Comments on: Should Wineries Sample Wine Bloggers? http://acanmedia.com/should-wineries-sample-wine-bloggers/ Practical tools for winery conversational marketing Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:15:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Tim Elliott http://acanmedia.com/should-wineries-sample-wine-bloggers/comment-page-1/#comment-761 Tim Elliott Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:20:49 +0000 http://acanmedia.com/?p=110#comment-761 Josh, I've been thinking about your comment for a few days now and think I can now respond with some answers. First, great points all around. I'll go a step further and say that only two publications matter in the U.S. Robert Parker's Wine Advocate and The Wine Spectator. If you are in Europe, then Decanter and whatever local language publication is all that is relevant in the market. But your point about if everyone is a "critic" then "what makes you matter" is the main thing I wanted to respond to. You are correct, wine bloggers only "matter" to their community which can be from a few dozen friends to tens of thousands. Reviews posted on these blogs do result in sales for wineries; I know because many have told me this directly from some reviews I have posted at Winecast. The bottom line is that wine bloggers have an audience and more people looking for wine recommendations are discovering them. This is the evolution of word of mouth that used to be limited to the individuals' social circle. Today a blog greatly amplifies their potential audience. Lastly, if you don't believe in sampling the 3 or 4 critics that have some power today, then I would not advise you to sample any wine bloggers. I think I already said that in my post. Thanks! Josh,

I’ve been thinking about your comment for a few days now and think I can now respond with some answers.

First, great points all around. I’ll go a step further and say that only two publications matter in the U.S. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and The Wine Spectator. If you are in Europe, then Decanter and whatever local language publication is all that is relevant in the market.

But your point about if everyone is a “critic” then “what makes you matter” is the main thing I wanted to respond to.

You are correct, wine bloggers only “matter” to their community which can be from a few dozen friends to tens of thousands. Reviews posted on these blogs do result in sales for wineries; I know because many have told me this directly from some reviews I have posted at Winecast.

The bottom line is that wine bloggers have an audience and more people looking for wine recommendations are discovering them. This is the evolution of word of mouth that used to be limited to the individuals’ social circle. Today a blog greatly amplifies their potential audience.

Lastly, if you don’t believe in sampling the 3 or 4 critics that have some power today, then I would not advise you to sample any wine bloggers. I think I already said that in my post.

Thanks!

]]> By: Josh McFadden http://acanmedia.com/should-wineries-sample-wine-bloggers/comment-page-1/#comment-635 Josh McFadden Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:36:24 +0000 http://acanmedia.com/?p=110#comment-635 I believe one of the oversimplifications in this post is that you have defined "critics" as something that they are not. The idea that "critics" (for the rest of this rant I am talking about NATIONAL critics, local and region critics are a whole other ballgame) are relevant now or have mattered in the last 15 years is a myth. They don't matter. Well, that's a lie!... 2 or 3 or 4 of them matter, the rest will just get you distribution, but REALLY we are talking winery-direct sales here, right? And if you are a small-to-medium sized producer in California, making a product that is not flawed, and are a nice guy/girl finding distribution is not an issue. In all my time as a retailer, sommelier, and winery-direct-sales guy not one person has said "I read about in .. I WANT TO BUY!" This never happened for a lot of reasons, I'm sure. Most of these publications are behind the times and the wines they are reviewing have long been sold out, a lot of them only review large-production wines (5,000+ cases production) and lastly these publications don't often stick their respective necks out and take a stand. It could be anything, but most of these publications are happy being mediocre and publishing mediocre reviews that no one reads. Stand for something, love a style, hate a style... give something above 96 points.. do something... The simple matter of fact is that the only national publications that can sell wine to customers and make them pick up a phone, visit a website or go to their local wine shop are: Wine Spectator, Robert Parker (The Wine Advocate), and The New York Times. You can't doubt me all you want, but ask any retailer in the country. They will tell you the same thing. SO, the question I would ask to bloggers is: -In a world where anyone can do what you do, why do you matter? -How is sending wine to you going to help me? -If the traditional wine review doesn't work, what does? I believe one of the oversimplifications in this post is that you have defined “critics” as something that they are not. The idea that “critics” (for the rest of this rant I am talking about NATIONAL critics, local and region critics are a whole other ballgame) are relevant now or have mattered in the last 15 years is a myth. They don’t matter. Well, that’s a lie!… 2 or 3 or 4 of them matter, the rest will just get you distribution, but REALLY we are talking winery-direct sales here, right? And if you are a small-to-medium sized producer in California, making a product that is not flawed, and are a nice guy/girl finding distribution is not an issue. In all my time as a retailer, sommelier, and winery-direct-sales guy not one person has said “I read about in .. I WANT TO BUY!”

This never happened for a lot of reasons, I’m sure. Most of these publications are behind the times and the wines they are reviewing have long been sold out, a lot of them only review large-production wines (5,000+ cases production) and lastly these publications don’t often stick their respective necks out and take a stand. It could be anything, but most of these publications are happy being mediocre and publishing mediocre reviews that no one reads. Stand for something, love a style, hate a style… give something above 96 points.. do something…

The simple matter of fact is that the only national publications that can sell wine to customers and make them pick up a phone, visit a website or go to their local wine shop are: Wine Spectator, Robert Parker (The Wine Advocate), and The New York Times. You can’t doubt me all you want, but ask any retailer in the country. They will tell you the same thing.

SO, the question I would ask to bloggers is:
-In a world where anyone can do what you do, why do you matter?
-How is sending wine to you going to help me?
-If the traditional wine review doesn’t work, what does?

]]> By: Tim Elliott http://acanmedia.com/should-wineries-sample-wine-bloggers/comment-page-1/#comment-532 Tim Elliott Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:38:31 +0000 http://acanmedia.com/?p=110#comment-532 Very interesting statistics Udi. I didn't know there were that many wineries on MySpace. Do you have experience with any social network related sampling programs? Thanks. Very interesting statistics Udi. I didn’t know there were that many wineries on MySpace.

Do you have experience with any social network related sampling programs?

Thanks.

]]> By: Udi Barone http://acanmedia.com/should-wineries-sample-wine-bloggers/comment-page-1/#comment-530 Udi Barone Thu, 10 Jul 2008 06:45:05 +0000 http://acanmedia.com/?p=110#comment-530 You can actually see it happen on social networks like MySpace. Wine is a hot topic on MySpace, hundreds of small wineries making friends with wine lovers and growing their online communities. The next step for the wineries is to extend their tasting room by offering their social network friends' wine samples and get the online conversation going. To maximize the ROI on those wine samples, wineries should try to target their most influential friends who have highest word-of-mouth impact. Check my website for more statistics about MySpace wineries and other goodies you can use. You can actually see it happen on social networks like MySpace. Wine is a hot topic on MySpace, hundreds of small wineries making friends with wine lovers and growing their online communities.

The next step for the wineries is to extend their tasting room by offering their social network friends’ wine samples and get the online conversation going.

To maximize the ROI on those wine samples, wineries should try to target their most influential friends who have highest word-of-mouth impact.

Check my website for more statistics about MySpace wineries and other goodies you can use.

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