"Experiential Innovation" for the consumer.

The concept of “experiential innovation” is critical to most consumer products going forward in a post COVID world. And certainly, wine is at the top of the list. 

Wine, unlike most consumer products, is and was already an experiential product. I think everyone knows this; wine connects the human soul.

The pandemic created unknown territory for many consumer industries but the industries with the largest percentage change from pandemic to post pandemic (according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) was “food away from home” and alcoholic beverages. This is not surprising.

As the oldest DTC wine company in America, I saw it firsthand. I could do no wrong during the pandemic; whatever I put out to sell that day, sold. There was no “experience” needed on behalf of the consumer, they needed to buy whatever they could; there was no experience to be had. But up until that point, people did not typically buy emotional products this way.

According to social neuroscientist, Dr. Rose Perry, “Humans are social creatures who have a fundamental human need to connect with others. Fulfilling this need is so important that our level of social connectedness influences nearly every aspect of our lives, including our psychological well-being, physical health, and even how long we live.” Wine is an emotional product, we want to touch it, turn the bottle over, read the label and feel like we are making a connected decision.  

This need for connection and the value of an honest glass of wine (“honest” meaning a wine that is expressing a sense of time and place) are intertwined. And if you think about it, isn’t the whole premise of social networking predicated on this need for connection? Isn’t the concept of “influencers” directly associated with our need to connect, in this case, virtually? Social networking and all the other digital connections humans can make virtually are a direct response to our need to be seen and heard. 

In the early days of selling wine…let’s just go back to the mid ‘70’s when the Americans won the Judgement of Paris (call it the beginning of wine awareness in the US). You went to a wine shop, and you spent some time speaking with the proprietor and you agreed on a wine together. So much of my father's wine shop business was from locals who were having guests for dinner and wanted to share a nice bottle of wine. There was a connection. A handshake. A relationship.

The Wine of the Month Club grew in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s on the backs of state, county and local fairs. The “taste of” shows were all the rage; Taste of Hollywood, Taste of Pasadena, the Garlic Festival, Temecula Air Balloon festival, you name it, there was a festival. We were doing sometimes, three shows a weekend. These were and still are very consumer “experiential”. 

Is it any wonder that wine is suffering a shift in consumerism? If we have a need to connect and are no longer forced to stay home, then it stands to reason why “food away from home” is on the rise. In a recent interview with Jessica Kogan, one the thought leaders in this space, we agreed on the following premise...due to the lack of a consumer experience, social and internet wine marketing will implode on itself, and “experiential marketing” will return. 

Let’s  focus on the number of moving parts it takes to get and maintain a product in today's virtual market place: You have to have a KEEN understanding of SEO, Google Ads, Affiliate marketing, Influencer marketing, FB and IG ads, email marketing (this one alone could be 40 hours a week), direct mail marketing, media marketing, content creation, and so on and so on. Each of these disciplines requires understanding, execution and analysis. It is unsustainable because you cannot do it alone, consultants are expensive and finding in-house employees to make it work is nearly impossible. Throw in that micro-managing the metrics is tedious…and after all this, no connection is made with the consumer, no tangible reason for them to return, no conversation or handshake, no relationship established thus giving the ethical freedom for the consumer to click through to the next offer. The acquisition costs become untenable. Jessica Kogan has witnessed this shift and is pressing clients to "...now use the medium (digital and social marketing) to drive the customer to a physical space where they can taste and try. This is a much lower cost and way more profitable."

Going back a few years but no less applicable today, at Xerox in the early ‘80’s, after weeks of role play and focused sales training to ready me for the streets, the best advice I received from the salespeople in the trenches was  “make friends with the decision maker, it is harder for them to say “no”.  The same applies here. Give them an experience that creates a relationship...so they can’t say “no” or in this case, they come back for more.

Tell your story, engage, get a handshake, share a conversation, create an experience and make friends with the consumer, it will be harder for them to switch. Give them an experience they cannot forget each time they open that bottle of wine.

Paul Kalemkiarian spent his teenage and young adult years working the wine section of what was considered one of the top 5 wine shops in Los Angeles in its day (from Bruce Nyers), Palos Verdes Wines and Spirits. Paul spent 35 years as the President and owner of the Original Wine of the Month Club where he personally tasted over 100,000 wines and curated (sold) over 17,000,000 bottles.  His is currently the host of Wine Talks with Paul K.