With the ghost of a smile on his face

At his moment I would like to take a brief look at the Full Press Vineyards marketing strategy. This has been an interesting and, in a manner, simple campaign. In the world of wine marketing, differentiation can be difficult. The options are just about endless, quality product is now coming from multiple continents, and the average consumer appears to be, at times, overwhelmed. To be frank what percentage of casual wine consumers actually knows the meaning of body, nose, brightness, new vs. old world fruit, oak flavours, etc. The adjectives, varieties, domains, and pairing recommendations are endless. And for myself at least, unless I am accompanied by a connoisseur, my choice is often rather random: a few bottles I consistently enjoy, and often hit or miss beyond this point.

Full Press is attempting to simplify this decision-making process for a particular audience: the beer-drinking male. The tag line ‘Man’s Guide to Wine Pairing: Goes with Meat’ is undoubtedly designed to simplify the decision-making process. A number of individuals don’t need to know about the cassis undertones, oak casketing, or a sulphurous nose. Full Press is positioning itself towards a male audience looking to have a bottle of wine as opposed to a few beers with a steak, rib, or lamb dinner. The secondary slogan ‘Crafted with Pride’ is a phrase which could easily be used to describe beer.

My assumption is that this marketing strategy has been largely propelled by market research. Full Press is targeting itself towards a non-traditional market, and in my opinion, quite successfully so. All that is left is to try a bottle and see if the taste can back up the campaign.

For my favourite source of wine information try viewing a video on Wine Library TV.