Consumer Centric New Zealand Wine – Again, But Different

I’m hearing from last week’s Romeo Bragato conference that the way forward for New Zealand wine is a consumer centric approach. As per usual when hearing this over that last decade, it sounds great – but it’s hardly newsworthy. Same old same old really.

Time for a bit of innovative thinking. The secret is in implementation especially in export markets where distributors and retailers control access to consumers. So instead of the same old battle cry, I suggest a new Marketing model; not consumer centric but fan centric:

·        activate fans of New Zealand wine worldwide and uses the levers available in a networked world

·        help fans to spread the good word – even if these fans are not wine experts and don’t speak the lingo (actually that’s a good thing)

·        create a fan sales force driving demand and convincing retailers to stock our wines – call it pull 2.0  

Impossible? Don’t think so, has been done successfully in wine and other categories. Hard? Of course, otherwise everybody would be doing it.

Play to your unique strengths and utilize completely new channels that build a global fan community – all that from right here in Aotearoa. It can be done.