Here is a fun challenge for marketers to ponder some evening as you sip your favorite California red wine. There is a product category, home winemaking, which may be unfamiliar to you. This category has a lot of potential to be a bigger part of the wine and beverage world because it plays to some strong consumer lifestyle trends. But it has a perception problem. What it lacks is the awareness and inviting message based on a strong consumer insight. How would you proceed if you oversaw marketing of a brand or retailer in this category?
A Little Background
Did you know you can make your own wine at home for a fraction of the cost of buying a regular bottle from the store? The wine is wonderful and at a cost of about $3 -$5/bottle would compare favorably with any $15 – $20 bottle at your local store. It is easy, and it takes only a moderate number of basic items that are easy to use. Also, you can purchase pre-made wine ingredient kits or grape juices from wineries around the world according to your taste. I have been making wines from kits and juices for years now. I made wine for my daughter’s wedding reception with custom labels. I felt proud, and the wine was very good. Winemaking takes time. Making a batch of wine takes four to eight weeks to make and then should age from between 3–12 months.
Winemaking is a tradition that harkens to another era and other cultures. A home brew retailer owner explained that his sales for home winemaking (from grapes) are mostly first-generation Americans that grew up with this tradition. My mom explained to me that her father, raised in Italy and immigrated to the US, brought the tradition with him. They crushed the grapes, fermented, and aged the wine. It took many months, yielding a strong-tasting wine – more like brandy than wine. She never quite said it tasted good – but it was a tradition.
Who are the Players?
It is hard to get statistics on the business of home winemaking. It does not account for a significant piece of the wine market. Outside of grapes and juices, wine kits are the most common branded product. Two of the popular kit makers are RJ Spagnols and Winexpert. Both produced in Canada, a country more accustomed to home winemaking than here in the US. I have made kits from both manufacturers and they are quite good. You can find them at any good Homebrew retailer. I also have made wine from juices. I like Keystone Homebrew Supply in the Philadelphia market for all my supplies, kits, and juices.
There are a few good retailers in every market that specialize in home-brewing and home winemaking. They have the equipment and access to ingredients. For the new and experienced, these retailers are your best friend. They have the knowledge and experience to teach how to make the perfect batch of wine. I like Keystone Homebrew Supply in the Philadelphia market for all my supplies, kits, and juices.
How Do You Make Wine?
There are three ways to make wines as a hobby:
- Wine kits – are available and very easy to make with only a small initial investment in equipment (about $100 total). The kits themselves cost from $80 to $200 and make 6 gallons (about 30 bottles) of wine. They take 6-8 weeks from start to bottling. Aging can take 3-6months or longer. Excellent results are almost guaranteed. The concentrates are of a wide variety of grapes from various growing regions around the world.
- Wine from juices–making fresh juice (you can also buy frozen) into wine. The juice is less expensive ($70 – $100) than a kit for 6 gallons. If buying fresh, availability is after harvest (September if from CA, WA, etc., May if from South America). Takes about 6 months to get into the bottle.
- Wine made from grapes—this is a more complicated process that requires bigger equipment to squeeze and de-stem the grapes. It could also require some lab analysis to measure results along the way. Takes about 6 months to get into the bottle.
One thing to remember- you cannot sell your wine (in most states). You can share and enjoy with friends but need a license to sell alcohol.
The Marketing Challenge
Let’s assume that the home winemaking from kits or from juice (both easy to make at home) target is people who enjoy drinking wine.
Answer four questions:
- Consumer target. Identify a consumer targets—make it a rich description. What type of person (age, background, family status, profession, hobbies, favorite beverages)
- White space. For each target, what is missing emotionally from their current wine purchase and consumption?
- Cosnumer benefit. What is the personal benefit to making wine versus buying wine
- Touchpoints. For each target—identify who they enjoy wine with, where do they enjoy wine?
This might be a bit of work, but these answers provide a roadmap to build a very strong marketing message and tactical activation opportunities to make this project successful.
So, my dear marketers, you have a very high-level overview and, as most case studies do, I challenge you to think about the solve. What is the strategy, consumer message, the unique end benefit? How would you build awareness? What would an interesting message be for this industry? While I think this business is ripe with opportunity, until consumers get over preconceptions and are hooked, it will not reach its full potential.
Have fun while you are sipping your favorite white or red wine.
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Here are my personal insights on this marketing challenge:
Home winemaking should be a lot more popular, but it misses on two important consumer dynamics:
Consumers gladly pay for instant gratification and convenience. This is the mother of all consumer dynamics. Why make something harder to do than it is to do now. The cost tradeoff of a great $3 – $5 dollar bottle that tastes as good as a $15 bottle, but it takes between 2-6 months to make a batch that yields about 30 bottles.
If you ask consumers to take time and care making something from scratch, the experience and result should be worth the bragging rights. Beer fares better because you can customize recipes and it only takes a month before to complete. Wine, as they say, is made on the vine, and you are just trying to get it to its full potential during the winemaking process.
Last, wine consumption in the US has been in decline for many years.
I think there is a bigger business opportunity in homemade wine. So, I would challenge smart marketers,
- Lack of awareness of home wine-making process.
- Lack of brand awareness
- Lack of retailer awareness
- Lack of verifiable quality output—where would you taste this for the first time?
- Fear of failure
- Takes too long
- High initial investment in equipment (not true as it is less than $150)
Target:
Wine drinkers, male and female, age 35 and up. Do-it-yourself mentality. Likes wonderful wines and sharing accomplishments with small groups of friends.
Unique selling proposition?
Wine making is easy, inexpensive, the results are excellent. You would be proud to share the result with your friends and have an abundance of interesting wines available once you get started. and will learn about varieties and winemaking. You can brag about making the wine—which most people are interested in if they have any passion for wine.
What is the consumer insight? For a definition of consumer insight, see my blog on this topic.
Wine should be simple, delicious, and uncomplicated. I wish I knew more about it, so I would like what I pay is probably more about the brand and distribution than about what I am drinking. I like to experiment with things. I like to be an artisan and when I make something special; I feel a pride in ownership. But making wine sounds scary, and I don’t have any experience doing it. The result will probably be terrible. If it were easy, everyone would already be doing it since it is so much less expensive. The big wineries have all the experts and equipment which I will never have.
End state desired
Pride of accomplishment and sharing with friends. Others will eventually taste my craft and be pleased. Maybe not right away. One person expressing happiness to what I have done will probably be enough for me. Until then, I will continue the journey to do my thing. It’s all a part of relying on myself rather that others.
