Communication YES, Communication NO?
The answer seems to have been established for some time: “I communicate, therefore I am”.
An axiom that has become evident in the era of social media, where we are witnessing an increasingly osmotic interaction between virtual life and real life, as well as between communication and sales between private individuals – just think of the introduction of MarketPlace Your Facebook.Gaja, with its website, where only the white logo, address, telephone number and email appear on a black background, is the exception that proves the rule.
A rule that is common to both small and large brands and from which neither commercial brands nor luxury names are exempt.
Because how does it sum up? Max Lorenzi by Enio Ottaviani Wines: “communication is not an optional choice and, if done well, it pays off”.Massimo, who runs the family business together with his brother Davide, was among the first in Italy to believe in an integrated communication program aimed at the consumer, with a blog where he recounted his work missions abroad (www.enioottaviani.it). A strategy that worked and allowed the company to gain an audience of 11 thousand followers on Facebook, increasing its user base. His experience aligns with that of Marilena Barbera of Cantine Barbera, Enrico Rivetto of Azienda Agricola Rivetto, Giampaolo Paglia of Poggio Argentiera, Luca Ferraro of Bele Casel – all virtuous examples reported by Slawka G. Scarso in his Wine Marketing.
To these we must add many other names, including the company Barberini from Orvieto, which won the award for best wine at the latest edition of the Only Wine Festival – one of the most interesting wine events to date best corporate communication:
"for having told their 57 years of history in a clear and elegant way. Barberani's communication is direct, immediate and emotional, also conveyed through one of the most interesting websites".
A crucial “emotional” term, which divides the “old style” communication of wine with the current one, which however still remains, for some products, anchored to the old canons.
As he observes in fact Reka Haros in aof the most read articles of The Buyer, wine communication remains didactic rather than emotional.
In the 872 pages of advertisements that appeared in Wine Spectator between 2010 and 2012 and analyzed by Haros, the homogenization of the message was disarming.
86% contained an image of a bottle and 66% included a geographic reference.
The result, Haros points out, is not only boring, but fails to create any kind of emotion.
A uniform layout for all communications fails to remain impressed in the reader's mind.
Haros wonders why today we continue to put the bottle at the center of the advertising message instead of focusing on consumers, placing them at the center of the story and therefore increasing their level of involvement.
The other question Haros asks is why the wine industry is still tied to an educational approach and does not propose an experiential approach instead.
The third question that Haros asks concerns the price: why is it still used as a promotional element, even though it is fallacious from the start (any other product can in fact operate a downward launch).
These are the questions that Haros suggests to self-evaluate your brand communication:
_ What are you doing to make your brand unforgettable for your wine club/customers?
_ What problems are you solving for them?
_ What are the reasons why customers choose you?
_ Do you take the trouble to investigate the above reasons?
_ Are you asking enough questions to figure it out?
_ Who is the hero at the center of your communication?
_ Have you developed an effective promotion line?
Questions that help to understand if and how much communication needs to be recalibrated, in order to be more effective.
The big Italian companies know this well and are increasingly aiming for direct interaction with the consumer, especially in terms of wine tourism, which is still undervalued in the Bel Paese.
In 2017, the FleishmanHillard research on the top 32 wine companies by turnover (Mediobanca data) identified Facebook as the most used social network, andInstagram the one with the highest growth, while the most debated topics were native vines and sustainability.
The top three positions included Frescobaldi, Antinori andFarms, followed by Cavit, Mezzocorona, Banfi, Mionetto and Villa Sandi, Zonin and Santa Margherita.
And if in the case of Antinorithe constant promotion on social media must have influenced the 300 thousand visits to the cellar recorded last year, in other cases the result is slower warns FleishmanHillard: “The speed of return on investment is linked to the maturity of the different markets and the ability to create a system”.