May 28, 2006
open-source marketing
So people have been asking me where to buy Stormhoek in the USA.
Because of my deep involvement with blogging, Web 2.0 and all that, naturally the place I would most like to sell it would be Silicon Valley, California.
But there’s a slight problem. The shop I would most like to sell it in, K&L Wines in Redwood City, doesn’t carry it.
The only thing to do is get enough people in Silicon Valley to contact the store, and very politely, ask the South African wine buyer, Jim Chanteloup, to start carrying it.
So if you’re involved with Silicon Valley, please give Mr. Chanteloup a call or drop him an e-mail [contact details here]. Maybe explain why you’re calling. Maybe tell him all about Stormhoek’s connection with bloggers, Web 2.0, Silicon Valley, TechCrunch etc etc.
Tell them it’s distributed by Palm Bay Imports in New York, if he wants to know where to order it.
If you could help me spread the word on this, I would appreciate it. Thanks.
[UPDATE:] TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington has joined the cause. Thanks, Mike!
Blogging’s version of the flashmob phenomenon — I like it.
Two supplemental tactics:
1) Invite Jim Chanteloup to the nearest Silicon Valley incarnation of the 100 dinners.
2) Hold a dinner in his parking lot.
I’ve just found your blog and I love it! Your cartoons are basic-ly amazing, you have a fantastic sense of humour and, for all that, I promise to drink all the stormhoek I can get in Rio de Janeiro. Is it available here?
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man, your comment spam filter is really bad.
OK, since the comment spam filter doesn’t tell me anything about what is thinks is spammy, and doesn’t work on preview, and doesn’t give me an option to say “i’m not spam, let Hugh moderate” and so on, I’m going to try submitting my comment one paragraph at a time and see if it works. Feel free to restitch as appropriate.
K&L also has a serious presence right here in the City (San Francisco). It’s just by the commuter rail station, which is probably no coincidence: that’s where people go who commute to or from Silicon Valley.
Oh, screw it. Anyway, I made a very well-written point that you should be talking to TJ’s and not K&L.
PS, as long as I’m carping on Movable Type problems: your permalinks are broken.
Yeah, Just upgraded to MT 3.2 and my permalinks are giving me pains…
Heck, they even have a blog (http://blog.klwines.com/). And I almost convinced them to co-sponsor WineCamp (http://winecampcalaveras.com) last minute… Stormhoek, of course, was already a co-sponsor.
~~
Oh, and it’s kinda lame that I can’t make inline links!
Make sure you blog to let us know when K&L get the goods.
Any more news on Canadian availability, Hugh? I have a friendly and very blog-savvy importer/distributor ready, willing and eager to help if you and the Stormhoekians are keen…
Frosty must not know much about K&L. K&L is EXTREMELY influential. I had a Canadian friend visit me with a K&L brochure his brother gave him. He was to visit the store to buy some special wine and bring it back to Toronto. All because K&L has an international clientele of discerning wine enthusiasts.
I also worked for a woman in SF who frequented K&L. She kept lots of wine, i.e. vintage Dom Perignon, which she gifted to our clients.
Trader Joe’s is a great mass market retailer of wine. (I like getting table wine there. It’s usually a good price and never horrible.) But K&L is the kind of place that generates buzz amongst other wine buyers and sommeliers.
ps — K&L has been South of Market in SF for a very long time. Why? Because back in the day, it was cheap to get warehouse space there before SBC Park was built.
You can please all of the people, all of the time.
You can please all of the people, all of the time.
You can please all of the people, all of the time.