I just recieved an interesting email from the owner of Blank Bottle Wines, Pieter H. Walser, describing some of the marketing/customer-engagement tactics they’ve used successfully lately.
1. Mystery wine. “I sold a few thousand bottles without telling anyone what’s in the bottle. There were 10 cases up for grabs for the closest answer. Two months later I revealed what was in the bottle. 125 people wrote back with comments, guessed the cultivar, vintage etc”.
My comment: Good idea, this gives people who know their wine the opportunity to show off that knowledge by correctly guessing its characteristics. It also gives people something to discuss around the wine, which (at least in my case), would make me more likely to take it along to dinner parties.
2. BLANKbottle™ Premium white released without price: “Instead of setting its price, I decided to let my loyal clients decide. I sent out 20 cases of “Moment of Silence” without payment or price, leaving it up to them to pay me what they thought its worth! Pricing suggestions reached up to R70, and most were prepared to pay around R50/bottle. As BLANKbottle™ was created to over-deliver on quality; I set the final price at R40″. i.e. He crowdsourced the price:)
My Comment: Good idea, following the same principle that RadioHead successfully applied with In Rainbows. However, I think the execution was a bit half-hearted by limiting it to only 20 of his loyal customers. Perhaps Pieter should have left the price people chose to pay open to suggestion for a few more weeks, as this would have created more buzz around his product.
As with his previous wines, “Moment of Silence” leaves you in the dark about the cultivar and year of vintage. To uncover the lineage of “Moment of Silence” or any of his other wines, you need to go to his website where you will find the full story behind your BLANKbottle.
Pieter is sending me a bottle to try, I must admit that the small incentive did encourage me to write this blog post. I’m such a sucker for freebies sometimes. Aren’t most bloggers?
I participated in the Mystery Pinotage mystery – it was great fun even though I came nowhere close! It was nice to see what everyone thought of it (Pieter did post everyone’s comments on his website).
I asked Pieter to do a tasting for some colleagues a month ago. He presented his new Moment of Silence, and we also gave our thoughts on price etc, and were most appreciative of his R40 pricing.
I really enjoy his wines, and he is so enthusiastic about what he does – it’s quite refreshing!
Thanks for adding to the case-study Wendy. It will be interesting to watch this emergent wine brand develop and drive sales through campaigns like these.
Of course, what a great site and informative posts, I will add backlink – bookmark this site? Regards.