Where Emotion Meets Profit
Remember around the turn of the millennium when clothing retailer Gap made all those fantastic commercials? The ads featured attractive people dancing gracefully and enjoying life, while wearing their Gap khakis and polo’s. These ads were effective because they targeted emotion, the audience wanted to belong, to fit in, to enjoy life along with their perceived peers. This resulted in khakis flying off store shelves, a rising stock, and a new loyal customer base.
The same thing has happened in the U.S. wine industry but not because of merely one company or event. The current record breaking sales figures for the California Wine Industry can be attributed to a culmination of things; the health benefits of wine, a hit movie, better selection, easy to access wine information on the internet, and probably the most effective sales tool: conformity. Wine isn’t perceived as a drink for lushes and bums, or snooty Frenchmen anymore. This is a beverage that has become ubiquitous with happy life and rich living. Some would argue this simply isn’t true and that the new wine consumer scoffs at the idea of wine snobbery. While this is true in theory, young consumers are at the same time trying to find their own meaning in life and have the same basic desire to belong. You need to have the house, the car, and the lifestyle, which includes drinking and enjoying wine, to really fit in these days.
Sales figures will continue to rise, a new generation will increasingly become interested in wine, and successful entrepreneurs will continue to poor money into the industry by purchasing their own vineyards, or amassing incredible trophy collections in their cellars. I’m happy to witness the great success of this industry that was once all but destroyed just over a half century ago by prohibition, but, I’m also saddened to think that status will inevitably be a part of this industry, regardless of what non-conformers say or believe. (The undertones in this Gap commercial directed by Spike Jones that never aired speak to me for some reason.)
Jump, Jive, and then we wail.
