SUPERMARKETGURU FOOD &
HEALTH WEEKLY NEWSFLASH!
Label Attractions
Published on: December 18, 2000by Dennis Manuel
Labels are powerful.
How many times have you walked into a supermarket, and bought something because of the label? A wine label is the first opportunity a wine maker has to impress his potential customer. The proper display of that wine label is the first opportunity a retailer has to stop a customer, so they can give that wine their full consideration.
Wine labels, by law, must have a certain amount of information on them. That information is given on the front and back, and every country is different. In the U.S. the back label always has the "Surgeon General's Warning," and the fact that the wine contains sulfates. The front label has the
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The company that produced the wine;
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The country or region where the grapes were grown;
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The vintage, i.e. the year the grapes were harvested;
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Estate bottled, or Chateau, etc., indicating if the wine was made from grapes harvested in the winery's own vineyard;
- Alcohol content. Depending on the country, other bits of information, such as ripeness, varietal, etc., can be given. The rest is artwork.
"As much to share my passion as to fulfill others with the knowledge, which had become my culture: I planned and constructed our temple to wine and art." A quote by Jan Shrem, the owner of Clos Pegase, one of the more famous wineries noted for their labels. Their main label is a painting by Odilone Redon, done in 1890 of Pegase, the horse. Once a year Clos Pegase puts out a Homage label, a painting from his extensive private collection, on a select Cabernet and Chardonnay.
Although these labels do not necessarily stop shoppers in supermarket aisles, they certainly grab one's attention, which is what we want to do, i.e. give people pause to consider. Few wineries give as much attention to their labels as Clos Pegase, most relying more on name recognition, than attracting impulse buyers. Food experts report that impulse buying can add up to 20% to your weekly grocery bill, and although there are no published statistics, we can certainly assume impulse sales work especially well in the wine section. Most supermarket wine shoppers do not know a great deal about wine, and want and need to be guided.
The label can guide them.
A perfect example is when Sutter Home was losing their market share in the white Zinfandel category. They did not question the quality of their wine. They questioned the packaging. They changed the color of their bottle, using a clear bottle to let the color of the Zinfandel shine through, and changed their label. Their sales went up 24%.
Red, white or pink is the first consideration people make when buying wine. Then price, and then, assuming the shopper does not know exactly what wine they want, packaging is the next most powerful selling device. Walk down a wine aisle in a supermarket. If you don't know exactly what you want, it can be a daunting experience. Something has to stop the eye, give the shopper pause, and move them in that direction. A label, properly displayed, can do that.
Wine is one of the few items consumed at a dinner table that is brought to the table in its packaging. What you see on the shelf, is what you see on the table. No one wants an ugly package on their dinner table. Retailers are immensely powerful here. The way they display the package can steer a customer towards that item, or let them walk buy.
Retailers can also change packaging. Retail buyers asked Disney to put their interactive products in smaller boxes so they could fit more on the shelves. Disney complied.
Promotional labels can also effect sales. Coca Cola puts a Santa Clause on their soda during the Holiday Season. Neck labels with a recipe is another way to attract customers to a specific wine. A recipe for a roasted leg of lamb, or mulled wine, or even food suggestions to go with the wine. Whether it's a promotional or everyday label, a label is a great attraction.
