In this week’s class I was struck
by the drastic difference between Kingston and Cannonball’s wine bottle labels. Given that wine these days is a product that
most purchase first and foremost with their eyes, it seems a unique name paired
with unique, eye catching imagery is essential to be successful. Given this
information, I probably should not have been so shocked to see how many “Top 10”
wine label galleries exist on the mainstream websites. Buzzfeed, Forbes, and
Bloomberg all have rankings of their favorite wine labels (some even annually).
So, my question then is, why does
Courtney Kingston maintain an “old school” European inspired look for her
Chilean wine bottles? Why have older established wineries failed to adapt to
new brand design trends? Certainly,
there is value in an established winery and recognizable bottle. I don’t think Dom
Perignon should ever change their bottle design for example, but it seems there
is a middle ground for high end wineries that could go in the direction of
modern bottle branding. I would
certainly be more likely to pick up a classic family owned winery bottled with
a striking logo.
If I was in the industry I would partner
with established or emerging artists to design my bottles. I would take a page
right out of Drew Barrymore’s book (who partnered with Shepard Fairey to design
her wine bottles). Can you even imagine how cool a Banksy, Jeff Koons, Damien
Hirst, or Kusama bottle would be?! Yes, I realize I am dreaming up completely
unobtainable ideas but hey it’s business school, when else do we get to be
irrationally idealistic?
Similar to Lannie, I started paying more attention to wine labels and bottle design recently. Some of the labels are not only artistically pleasing, but also innovative ideas. One example is that there is a Spanish wine Tapas Collection that has a label that mimics chalkboard and suggests pairing with this wine. Another example is BoardingPass Shiraz which clearly puts all the info in a format of plane pass. I am curious to see if there is an easy tracking tool to check the price point and the sales of all these creative wine labels Lannie and I referenced -- is this only effective as a eye catching tool for lower price range wines, or equally effective at converting premium wine shoppers.
ReplyDeleteI also fell down the rabbit hole of looking at unique wine labels, and I found an interesting buzzfeed article, "33 Brilliantly Designed Wine Bottles." Steph, it actually includes both the Tapas Collection and Boarding Pass Shiraz! I thought I would include it here so folks could see the different styles if they wanted to:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.buzzfeed.com/ryankincaid/lorem-ipsum-in-vino-veritas?utm_term=.wkxZedlRz9#.hdrq6rQYMG
It also made me wonder about how label attractiveness is relative based on the consumer. For example, this article noted that in Hong Kong, the traditional label is preferred over a more contemporary one (and actually said that yellow was the preferred color!). While another study showed that older generations rely on shop stewards or store staff when selecting a wine, while millennials rely on label, region, and family suggestions. It's interesting to think that factors like, age, gender, region, etc all influence how a label is perceived!
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212977415000113
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212977412000038