We've been doing a lot of brand strategy development and work for clients lately, so in our own efforts to keep on top of - and ahead of the curve - we do a lot of reading. Recently, we ran across a writer who has published several books on brand strategy and management and writes for several online blogs on the same topic. We've enjoyed her posts ...

Great post on Agile Marketing by Jonathon Colman from REI. In this 7 minute video, he discusses four key principles of Agile Marketing and how organizations can use them to deliver more value to their customers. Agile Marketing is a term traditionally utilized in technology and by software developers, but here Jonathan succinctly tells us how thos...

Quick Response (QR) codes are quickly becoming the "hot" direct marketing item in the wine industry. Much like the early 2000's blog rage, and more recently the social media craze ("if you're not on Facebook, you're nowhere!"), QR codes are popping up in our little industry like wildfire. They're starting to show up on labels, in ads, on shelf talk...

Social media is a hot topic. No doubt. If you're in the wine industry, and not fully leveraging this space to connect with consumers, you're probably feeling some pressure...Pressure from your boss to "tackle this social thing"; pressure from the industry to "keep up with the Joneses"; pressure from the social media mavens to "get on board or get l...

The concept of CRM – customer relationship management – is one that tends to get a lot of overuse in conversation… but underuse in actual execution. In our industry, wineries and wine retailers are now beginning to focus more and more on selling direct to the consumer, and recognizing the need to manage the customer relationship...

The following is a guest post by Mitch Schwartz, consultant to the wine industry focused specifically on helping small to mid-sized wineries increase their distribution through Direct to Trade channel sales initiatives.Much has been written about the consolidation of the middle tier –distributors - in the three tier system. The continued ...

According to a

In a recent

Email is an effective means of communication with you

The following was originally posted on the REThinkWine blog in Feb 2008. Thanks to IBG for the repost rights.Found an interesting chart today on marketingcharts.com defining the top online retailers by conversion rate. This chart shows the total percent

The following was originally posted on the REThinkWine blog in Oct 2008. Thanks to IBG for the repost rights..

On the heels of a good telemarketing discussion in a recent WISE Academy session, as well as the blog we posted last week on tele-marketing, I had a chance to chat with Mark Parton, Founder & President of

One of the often overlooked direct sales tools is the

With the DTCS

It’s no revelation to say that we that we l

We're going through an exercise to

I love this campaign for its pure simpl

The following are a few "quick win" considerations to help refresh - or perhaps even jump start - your winery direct-to-consumer efforts in 2010. None of these cost very much to implement, but the return on each can make a big difference to your brand presentation, the experience your customer's have with your brand/s, and even your revenue bottom ...

The last coupl

Last week, in “Time to Clean Your (Brand) House”, we defined 4 critical things that you need to truly “know” to successfully build a strong, engaging and lasting brand. If you’ve taken a look at your brand – and evaluated your position with those first 4 - now it’s time to move onto the next 3.

To successfully build a strong, engaging and lasting brand, there are several things your brand must

With all the buzz on using social media and winer

Read a compelling blog post earlier today on the usage of coupon codes and disruption to the check out con

I've spent a long time perfecting my use of PowerPoint. Those who have ever worked with me, know that I'm the PowerPoint "go-to" gal, and regularly consult with me on how to insert animations, adjust formatting, align bullets, etc. My first job as a Media Planner for a well-known ad agency forced me to begin thinking, breathing and - of course - pu...