"A Bottle a Day. That's All We Ask."

And other great wine marketing ideas.

Gundlach-Bundschu, under Jim Bundschu anyway, knew how to look at wine consumption. It's not serious business!  Look at what the mega-beer companies do.   I mean, does anybody really think Bud Lite is good or do you just drink it because of the ads?

This kind of "regular guy" advertising seems friendlier and less hoidy toidy than a lot of the ads you see mostly in wine mags with some expensive-looking skinny babe in an expensive dress who is way out of my league with a glass of a beverage that is also apparently way out of my league.

There are enough wine snobs perpetuating wine intimidation to those newer to wine.  Why the heck would marketing types do this?

It's like the Mercedes car ads.  Even if I didn't already know I couldn't afford a M-B the stuffiness of their advertising tells me so.

Rich and drunk and ready

Sex is often used in marketing, but even this ad has an upper-class style.  And it won't do much for most of the women who buy wine.   The car people finally figured out a few years ago that women actually make purchases too!   Yeah, I know, the marketing MBA types will talk targeting and positioning all scientific like about the West Coast white couples with income of $200k.   What percentage of wine drinkers (or the population in general) fall into this?

Oh, but you're going for the high-end crowd?   If you've ever been in a tasting room it's full of middle-class 30- and 40-somethings.   How do you want to appeal to them?  Is your wine fun to drink?  Does it create a fun time with friends?   Do their friends drive Chevys or Mercedes?

Meeker Winery, also known for being a little avant-garde, took out an ad in the local paper with "Free Sex Win Now" in bold letters.  Under that it said, "Now that we have your attention ..."   This ad appeared at least ten years ago and I still remember it.   And so what if your advertising might piss off a few fundamentalists that would not drink wine anyway--there's nothing like the free advertising coming from their complaints!

These are not your typical wine drinkers


These are