An interesting article on how critters or animals are creeping into the marketing and branding of many of the new wine labels. Wineries and Vineyards are seeing this opportunity to increase their share of the market by creating interesting labels with animals on them. I was recently at a wine tasting and have seen this very thing myself. So many animals.... So little time to taste all the wine....
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.
About the author:
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 .
Tags: wine - winery - wine labels - yellow tail
