Back from MUST Wine Summit 2019
10 days ago I attended MUST Wine Summit together with Gerard Spatafora, our senior consultant. After spending 3 days in Cascais, Portugal (a great place to visit, BTW), I truly believe that MUST was a profound event for the global wine industry. Notable speakers such as Eric Asimov, Felicity Carter and Paul Mabray, provided valuable insights for wine professionals, winery owners and all other players within this ecosystem.
Most of the speakers at MUST gave industry advice on how to differentiate your brand in one of the most competitive industries in the world. With so many wineries and wines in the market, how can a consumer ever make an informed decision? Imagine a kid in a candy store. Now imagine a kid in a candy shopping mall (how crazy would that be?!). This is the dilemma in the wine world nowadays, a world where consumers are overwhelmed by thousands of choices. So how should the players approach this hypercompetitive world? This is where the MUST speakers hit the sweet spot.
The speakers all emphasized the importance of the Direct-to-Consumer approach in the wine world and predicted that it will continue to develop in the coming years. Either by means of increased wine-tourism, as discussed by Adam Lechmere, or by building brand awareness through online presence as discussed by Paul Mabray, consumers are engaging directly with wineries now more than ever.
But MUST didn’t focus solely on the Direct-to-Consumer approach. It was also about creating a genuine voice that tells a story and provides the consumer with a unique experience. And THIS is the sweet spot. Wineries aren’t just selling wine. It’s more than that. It’s about telling the wine’s story and providing a holistic experience — online, offline, or ultimately both.
Gaia Gaja asserts that respecting Mother Earth and connecting with the land is one of the most valuable stories a winery can tell nowadays. There is no doubt that wine-makers and other agriculturists alike are at the forefront of dealing with the consequences of modern-day climate change. In a brilliant presentation, Miguel Torres argued that wineries have an opportunity to exemplify sustainable initiatives and build an eco-friendly brand. Both Gaja and Torres agreed that such a brand is a valuable way to connect with consumers and tell a story.
There are many other potential differentiators that might work for wineries, as I’ve learned at MUST. And there are many tools that can help wineries echo their stories and create a holistic approach for their customers, such as biodiversity, or an attempt to build cult wineries in underestimated regions. But even then, and despite the current DtC opportunities and tools out there, wineries might find themselves looking for new customers and building customer loyalty alone. It’s their wine brand versus thousands of other brands. But it doesn’t have to be like that.
Vinsent, which I co-founded 18 months ago together with Jacob Ner-David, is the first global marketplace where wineries can build and grow their online presence, connect with wine lovers and sell directly, benefiting from the power of one single, trusted platform. Not only can wine lovers discover new wineries and wines, but they can also purchase directly from individual wineries, and enjoy a sense of community by learning and interacting with the wineries. They can even access innovative features including seamless trading of wines with other wine lovers P2P, and more.
MUST was a profound event with great insights, and it proved that now is the time to translate these insights into change and bring positive disruption to the industry. A sort of follow-up industry gathering to MUST, a venue to drive initiatives and business, beyond insights and thoughts, maybe something worth considering. To be continued… 😉
