An esteemed member of the trade recently put forward a good reason that many wineries struggle to make a mark in the retail sector, namely unsuitable, unseemly or just downright poor packaging. A wine’s front label along with bottle shape and colour is it’s calling card, its brand communication, as well as quality and value statement, all in one. There are no signs in bottleshops that read ‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover,’ because that is exactly what the bulk of consumers will do when choosing a bottle of wine.
Next time you’re strolling down a supermarket isle, have a gander at the different labels on offer, whether it be on homebrand tomato sauce, loaves of bread or packets of Jasmin rice. The bulk of those labels will stand out as professionally designed, well suited to their product and appealing to the eye – after all their job is to entice the consumer to purchase. Now have a wander around your local bottleshop – how many of the wine labels on display there look as professional as those in the supermarket?
Smaller wineries need to bite the bullet and spend some money on packaging design if they want their wines noticed by retailers and picked up by consumers. In house design is no longer an option in such a tight marketplace, professional marketing companies will draw up designs that take brand identity, region, price and competitive advantage into consideration to communicate the most sale-able aspects in the simplest fashion possible. A good label can do amazing things to sales, especially if the quality of the wine then over delivers on price – because the customer would have never been exposed to the quality if the label didn’t do enough to entice purchase.
For motivation, have a look at the packaging of some wines from small producers which are punching above their weight sales wise at the moment, you’ll notice it is well suited to the brand and price as well as easy to understand. Finally, remember one thing - a winery is full of people who have an emotional connection to the brand and therefore these are not the people to judge the quality or suitability of packaging. Distributors and retailers will provide far more balanced reviews as they will be looking through the eyes of salesmen looking to provide solutions to customers needs.