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wine

Here’s Your Sense Of Entitlement

Not Great Expectations
April 27, 2011 By In Basics, Marketing, Newsflash, Tough Love

Not Great Expectations

Welcome to my world. I’m not going to lie – overall it’s pretty awesome. It’s fun, weird, creative, but also at times incredibly annoying. For example, do you want to know what I hear ALL DAY LONG? No? Well, I’m going to tell you anyway.

“Millennials have an unrealistic sense of entitlement”

“Millennials feel entitled to anything and everything”

“Trophy kids”

So admittedly I hear more than this all day, like how we don’t spend money on wine (bull) and how we’re just not “mature” enough to understand how wine is marketed (I throw up a little everytime I hear variations on this theme) – but that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about entitlement and expectations.

Now, if you are the parent of a millennial and you want to wax poetic to me about how your kids have a sense of entitlement, go for it. If you are in HR and want to vent to me about the generation’s unrealistic expectations in our careers, have at it.

It’s fine. You’re talking about your children or your employees.

HOWEVER.

If you are marketing wine and you are talking about this demographic, you are talking about potential consumers. Potential CUSTOMERS. You are not talking about the fruit of your loins or an employee. You’re talking about a person whose money you would like to have in your pocket. We are no longer talking about ENTITLEMENT. We are talking about EXPECTATIONS.

Which brings me to my next point.

EVERYBODY is talking about how millennials expect special treatment. Let me break this down for you, wine industry. In two easy to digest layers.

1) Go find the person that’s in charge of your wine club. Seriously. Find ‘em? Good. Now ask them if your wine club members expect special treatment. They will either a) laugh in your face b) dismiss you with a quick yes and get back to that newsletter they’ve been working on or c) they will think that you are asking them a trick question. If you are their boss, it will almost certainly be c). The reason I’ve asked you to do this little experiment is to show you that EVERY customer you have expects special treatment. You are not a diner in Queens – people do not expect to give you their money and be treated poorly – or vice versa. This goes for any customer of any age.

 

2) Let’s say that millennials are  NOT your customers – they aren’t in your wine club. You WANT them, but if they expect special treatment from you is it really worth all the extra effort just to get them in the door? I won’t answer that for you in this post (read the rest of the blog for the answer), but what I CAN say is this:

CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, millennials do not expect special treatment from you, wine industry. In fact, millennials don’t really expect much. In my experience, millennials expect you to be dismissive of them, they expect you to be somewhat snobbish, they expect you to pretty much act like every other US winery, in other words. And congratulations, you’re doing a great job so far.

Just like any consumer, if millennials don’t like you, we just won’t by your stuff. We’re not begging for you to change and we CERTAINLY don’t expect you to. There’s plenty of other wine out there to purchase. And we’re buying it. The person that’s begging you to change is ME. Personally myself, Leah Hennessy of Millennier, who also happens to be a millennial, I EXPECT YOU TO CHANGE if you want to make some cash off of this generation. Learn about us. Respect us as consumers and as wine drinkers. Learn to communicate with us. I, personally, expect you to give millennials special treatment because consumers deserve special treatment. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if you don’t want us as consumers, then don’t worry about changing.

The expectations that we SHOULD be talking about are those of the wine industry. Marketers EXPECT the same old marketing tactics that have been in use for the last 40 years to still be effective on a new generation of wine drinkers. They EXPECT that simply by starting a facebook page that every millennial will crawl out of the woodwork to buy their wine. They EXPECT that 70 million people with a proven dislike for wine’s “attitude” will just “grow into it.” And finally (and my favorite) they EXPECT to not change a thing, not change the way they communicate, not change the way they view an entire generation and they EXPECT to make money off of millennials in return.

Let’s think about that. Whose expectations really need to change?

Dear Wine Industry: Thought You Should Know

Dear Wine Industry: There's a rumor going around that says...
April 18, 2011 By In Dear Wine Industry, Tough Love

Dear Wine Industry: There's a rumor going around that says...

Dear Wine Industry…Another tough love letter

New: Short Presentation on US Millennials & Wine

French Wine & Spirits Connection
March 7, 2011 By In Basics, Presentations

Aaand it’s been a whole month since I last posted – shame on me.

Things have been fast and furious in the world of Millennier including international jet-setting and a speaking engagement in February for UBIFRANCE and the French Trade Commission for the French Wine Connection 2011 in Los Angeles. I was asked to speak to roughly 30 French wine producers about millennials in the US marketplace.

French Wine & Spirits Connection

Logo & Flyer for the French Wine & Spirits Connection this year.

It is a very simple overview with some foundation data on the generation and consumption designed to introduce non marketing-types to the demographic. If you feel you have a good working knowledge on the generation (and if you’re a reader of this blog, then I’ll bet that you do), then this presentation may not be for you. However, if you’re looking to educate someone who’s just learning about the generation (a boss, an employee, etc.) you may find it helpful.

The video of last year’s UBIFRANCE event.

UBIFRANCE will have a video of the presentation at some point, but the deck is available at millennier-inc.com/ubifrance

 

 

Unified Wine & Grape Symposium: Apparently Millennials Are Now A Big Deal!

Standing room only at the Unified "What Matters To Millennials" panel last week.
February 1, 2011 By In Adventures, Marketing, Presentations

After a pretty amazing week at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, things in LA are pretty tame in comparison – even with all the catch-up to be done. I want to thank everyone who attended the panel that I led on Tuesday (What Matters To Millennials) – I was blown away at the turn out! I also want to extend my apologies for not having a longer Q & A (my favorite part) – I totally would have gone over our allotted time with more Q & A  if I wasn’t too preoccupied with prep to check the schedule beforehand and realize we were the last presentation in the room. Oh well, next time. I’m sorry.

For readers and attendees not following the hashtag on twitter, here’s a quick pic that I took from the stage:

Standing room only at the Unified "What Matters To Millennials" panel last week.

I learned so much from the feedback that I received – I’m certainly looking forward to doing this again. (I’ll be sure to post future speaking engagements on this blog from now on.) My fellow panel members Adam Beaugh of Jackson Family Wines and Meagan Callahan of The Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance (both millennials) and I have been getting several requests for the presentation. Here’s the deal:

A link to download the presentation is available at http://millennier-inc.com/unified

I’ve made the decision to make it available as a .pdf download rather than a slideshare because, well, it was carefully created by the three of us to be presented face to face, and not as a stand-alone show. If you did not attend and really want to hear the audio that went with it, the fine folks at All Star Media have made an mp3 audio recording available for us, and is available for download at the millennier-inc.com link above (warning: the file is quite large).

So, now that I know the (surprising) demand for material like this, I’ve decided to create a few more distance-friendly decks available throughout the year. For free. I’ll be sure to post the links on this blog when I do so.

Additionally, I always felt that online seminars were kind of douche-y, but if there’s actually a demand for more panels like this (that don’t cost hundreds of $$ and a plane ride to attend), I’ll cough up the cash for a go-to-meeting seminar-thing and host one online. And do my best to make it NOT douche-y (but it would be an online seminar and it would cost SOMETHING to attend, so that might be kind of difficult…). Please let me know in the comments or by email if this is something that ANYONE would care about – if it is, I’ll work on putting one together.

Back to the grind now – getting ready for some serious posts. Looking forward to answering some questions in the weeks ahead. If anyone has something they would like me to magnanimously donate my two cents on, please feel free to leave a question in the comments.

Dear Wine Industry: 70 Million Millennials Aren’t Going To Just Disappear So Deal With It

"Dear Wine Industry" handwritten letter
January 19, 2011 By In Dear Wine Industry, Tough Love

"Dear Wine Industry" handwritten letter

Nielsen Urges Alcohol Beverage Industry: Pay Attention to Millennials

A New Landscape.
January 12, 2011 By In News, Research
A New Landscape.

Millennials will redefine the landscape of the alcohol beverage industries. The original illustration in this design was created by designious.com

Yesterday, the Nielsen blog published an article that featured some findings from its Q2 2010 research initiative on Millennials. The title of this article? So glad you asked.

Millennials Redefine The Alcohol Beverage Landscape.

“Without a doubt, millennials are a large and influential generation and alcohol beverage companies need to know their taste and buying preferences in order to take advantage of the trends that can greatly impact business.” – Nielsen, Jan 11, 2011

Snark aside, this little teaser is packed full of valuable info on millennials as alcohol beverage consumers. Some of my favorite findings and exerpts (quoted directly from the article) are:

  • Compared to the general population, millennials are more likely to trade back up to more expensive alcohol beverage brands as the economy improves.
  • Millennials are more likely to explore new and different alcohol beverage products and will be even more likely to buy a locally-made or produced product knowing it may help the local economy.
  • An added boost for marketers employing social or traditional media to influence behavior, millennials are slightly more likely to plan their purchases versus purchase on impulse in today’s down economy.
  • Leveraging social media will be a critical marketing strategy for alcohol beverage companies to communicate with Millennial consumers and make their brands relevant with this generation.

Personally, I’m quite happy to see Nielsen making a serious and more formal commitment to studying this age group. No doubt they felt the swift kick in the ass that Pew Research dealt them with their excellent Millennial Portrait resource compiled last year.

**For those that get REALLY into this stuff like I do, Nielsen tops out the Millennial age range with those currently aged 34, while Pew began at those currently aged 31. It will be an interesting data comparison when the full reports are released.**

follow Millennier on twitter at @millennier or on facebook at /millennier.inc

A Note To Readers

January 10, 2011 By In Note to Readers

2011

Dear Readers,

Welcome back! I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and that you’re all having fun accidentally writing “2010″ on important documents. Before the shine and sparkle of the New Year wears off completely, I wanted to take the opportunity to touch base and bask in its retreating glow for just a second by mentioning a few exciting updates:

New Agency: Millennier, Inc.

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve launched a new online marketing agency named (surprise) Millennier, Inc. that focuses on reaching millennials (surprise again). I’ve had the amazing opportunity to assemble a team of incredibly talented and creative individuals with whom I’m expanding the work I’ve been doing solo for the last couple years. Every member of our creative team is a working professional in the fields in which they specialize. They are also millennials. Our main focus is online content & strategy – what a brand says and how – which will also continue to be a topic on this blog.

The website is Millennier-Inc.com for those interested – if you or your company is serious about reaching millennials and would like to work together, just drop me a line and be sure to mention you’re a reader of this blog.

New Gig: Unified Wine & Grape Symposium

I have been asked to lead a marketing panel at this year’s Unified Wine & Grape Symposium called What Matters To Millennials. Joining me onstage will be Adam Beaugh, Social Media Director of Jackson Family Wines, and Meagan Callahan, Communications Coordinator for Paso Robles Wine Alliance and CRAVE – both millennials. If you will be at Unified this year, be sure to stop by the panel and say hi. More on this in the weeks leading up to the Symposium.

New Approach: More Frequency

Beginning this month, I will be posting to Millennier.com with a wider range of topics and more frequency. In my day to day life, I mainline millennial and marketing news – much of this is news that readers of this blog would find quite valuable, or at least interesting.  Starting in the next couple weeks, in addition to the highly opinionated theory & application pieces you’re used to seeing on this blog, you’ll see some smaller, more frequent posts relating to news, trends, etc.

New Priority: You

Without getting too schmaltzy about it, I think it’s appropriate to mention that I’ve come to realize this blog is not just an outlet or a soapbox – it’s a relationship between you, the reader, and me, the blogger. Ok, a strange one, but a relationship nonetheless. Over the last couple years I’ve found that I no longer write posts because I want to say something, I write them because I hope to communicate what I have learned on to a savvy group of readers for their own use. I write here because I hope these posts are of value to YOU. For this reason, I hope to hear from you – especially with the addition of the new posts – with your feedback. If you like a post – let me know. If you hate one – let me know. I’ve found these discussions to be more energizing and enlightening than any article or case study one can read. Your comments tend to stick with me – I talk about them over dinner and discuss your POVs on weekends with friends.  In return, I’m making a commitment to be more active in responding to your comments.

Thank you very much for being a reader. I wish you much professional badassery in the New Year.

Best,

-Leah Hennessy

twitter: @millennier

facebook: /millennier.inc

MILLENNIALS: WHY BOTHER? (The Short Answer)

Why Bother?
September 3, 2010 By In Basics, Marketing, Tough Love
Why Bother?

The question of the moment.

Summer’s over, September’s here, and it’s time for me to address something head on.

As Millennials become more of a focus in the wine industry, I’ve been getting more and more blowback both online and in person regarding the value of this demographic. Now if I’m getting this feedback – a person openly dedicated to establishing the value of this demographic within the wine industry – one can only imagine the general opinion at the moment. I feel it’s timely and appropriate to address this.

Most of the opposing feedback I’ve gotten can be summed up by the following question:

WHY BOTHER WITH MILLENNIALS?

Great question.

Here’s the answer:

TO MAKE MORE MONEY.

That’s it folks. If you want to make more money, cultivating millennial consumers is a no brainer.  The concept is basic – it’s a huge group of people that spends a lot of money on wine that you don’t currently have access to. Period. It’s the same reason folks are reaching out to the Chinese market – same reason, different scale.

THAT BEING SAID:

If you WANT to cultivate millennial consumers, you’re going to have to change the way you reach out to this group (marketing, advertising, branding, etc.), because we don’t respond to the same outreach tactics that our parents did.

Think about it: is this really surprising? Do you – personally – respond the same way to ads, marketing, branding , etc. that your parents did? Why would millennials be any different? This is a basic concept, but one that’s important to understand in an industry that’s been utilizing the same outreach tactics for the last 40 years.

If this is too much of a pain, or perhaps better said, too painful for companies to realize, then it’s a waste for these folks to go for millennials.

There are still SEVERAL companies and individuals out there who dismiss the 70 million millennial consumers as kids, as buying cheap, or in some other way completely irrelevant to the wine industry. To those people I say thanks for reading the blog and best of luck – clearly our money is no good to you, so I and my 70 million friends will buy someone else’s wine.

HOWEVER: If a company DOES want to reach the millennial market effectively, that company MUST change its tactics. The purpose of this blog is to help people do just that.

And This Is How You Do Creative Branding: Featuring Gary Numan and Cars

July 23, 2010 By In Basics, Branding, Marketing

As many readers of this blog know by now, I am a HUGE proponent of creative branding. I definitely touched on this on the Authenticity & Pop Culture post this Spring when I brought up a simple-yet-genius Pedigree internet ad. The time has come once again to talk about creativity.

Ok. Let’s say you have a product that, unlike wine, is completely un-sexy. Let’s say for example your product is a car battery.

die hard battery

I mean, your name is Die Hard – that’s cool – but you’re a car battery. There’s not a whole lot you can do with that.

Unless of course, you are a marketing genius. Then you might think about how you can combine the insane potential of a creative interned vid with the current DIY zeitgeist that is fascinating people today. In fact you might look at the following video and say “I want that for my car battery.”

This OK GO music video from March 1st of this year has over 15 MILLION views. And that’s just from the official posting.

And if you’re truly a marketing genius, you might call up the company that made that video for OK GO and say again, “I want that for my car battery.”

And if you did that, this is what you would get:

And then you would be my personal hero. I find this ad brilliant and awesome on about a ba-zillion different levels. I will not wax poetic here, but if you want to hear why I think this is such a big deal just call me and carve out about an hour of your time.

WARNING: I’m about to get cranky, so if you don’t want to hear me cranky on a Friday, I bid you a happy weekend.

<rant>If you’re still with me, here’s my beef. I’m SO TIRED of people in EVERY ASPECT of the wine industry automatically handcuffing wine to media and branding that has been used for the last 40 YEARS. If you want new consumers then you have to do something new. PERIOD. DONE. Don’t tell me that wine can’t be awesome and fun and hip and irreverent when a CAR BATTERY can.</rant>

Go be creative and awesome. If you’re not creative and awesome, find someone who is. A few months from now I want to be writing about a video like this for a wine. And you know what? I will. Maybe I’ll just make it myself. If you want in, let me know.

Good Wine, Ugly Sweater: Why Branding Matters

ugly sweater party
July 8, 2010 By In Basics, Marketing

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:

Barefoot Moscato

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.

ugly sweater party

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.