Now that the world is wrapped up in the latest iPhone consumption epidemic it’s a perfect moment to discuss branding. I will not discuss Apple’s branding. You’re welcome.
What I WILL talk about is Barefoot. But first, a story:
A couple of weeks ago, as seen in the photos I posted last week, I participated in the Next Gen Wine Competition. After hours of tasting and despite the political ramifications of millennial judges choosing a sweet wine as Best in Show, the group overwhelmingly chose the dessert wine as the winner.
We were overall very confident in this decision. The atmosphere was relaxed and pretty jovial – until the name of the winning wine was announced.
This is the wine that won Best in Show:
Yep. Barefoot Moscato.
Barefoot Moscato. Personally I was MORTIFIED. And I knew I wasn’t alone. The room had EXPLODED in sound. Bitter laughter. Curses. Anguished cries of “oh my God.” Some were stricken silent with the news.
A thought flew into my head: “I will never tell anyone about this.” I was absolutely ashamed. As the minutes dragged on, however, I realized (duh) that although I’m a wine professional I am ALSO a millennial. And if I and the other millennial judges in the room were having such an emotional reaction to hearing the name of one brand, that it was THIS MOMENT that I needed to pay attention to in order to learn more about millennials and wine. The moment when I was least comfortable.
There were really two factors in play in the room’s reaction, in my opinion. 1) These are young professionals looking to prove their taste and worth in the industry, and they were embarrassed that they had chosen a $6 bottle. 2) It was a Barefoot wine.
I’m not so interested in #1, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t a factor. What fascinates me is that we were all confident in the choice, until the brand was announced. What fascinates me is #2: Barefoot’s branding.
Barefoot’s Branding
The Barefoot brand is notoriously huge, corporate, tacky and “cheap” – at least to most young wine drinkers. But why? Millennials certainly don’t have these issues with other “value-based” brands – Yellowtail and 2 Buck Chuck are perennial 20-something faves from the bargain section. What’s the difference? Branding.
From its placement in the grocery store aisles (bottom shelves) to the 80′s elegance glamour portrait label, there’s nothing about the Barefoot brand that is appealing to young wine drinkers – not even in an ironic way. If I personally had a choice between bringing a bottle of Barefoot and a jug of Carlo Rossi White Zin to a party, I’d go with the jug of CR because at least that’s funny. Why is that, when Barefoot (Moscato, at least) is actually a good wine?
I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again: in these situations, I URGE wineries to look at their brand as an accessory or an article of clothing. Wine is a SOCIAL ACCESSORY. When we talk about wine, bring it to a party, open a bottle at our own table or order a glass at a restaurant, we are effectively showing off. We are telling the people around us a little bit about who we are just by what wine we choose. This is what I mean by a social accessory.
Now let’s look at sweaters (bear with me). The Carlo Rossi jug of White Zinfandel that I mentioned before would be a phenomenally terrible holiday sweater from the late 80s. This sweater is something that our target demographic would wear with irony because it is a perfect storm of ugly, tradition, poor taste and social courage. In fact, our target demo likes wearing these sweaters so much, they create holiday parties specifically for these sweaters.
Hideous Holiday Sweater Party
They are almost always awesome. But I digress.
If the jug of Carlo Rossi is a hideous holiday sweater, then in this situation our bottle of Barefoot Moscato would be a simple ugly sweater from the mid-90s. Nothing phenomenal, nothing over-the-top about it, just dated. A sweater that was well-made and would have been pretty pimp in ’96 but today is just sad to see on a person.
If we were to throw Yellowtail into the mix, we’d be talking about an $8-$16 sweater just purchased from Old Navy or Forever 21. It’s not well made and it will fall apart in a month or two, but it’s in fashion, it fits well, and it looks good.
What do these sweaters say about the young person wearing them in public?
Hideous Holiday Sweater: I have a sense of humor, am very confident, and am creative enough to find this rare gem of an ugly sweater.
Old Navy/Fovever 21 Sweater: I may not have a lot of cash, but I’m in style and I look good.
Ugly Dated Sweater: I’m either completely clueless when it comes to fashion or I’m trying to do something and failing. Perhaps this is my favorite sweater and I really don’t care about fashion or what you think.
The same could be said of young people bringing the associated wines to a party. This is why wine is a social accessory. This is what branding does for a wine – it tells us what a wine says about us. Carlo Rossi’s jug branding is so bizarre and over-the-top that it’s funny at certain times. Yellow Tail is hip and always a safe bet. Barefoot is… dated?
Barefoot Moscato is a solid wine, and I’m pretty sure that Barefoot’s sales aren’t hurting too much; however, it’s interesting to think about what this brand would be capable of with interesting branding. It’s proven that millennials like it (and other demos too, it always seems to place well in competitions) – the product is solid. What would happen if Barefoot became a “hip and always a safe bet” social accessory for millennials instead of an embarrassing budget purchase?
The world may never know.
But not for lack of trying. Interestingly, Barefoot is trying to change this branding online with a blog, charitable works, and highlighting their young team-members. Unfortunately all of this work is foot-themed. Yes. Foot-themed. Also, despite having arguably the most successful facebook page in the wine industry, Barefoot does not take any of this offline to their labels – the one place where they can instantaneously affect a consumer’s decision to purchase. All this work looks to be for nothing since the most visible part of Barefoot’s branding (the actual bottles) run counter to all the work they are putting into the name.
Learn from this brand’s mistakes. Your most visible and vocal branding should make it easier for a person to purchase your bottle, not the other way around.
Great essay! Thanks for sharing your insights. I believe that other age groups and even other cultures see wine the same way — as an accessory. This is something I hear time and again and you’ve done a good job articulating it.
Thanks Liz. I totally agree re: all generations. That’s one of the reasons it’s so important to get branding right.
For better or worse this all too true. As a Millennial I fall right into this stereotype, and I have to admit that I am very influenced by a wine label despite working in the industry (I feel like I should be above it but I am definitely not!). We feel like what we buy is a reflection of who we are, and when wineries design labels they should be thinking hard about not only what they want to share about themselves, but who they want to reach. This means understanding not just who their target group is, but what their target group would like to be, or would like to express about themselves.
Lauren. AMEN. Well said!
And honestly I feel the same way about labels as a consumer.
Yes, I agree with Lauren. As much as we might not want to admit it, a lot of thought goes into picking out a bottle of wine to bring to a party or get-together. Even if it IS good wine (i.e. Barefoot Moscato), you’d be hesitant to share it with others if it’s an ugly bottle or a mock-worthy brand. It’s like comfy sweatpants. Sure, they feel great, you’re comfortable in them, it’s what you throw on after work to relax by yourself… but would you wear them to party or out on the town? No… because that’s when you want to express your sense of style… who you are and what you think is fun to wear.
While there has been some cynical debate over labels lately (the stat that labels with animals on them sell better), I feel it is simply an opinion of annoyance by wineries. I feel that if a winemaker is creative enough to make a great tasting wine, they should put at least as much effort into producing a good label for it… BECAUSE the majority of wine consumers do not research the product (unlike most of us who probably read blogs like this) before they buy it. They have to make a wild guess as to what they think will be good. Why wouldn’t you want your product to sell so that people can drink it a realize, “HEY! This really is a tasty wine! I think I’ll pick up another bottle of this next time.” It’s the nature of the beast… because you can’t go to a store and “try on” wine like you do clothes, you’ve gotta put some effort into making it sell.
Thank you for your comment, Frannie – you bring up an excellent point: nobody expects consumers (young or otherwise) to research what MILK they are going to buy beforehand, why does the wine industry feel that it’s different for wine?
Oooh, I smell a post coming on!
Nice article. Although I don’t think its just millennials that struggle with what the choice of a particular brand of wine (or sweater) and what it says about them. I think its a little myopic and borderline narcissistic to think these are true of just one demographic label—these are universal human tendencies and how we all interface with brands—even us old and crusty gen x/boomer fence-sitters.
But you are spot-on in your assessment of the Barefoot brand dilemma. Unfortunately, this is the sad case of many wineries small and large and Barefoot is part of the same E & J Gallo machine that also produces your über-dorky Carlo Rossi jugs. I think they deliberately are trying to project that tacky-eighties So-Cal beach look with the Xctasy font choice and dated pastel/jewel-tone color palette but they missed the mark.
Hopefully somebody at Gallo will pick up on this post and realize they need to do a serious visit to their overall branding strategy. Because they are definitely targeting millennials as evidenced by the brand’s identification with beach volleyball and the fact that their website isn’t near as tacky as their labels: http://www.barefootwine.com/
Hi Russell – All excellent points. While I would never go so far as to say I’m not borderline-narcissistic, I will say the following: I do not think and have not said that this social accessory view is exclusive to millennials, rather it’s a fundamental of branding today. I do, however, find it a perfect opportunity to put this example into focus under a generational lens.
Thank you for your kind words and great observations. Totally agree re: site.
From this post I was also able to discover my new favorite phrase “perfect storm of ugly.” I’m pretty sure that will be the first fake album that my fake band, Gold Minus, releases.
I think the judges would have had the exact same reaction if Yellow Tail or 2 Buck Chuck had been chosen as the #1 wine. I don’t think it would have made any difference because of their branding, as opposed to Barefoot. The average consumer may enjoy such wines, but “professionals” still look askance at them, for being huge, corporately created, mass commercial wines lacking soul.
I completely disagree. I think you are looking at the typical snobby side to the wine industry which refers to the fact that good wine must come in a serious looking package. May I remind you of the name yellowtail. I would rather refer to a foot than something hanging off a kangroo’s bottom. Barefoot has opened up a whole new kind of marketing that is proud of their high quality ratings and accolades but also chooses(its been an obvious purposeful decision) to look at the bright side of life and the wine industry. They are one of the first major brands to sponsor the gay community which has proven to be the most overlooked loyal consumer base out there. They are bright and fun and changing attitudes everywhere. Also while yellowtail and other competitors’ wines sales are dramatically decreasing, Barefoot has not taken their “foot off the gas” and are continuing to grow in sales, dramatically, every year. I find it odd for people to say that “barefoot had missed the mark” when they have been one of the most successful wine brands in the last few years. Obviously they aren’t branding to snobbs, but to the average person(what a relief). They are just making the professionals look stupid and pompous at each and every blind wine tasting.
Wow, Carmen, what a comment. It’s good to see that Barefoot has such passionate brand ambassadors.
All of the positive attributes that you mentioned about Barefoot may be true, but are not reflected in the branding of the wine. This is a blog about reaching out to the millennial generation, and despite all of Barefoot’s hard work, to many young wine drinkers the brand and the label still says “inexpensive and dated.”
For this demographic wine DOESN’T have to come in snobby, fancy packaging – in fact it’s best if it’s not. Yellowtail is a great example of that.
This is about reaching out to a new, younger market. It’s about increased growth. And if Barefoot is happy where they are and don’t feel like they need to tap into the enormous millennial consumer market, then they don’t need to listen to young wine drinkers’ opinions. If they do want to (and judging from their website, I’m pretty sure they do) then this is the biggest hurdle they must address.
Thanks for your comment.
Leah,
Just because someone has a different opinion on a working marketing strategy does not mean they are a brand ambassador for the wine you are talking about, which proves your bias. I have no shame in admitting that I am simply a JMU student studying direct to consumer marketing and its effectiveness. The fact that barefoot wine is inexpensive is obviously a fact and the opinion that it is dated is a whole new point that was not addressed in your article. My understanding of dated is that it is not gaining business in todays world. What I don’t understand is that you keep expressing that their technique is not working yet from all of my research they are the only popular priced wine that is dramatically increasing in sales. Now, maybe they are increasing in sales for their quality and not their marketing but I would suggest checking sales data before continuing to stress that their marketing is not working. When sales are up, usually marketing is working.
Just found your blog–love it. This is a terrific post. There are so many branding fails in the wine industry, and this is a great way to explain how Barefoot gets it wrong (at least in the eyes of the consumer you’re talking about here.) The other issue I see a lot is $10-$15 wines trying to be “classy”–the word “hand-crafted” on the back label is always a dead giveaway. Frankly, I don’t think any of us should be ashamed of making visual judgments based on what a bottle of wine looks like, no matter level of expertise. Human beings are visual, and our brains our wired to make very quick assessments based on what we see.
Also: damn, I wish I hadn’t donated my forest-green sweater with fir trees and skiers on it to the Salvation Army.
Haha. Obviously not a millennial I think of grape stomping (hello, Lucy and Ethel) and “funny.” That said, there must not be a Barefooot Rioja because I don’t think I’ve bought a bottle. ‘N’ yup, you guys do seem to like you some sweet (gak) wines.
To prove I’m not a wine snob (don’t even know ther criteria) I’ll tell you a secret. Last Christmas we actually got a phone call to find out about the wine we had served at a gathering. It was $4.99. We went back and bought lots more. Probably won’t tell.
Anyway, you’ve inspired me to buy a bottle of Barefoot, because I kind of feel for people who wear those out of fashion sweaters. Nice people. Maybe because I have always been standing at the train station when the Cool Ship came in. Peculiar thing is I feel I’m “helping” something, but apparently Barefoot doesn’t need it. As those Plain Janes in the 90s sweaters probably have great financial portfolios.
I really don’t think they got anything wrong. If you look at their website, they are marketing towards the west coast people who live the beachy lifestyle. Which is what their bottle reflects. I know a lot of surfers who buy that brand, and I personally just started buying it too. It’s a relaxed wine that doesn’t come across as snobby, unlike 99% of all the other brands of wine.
Also, for college students on a budget, it’s perfect “beach wine” that you can take to a bonfire and share with friends without freaking out because you just spent $40 on one bottle of wine that is going to be left behind at the party anyways.
This is a wine for people who are west coast laid back surfers who want some wine to go with their BBQ, or to share around the beach bonfire. So I would say they’re super sucessful in that regards.
As for being “embarrassed” because you picked out “cheap” wine for a taste testing, shouldn’t you be happy that you didn’t fall for cheap marketing ploys and actually picked the one that tasted best? I mean, there’s a reason they make those taste testings blind!