Positioning isn’t just some BS marketing exercise. Positioning is where YOU get to pick the contest, come up with the rules, and decide how the game is won. The winner gets to be remembered. The others … well, the others have a long struggle ahead.

Ballerina Cat
You gotta do what only you can do best

How do you describe your winery? Are you a small, family-owned winery producing wines that seek to express the unique terrior of your vineyards? That’s pretty good, but isn’t that what everyone else is too? With over 4,500 wineries in California alone, how can you possibly hope to stand out?

If it feels that your marketing efforts aren’t paying off, if you feel like you’re running out of ideas for how to say the same thing, then it might be time to make a change. If you want your customers to stick around, talk about you to their friends, read all your emails, and keep buying your wines … there’s good news! There’s more that you can do.

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Positioning your winery is about defining your category

It’s about identifying that space where you are the best at what you do, and then owning it. It gets tricky though. Are you the only winery in California producing naturally made Zweigelt in the true Austrian style? There might not be enough people who care about that. That’s where the number-crunching comes in.

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# of wineries in the U.S.
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# of wineries in California
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# of wineries within 5 miles of your winery
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# of cases you need to sell each year
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# of customers you need to visit your tasting room
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# of people in your identified market

We help you position your winery in a space that you can win

We help you determine whether you’re competing within the space that makes sense for you — your winery, your size, your winery’s own particular personality, and your goals. We know this sounds like a bunch of blah-blah-blah, but it’s really quite methodical. We’ll walk you through the entire process.

Discovery
Getting to know you is the first step in the journey of finding your position in this crowded marketplace. We need to discover how you are different in a way that people would care about.
Competitive Analysis
With an intimate understanding of who you are, including your vision, your background, your philosophy, what brought you to where you are today, and what you’re truly passionate about, we can look at other wineries in the marketplace that might share some of your traits.
Market Analysis
Next, we measure the size of the market that you’ll be appealing to. How many customers can you hope to attract? What are their buying habits? How many cases of wine do you need to sell them, and is this possible?
Brand Story
Now that we know how you’re different, and who you will be speaking to, we determine how to speak to them. We develop your story for you to communicate to your audience how you’re different.
Training the Brand Ambassadors
We then provide training for everyone on your team who is in contact with your audience, so that they can relate your story in a branded, accurate, engaging, and entertaining way. This is how you build yourself a home in your audience’s hearts and minds.
Marketing Strategy
Your marketing needs to speak to your audience where they are, and in a way that they will hear you. Our research covers this and informs the strategy we build for you to generate the best returns from your marketing dollars.

Positioning your winery might seem like something that can be put off, but let me share with you an old Chinese proverb:

 

The best day to plant a tree is 30 years ago.

The 2nd-best day to plant a tree is today.

 

Likewise, the best time to conduct a positioning exercise for your winery was before you ever even opened. The 2nd-best time is right now. So get in touch and let’s schedule a time for a free consultation. By the end of the hour, you and I will both know whether we’re a fit for each other, and if we should move forward — all without costing you a penny.