Marketing and public relations
There are over 1600 Australian wineries and vineyards producing thousands of wine labels. To get this wine to market (domestic and global) requires expertise in marketing, public relations, business communications and event management.
Whether you are a corporate wine maker or small boutique winery you need to have a marketing strategy and a marketing plan. Wine Diva’s comprehensive list of wine marketing companies also includes marketing consultants and firms who specialise in developing marketing plans for small wineries.
Marketing for the Australian wine industry is in itself diverse with the need for branding of wine, cellar door marketing, retail marketing, direct marketing, international marketing and internet marketing to name the key areas.
It isn’t just about marketing wine. With the advent of wine tourism, the marketing of wine needs to be affiliated with wine tourism services. There is also multi-level marketing, with wine regions marketing themselves as well as national marketing aimed at selling Australian wine to overseas markets.
Cyberspace has added another dimension to wine marketing. It is the biggest growth area and holds the key to wine sales in the future. Online marketing speciality areas include internet marketing, email marketing, search engine marketing and network marketing.
If you have a web site you will need a web site marketing strategy to optimise the selling power of the site. If you have email you can optimise it as a tool by utilising email marketing software.
You will need to watch out for techno newcomers; sms marketing being the latest tool for marketing.
Marketing companies generally provide a range of services from
marketing research to developing marketing ideas, marketing planning,
running marketing campaigns, branding, advertising and event management.
There are companies that specialise in event management and business
communications such as writing media releases and branding design
such as logos, stationary and packaging.
Public relations or PR is also about massaging the message. It
incorporates business communication strategies, media communications
strategies, corporate branding and crisis management in the event
of bad press.