12:34 AM
January 2009 - Wine Labels
Today's Wine Labels Article
The New Wine Label Phenomenon
Copyright (c) 2006 Peter Renton
It comes as no news to anyone that the American people love their animals. What did come as a surprise to me is that we also love animals on our wine labels. Yes, a study released earlier this year by ACNielsen confirms that wine labels with animal images are becoming increasingly popular in this country.
I felt compelled to do my own research on this topic so one evening I stopped by my local liquor store to check out the wine selection. Sure enough I was greeted with a veritable zoo of animals on labels. There were Dancing Bulls, Leaping Horses, Black Swans, Little Penguins, Kangaroos, even a hippopotamus courtesy of Fat Bastard Wines (which is French would you believe). This very informal research confirmed that there seems to be a much larger selection of wines with animal labels than ever before.
Critter Labels Rule
In the wine industry these animal labels are affectionately known as "critter labels", and the trend began back in 2001 with the introduction of the Yellow Tail brand of wines into this country from Australia. Pictured on the label is what looks like a kangaroo (but which is in fact supposed to be the yellow-footed rock wallaby). These wines had labels that looked striking, were priced very reasonably and they tasted great ? so they became a runaway success. So much so that they spawned an entire new "category" of wine.
The ACNielsen study has some hard data confirming the popularity of this new wine category. In the past three years there have been 438 new Table Wine brands that have been successfully introduced in the American market (those wines that sold more than $20,000 annually). Of these 438 new brands 77 of them featured an animal on their label, around 18 percent. Combined with existing "critter label" wines, sales reached $600 million in 2005 out of a total of just over $4 billion, based on ACNielsen sales data from supermarket point of sale purchases.
"Critter-labeled wines are on the rise, quickly gaining share in the table wine category," said Danny Brager, vice president of ACNielsen's Beverage Alcohol team. "The sales generated by new brands featuring a critter outperform other new table wines by more than two to one." That's right, taken across the board new critter-labeled wines have proven in the marketplace to be more popular.
"While placing a critter on a label doesn't guarantee success, it is important that wine makers realize that there is a segment of consumers who don't want to have to take wine too seriously," said Brager. "Not only are they willing to have fun with wine, they may just feel ?good' about an animal label presentation." With hundreds of new wine brands being introduced each year, wine makers realize that they need to stand out from the crowd if they are to make an impression. The easiest and most cost effective way to stand out is with an attention grabbing label on your bottle. The wine industry has also realized that there is an increasingly large segment of consumers who are attracted by fun labels. They want to buy a non-pretentious wine and they don't want to pay a fortune. These are the people who walk into a liquor store and supermarket and have no idea what they are going to buy ? they decide by looking at the labels.
Chasing the Yellow Tail
The Yellow Tail wine phenomenon is the perfect example of this. From Casella Wines, a small family-owned winery in New South Wales, Australia, Yellow Tail went from zero to the number one imported wine in the US in just two years. The first year the Casella brothers expected to sell 25,000 cases of wine here, they ended up selling 200,000 cases. That was back in 2001. In 2005 they sold 8 million cases of wine. Yellow Tail Shiraz is now the #1 selling red wine in America (not just imports but ALL red wine). In the crowded and highly competitive US wine market with over 6,500 wine brands, Yellow Tail has become the #1 wine brand, and it took just five years.
Now, I realize that Yellow Tail's success is not just because of their label. They have a great product that is reasonably priced ? the Shiraz is just $6.99 ? and they have a very loyal base of repeat customers. But could they have become #1 without their unique label? I don't think so. One of the biggest barriers they faced was getting people to try the wine in the first place. With what looks like a brightly colored kangaroo on the label on a black background, it is a visually striking label. It was able to break through the clutter at the retail store with this label.
Perhaps the biggest indication of the success of Yellow Tail is the number of copycats it has spawned. Penfolds, Australia's leading winery, was obviously disappointed in missing out on this opportunity, so they responded with the launch of the Little Penguin brand of wines. There is now a deluge of animal themed wines, so much so that ACNielsen is tracking their sales now. Despite all this new competition Yellow Tail remains the most successful wine brand in terms of total sales.
Labels are a Powerful Tool
While the wine business is somewhat unique there are lessons here that can be applied to any industry. One lesson is that with a high impact label you can make inroads even in a conservative and image conscious industry such as the wine industry. Your label should be working hard for your product. It should be informational, be a sales and marketing piece, carry any necessary regulatory information, and at the same time be eye catching. If you are selling your products at a retail store, then your label needs to perform well in all these areas for your product to compete with other more established brands.
Your label is your sales tool. The success of Yellow Tail wines demonstrates that in any competitive industry a good label can help bring success. Of course, it doesn't have to feature a critter, but a visually appealing and eye catching label will always help sales.
Peter Renton is the founder of Lightning Labels, Inc. (http://www.lightninglabels.com) the leaders in digital label printing and custom labels. He writes regularly about the label printing and packaging industry on his blog at http://blog.lightninglabels.com.
Wine Labels and More
The New Wine Label Phenomenon
Copyright (c) 2006 Peter Renton
It comes as no news to anyone that the American people love their animals. What did come as a surprise to me is that ...
Click Here to Read More About Wine ...
Featured Wine Labels Items
$50 Gift Certificate
Price: 50.00 USD
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Old World-New World women winemakers meet (AFP via Yahoo! News)
Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:28:27 -0800
Old World, New World wine barriers crumbled a little further this week, with a four-day visit of 15 Californian winemakers to that fountain of age, Bordeaux.
Wine Cellar Innovations Designer Individual Half Height Wine Rack with Display
Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:33:42 -0800
The Designer Collection wine rack offers the ultimate blend of quality, cost, and craftmanship. Wine Cellar Innovations has utilized the best portions of their custom amenities and mixed in the affordability of a mass produced item to offer you the best value for your storage dollar. Features: -Bottle Capacity: Stores 66 bottles including the 6 displayed on top -Wine rack is 6 columns wide x 10 rows high -Each bottle is cradled on two rails that are cut with beveled ends and rounded edges -De
Wine Auctions Become a Buyer?s Market (New York Times)
Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:23:00 -0800
If you love older, hard-to-find wines and have some spending money, now is a great time to investigate what?s available at auctions.
Wineries
Wine Project | Wine Quotes
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The New Wine Label Phenomenon
Copyright (c) 2006 Peter Renton
It comes as no news to anyone that the American people love their animals. What did come as a surprise to me is that we also love animals on our wine labels. Yes, a study released earlier this year by ACNielsen confirms that wine labels with animal images are becoming increasingly popular in this country.
I felt compelled to do my own research on this topic so one evening I stopped by my local liquor store to check out the wine selection. Sure enough I was greeted with a veritable zoo of animals on labels. There were Dancing Bulls, Leaping Horses, Black Swans, Little Penguins, Kangaroos, even a hippopotamus courtesy of Fat Bastard Wines (which is French would you believe). This very informal research confirmed that there seems to be a much larger selection of wines with animal labels than ever before.
Critter Labels Rule
In the wine industry these animal labels are affectionately known as "critter labels", and the trend began back in 2001 with the introduction of the Yellow Tail brand of wines into this country from Australia. Pictured on the label is what looks like a kangaroo (but which is in fact supposed to be the yellow-footed rock wallaby). These wines had labels that looked striking, were priced very reasonably and they tasted great ? so they became a runaway success. So much so that they spawned an entire new "category" of wine.
The ACNielsen study has some hard data confirming the popularity of this new wine category. In the past three years there have been 438 new Table Wine brands that have been successfully introduced in the American market (those wines that sold more than $20,000 annually). Of these 438 new brands 77 of them featured an animal on their label, around 18 percent. Combined with existing "critter label" wines, sales reached $600 million in 2005 out of a total of just over $4 billion, based on ACNielsen sales data from supermarket point of sale purchases.
"Critter-labeled wines are on the rise, quickly gaining share in the table wine category," said Danny Brager, vice president of ACNielsen's Beverage Alcohol team. "The sales generated by new brands featuring a critter outperform other new table wines by more than two to one." That's right, taken across the board new critter-labeled wines have proven in the marketplace to be more popular.
"While placing a critter on a label doesn't guarantee success, it is important that wine makers realize that there is a segment of consumers who don't want to have to take wine too seriously," said Brager. "Not only are they willing to have fun with wine, they may just feel ?good' about an animal label presentation." With hundreds of new wine brands being introduced each year, wine makers realize that they need to stand out from the crowd if they are to make an impression. The easiest and most cost effective way to stand out is with an attention grabbing label on your bottle. The wine industry has also realized that there is an increasingly large segment of consumers who are attracted by fun labels. They want to buy a non-pretentious wine and they don't want to pay a fortune. These are the people who walk into a liquor store and supermarket and have no idea what they are going to buy ? they decide by looking at the labels.
Chasing the Yellow Tail
The Yellow Tail wine phenomenon is the perfect example of this. From Casella Wines, a small family-owned winery in New South Wales, Australia, Yellow Tail went from zero to the number one imported wine in the US in just two years. The first year the Casella brothers expected to sell 25,000 cases of wine here, they ended up selling 200,000 cases. That was back in 2001. In 2005 they sold 8 million cases of wine. Yellow Tail Shiraz is now the #1 selling red wine in America (not just imports but ALL red wine). In the crowded and highly competitive US wine market with over 6,500 wine brands, Yellow Tail has become the #1 wine brand, and it took just five years.
Now, I realize that Yellow Tail's success is not just because of their label. They have a great product that is reasonably priced ? the Shiraz is just $6.99 ? and they have a very loyal base of repeat customers. But could they have become #1 without their unique label? I don't think so. One of the biggest barriers they faced was getting people to try the wine in the first place. With what looks like a brightly colored kangaroo on the label on a black background, it is a visually striking label. It was able to break through the clutter at the retail store with this label.
Perhaps the biggest indication of the success of Yellow Tail is the number of copycats it has spawned. Penfolds, Australia's leading winery, was obviously disappointed in missing out on this opportunity, so they responded with the launch of the Little Penguin brand of wines. There is now a deluge of animal themed wines, so much so that ACNielsen is tracking their sales now. Despite all this new competition Yellow Tail remains the most successful wine brand in terms of total sales.
Labels are a Powerful Tool
While the wine business is somewhat unique there are lessons here that can be applied to any industry. One lesson is that with a high impact label you can make inroads even in a conservative and image conscious industry such as the wine industry. Your label should be working hard for your product. It should be informational, be a sales and marketing piece, carry any necessary regulatory information, and at the same time be eye catching. If you are selling your products at a retail store, then your label needs to perform well in all these areas for your product to compete with other more established brands.
Your label is your sales tool. The success of Yellow Tail wines demonstrates that in any competitive industry a good label can help bring success. Of course, it doesn't have to feature a critter, but a visually appealing and eye catching label will always help sales.
Peter Renton is the founder of Lightning Labels, Inc. (http://www.lightninglabels.com) the leaders in digital label printing and custom labels. He writes regularly about the label printing and packaging industry on his blog at http://blog.lightninglabels.com.
Wine Labels and More
The New Wine Label Phenomenon
Copyright (c) 2006 Peter Renton
It comes as no news to anyone that the American people love their animals. What did come as a surprise to me is that ...
Click Here to Read More About Wine ...
Featured Wine Labels Items
$50 Gift Certificate
Wine Gift Certificates
Wine gift certificates online are our most popular gift item for last minute wine gifts. Buy a wine gift certificate online and we can deliver it instantly via email or on any date you choose in the future. Or you can have it delivered through the postal service. Wine gift certificates work just like cash on our site and can be applied against all charges including sales tax and shipping. If you’re having a hard time deciding which wine gift to buy, make it simple. Give your friends and family the luxury of choosing anything on our site. It’s the easiest way to send wine gifts regardless of personal taste. Online wine gift certificates make shopping a snap. Send one today! GC0050Price: 50.00 USD
News about Wine Labels
Loose Change: 1/14/09
Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:01:47 -0800
Getty Images Personal Finance: -Companies aren’t just slashing jobs, they’re also cutting benefits, including company matches to charity donations. WSJ] -You know those free WaMu credit scores we’ve written about before? Rumor is that they might become a thing of the past. Noooooo! CreditMatters] -People are starting to see the benefits of mobile payment technology, but overall, it’s still a feefest. TechCrunch] Investing: -A case for why now might be the time for TIPS. Five years
A Guide to Modern Essential Oil Production
Wed, 14 Jan 2009 02:11:14 -0800
A Guide to Modern Essential Oil Production January 14th, 2009 by Melissa Roberts With the new labels of CO2 and SCO2 next to the traditional steam and hydro-distillations, solvent-extracted absolutes, and cold-pressed, a little education for the aromatherapy enthusiast is in order. Does one produce a nicer smelling oil, or one with more therapeutic value? Is one process better than another? Essential oil production, similar to the making of fine wines, is an art form as well as a science. The
Old World-New World women winemakers meet (AFP via Yahoo! News)
Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:28:27 -0800
Old World, New World wine barriers crumbled a little further this week, with a four-day visit of 15 Californian winemakers to that fountain of age, Bordeaux.
Wine Cellar Innovations Designer Individual Half Height Wine Rack with Display
Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:33:42 -0800
The Designer Collection wine rack offers the ultimate blend of quality, cost, and craftmanship. Wine Cellar Innovations has utilized the best portions of their custom amenities and mixed in the affordability of a mass produced item to offer you the best value for your storage dollar. Features: -Bottle Capacity: Stores 66 bottles including the 6 displayed on top -Wine rack is 6 columns wide x 10 rows high -Each bottle is cradled on two rails that are cut with beveled ends and rounded edges -De
Wine Auctions Become a Buyer?s Market (New York Times)
Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:23:00 -0800
If you love older, hard-to-find wines and have some spending money, now is a great time to investigate what?s available at auctions.
Wineries
Wine Project | Wine Quotes
Labels: Petite Syrah
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