Customers Prefer Participation Rather than Prestige in the Wine Business

We've seen wine brands use crowdfunding in the past, but what about crowdsourcing the creative process behind wine? Much of wine marketing efforts have been focused on men who purchase fine wines, but the truth is that 60 to 80 percent of wine drinkers are women who enjoy drinking affordable wine that fall in the range of $10 to $15 per bottle. Two wine brands are using a blend of social media, event marketing and blogs to court their female consumers.

Middle Sister, owned by Canopy Management in Napa, CA, is using crowdsourcing to create new wines. The brand has a fan base of 74,000 and uses blogs and Facebook pages to guide customers to a chat area. Middle Sister Researchers listen and determine how members would like their wine to taste. They then work with a custom winery to create the profiled flavor. In 2008, Middle Sister used this tactic to create its Sweet & Sassy Moscato bottle, which is now one of its top sellers; and the brand used crowdsourcing again recently to launch its new Middle Sister Sweetie Pie bottle.

These women are highly opinionated and like the idea of creating a new wine... We were surprised at how rich the conversation is, how freely people talk... And y'know, they don't get much in return - just the experience, a fun moment in their day."

Mary Ann Vangrin, partner and social media director of Middle Sister

Mad Housewife Wines, owned by Rainier Wine in Seattle, is named after the 1970 movie “Diary of a Mad Housewife.” Mad Housewife has been more conservative with crowdsourcing, and has limited its use to a design-based project. Using social media, the brand challenged consumers to create slogans to be printed on wine corks. Thousands of slogans were submitted, but the two most popular, which will be used by the brand, include, “Housework can’t kill you, but why take a chance?” and “This IS what’s for dinner, honey.” The perfect prize for these winning submissions? A case of wine.

Mad Housewife Wines reported that sales doubled in 2010 of the last four years. Both companies sell approximately 100,000 cases per year. What both companies have discovered is that in the world of marketing, participation trumps prestige.