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Cape Town — South African wine producers have been encouraged to polish their storytelling skills in an effort to capture and hold the attention of US consumers through stories which are authentic, emotionally charged, unexpected and memorable.
“The secret of selling is what it has always been – a good story. It’s that simple,” said Rob Bradshaw, president of New York based importer Cape Classics. The company has sold almost 1.5 million cases of South Africa wine in the US in the past decade - more than 25% of all bottled wine by volume and close to 30% in value, according to US Trade Stats USA.
Bradshaw spoke at an industry event in Somerset-West, attended by the likes of Morgenster, Kanonkop, Glenelly, Buitenverwachting, De Toren, DeMorgenzon, Thelema and Lourensford. He called on producers to explore their history to create authentic and compelling narratives to share with distributor partners and customers.
“The American customer demands authenticity and our partners are brimming with it. What we need to do in 2016 better than we ever have, is to share these stories. That sharing starts from the farm to us, then us to the trade and the consumer,” said Bradshaw.
“We need you to supply us with three to five unique selling points on each wine to answer the question 'why should I buy?'. We also need you to ensure you have distinctive but brand-relevant packaging that ‘pops’ and sells itself on the shelf. This needs to be backed up with social media engagement that authenticates the story.”
He identified packaging as a key part of storytelling and illustrated his point with Buitenverwachting’s decision to rebrand and redesign its labels to Bayten two years ago, creating positive energy and excitement around the brand.
“This new packaging tells a story about history and quality just from the elements, typeface and paper selection,” said Bradshaw.
Similarly, Beyond’s label change lead to more direct brand correlation, with better, cleaner packaging contributing to a 60% increase in depletions between September 2013 and September 2015.
The digital space is an exciting and relatively new platform for many local wine producers and Cape Classics is using digital marketing alerts to share marketing information and updates with distributor partners and customers.
“Together, we are all telling a story. Each and every one of us has come together with the mission of making South African wine be discovered and loved in America. We do that via quality, authenticity and storytelling,” concluded Bradshaw.
