September 18, 2005
party trick
I have a fun, new party trick, which I use at blogger’s gatherings, e.g. at Our Social World, a week or so ago.
OTHER BLOGGER: So how can you tell if your Stormhoek meme is working?
HUGH: Name me two South African wines.
OTHER BLOGGER: Ok… ummm… Stormhoek… and… ummmmm… ummmm…
HUGH: That’s how I can tell if it’s working.
[Very Cool Bonus Link:] A live Stormhoek wine-tasting podcast.
[Very Cool Bonus Link 2.0:] Johnnie Moore does a splendid job of decontstructing the Stormhoek Marketing Plan:
1. The tone of invitation. No hard sell, just the presentation of an interesting idea to take or leave as you please. No grandiose posturing.
2. The sprit of experiment. Selling isn’t all about certainty, it’s also about curiosity. Hugh is inviting us to play a game of let’s disrupt marketing to see what happens.
3. A cause to believe in, if you like. We’re not talking about saving the world here, but we are offered an interesting windmill to tilt at — namely the established way of marketing stuff.
4. A bit of provocation. There is actually a proposition in here somewhere too — the one of freshness being undervalued in the wine business. Take it or leave it, it provides a bit of interest.
5. The fact that this is so clearly a message from a real live human being, with a personality of his own, not a committee.
6. Transparency, that oft-quoted term. The whole thing smacks of “What you see is what you get, this is what we’re up to, what do you think?”
Hugh, have you thought of how these marketing ideas could be applied to charities?
That would be fine if Stormhoek only needed to be recognised as a South African wine but you need to achieve much more than that surely?
We just need to achieve world domination
It’s a good parlor “illusion”. I actually would be able to name one other — “Goats do Roam” — which I suppose says something about naming/branding. It’s actually not bad, considering the silly name.
I’ve had maybe 10 – 12 bottles of SA wine and while all are drinkable, you’re right, I could only recall two names, Goats (which I’ve had) and Stormhoek (which I haven’t).
Hugh
Love the Pinot Grigio
Sorry to have misseed your party piece at OSW — waiting for a taxi in the rain.
I just asked myself the question how many wines can I name. The answer was 4. Two of which I remember because of TV advertising and both of which I would never drink. The other two* — (Stormhoek being one of them) were both introduced by an invitation to participate in tasting, with an explanation of where the wine was coming from and what it was looking to do.
These are the only two wine brands I have bought cases of…
And I would describe myself as the man in the street wine buyer, not an expert…
(*The other brand was at a wine tasting event with the vineyard owners selecting a wine per course and describing its production etc — not dissimilar to the Stormhoek approach but using a different medium)
Anyway — can I get some more samples
The deconstruction: neat, very neat.