)

  • http://www.bradfordsbakers.com/ Fathers Day Gifts

    The emerging technique of virgin products i.e. virgin olive oil, no wonder it will target the wine industry. The issue here is the less toxicity in wine’s ingredients. Good if it is done right. But if not, it will be of more harm than good.

  • http://www.rosegrowingadvice.net/ Rose Growing Advice

    An “outreach” program of sort. There’s no one to blame except change. Everyone wants change. And this includes targeting customers outside your “backyard”. Just wondering if this change makes sense. Big players are already there.

  • http://www.ihampers.co.uk/c-415-christmas-hampers.aspx Christmas Hampers

    I just recently discovered your blog and am so glad I did. What a sweet post!

  • http://www.hampers.co.uk Hampers

    They may be using the .co.uk to try and rank easier in Google.co.uk rather than the .com, or as you said, maybe targetting the USA. Although the .com will still need links if they are planning on creating a separate site. They could always put a bit of code on the site to say “We notice you are in the UK, would you like to visit our UK site?” with the link to .co.uk.