Cellar door is a window to your brand.

Have you taken the time to define your brand? And how well does your cellar door reflect the image your brand portrays? Are you sure that your customers perceive you the way you think they do and more importantly the way you want to be perceived?

Building a strong brand image will bring more customers to your brand as well as sell more wine to existing customers. Brand building doesn't happen by chance: it develops from having a clear understanding of your own brand and strategically delivering your brand message consistently and constantly through every action and interaction within, around and about, your product.

The first step toward defining your brand is to establish what image you currently have. (If you are a new winery, you will need to decide what image you want). You can do this by asking existing customers, distributors and media what they think your brand stands for. This understanding will assist you to know why customers purchase from you now, and how you might need to adapt to appeal to a different or broader range of consumers. Equally, it will help you to decide if you need to change your message or the way you are communicating it, in the event you discover there is confusion about your brand.


Key Factors for Brand Development
Brand is much more than your label - it is the image of you that consumers have. Your brand must convey a 'sense of place', be relevant to who, what and where you are and be deliverable by you and everyone involved in your business, all day, every day.

Everyone in your business must be a brand ambassador - supporting, reinforcing and promoting your brand constantly - from the way the telephone is answered right through to your staff presentation. All of your marketing collateral, stationery, advertising, website, invoices, tasting notes, menus, posters, signage and packaging should be pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that fit together to create one strong brand image.

One individual within your business should be responsible for managing the brand - someone to act as the 'brand police'.

Brand and Choice
Consumers are faced with an astonishing - often bewildering - array of choice. This degree of choice means that if you are making or selling wine you need to ensure your product is of high quality, excellent value and has wide availability. It also means you need to find more ways of differentiating yourself to secure a competitive advantage. According to Fortune Magazine, "In the twenty-first century, branding ultimately will be the only unique differentiator between companies. Brand equity is now a key asset."

A large percentage of marketing and branding skill relates to building market place equity for wines of similar characteristics - pricing, varietal style, distribution and business history. In this case, the product itself becomes less important and the main purchasing motivation comes from the strength and appeal of the brand to consumers. Brands with strong equity entrench themselves deeply in the hearts and minds of consumers.

The real power of successful brands is that they meet or exceed the expectations of customers or, to put it another way, they represent a promise kept. As the brand owner, your first challenge is to decide the specific nature of the promise you want to make.