Pretentious bottle--ordinary wine

[Guest JonB]

I was unpacking my latest find--the latest PA state store good value wine--and I noticed that the bottles don't even fit double deep in the cooler. I ended up reversing the outside course so they're neck to neck. Annoying.

Anyway, what's with the trend of wineries spending a fortune on packaging for basic drinking wines? Look at this:

The bottle on the left uses a perfectly normal sized bottle. The label is dead simple--one color, pasted on. It came in an ordinary cardboard box.

The bottle on the right must weigh half-again as much and is over an inch taller. The label is printed on the glass, and involves raised print, attractive artwork and several colors. The bottle was wrapped in paper with a gold sticker seal on each bottle and the case was wood.

Which one would you rather drink? What a waste...

[Phil Ward]

JonB,

This has been a trend for over a decade. Its all about the perception of the consumer. Over sized oddly shaped bottle, that doesn't fit the normal bins. But they gather attention when you pick them up and feel the weight, the deep punt, the "cool" label, etc.

As for me, just put the wine in the bottle with a high quality cork (no TCA, please), an attractive label and sell it at a fair market price.

Phil

[Brad Ballinger]

What a waste...

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Don't be so sure.

Any marketer will tell you that getting you to notice the product is a huge part of the battle. So to the extent that a wine comes in a differently shaped, weighted, colored bottle, an eye-catching label, etc., the greater chance that Joe and Jane Consumer will notice. Also, any marketer will tell you that if you pick up the bottle, there's a greater chance that you will buy it. So picking it up to check out the bottle shape, cool label, etc., well you can figure out the rest.

There was a "scientific" market research study conducted several years back ragrding bottling and labeling. If you recall when Sutter Home first released its White Zinfandel, it came in a green bottle with an off-white paper label. After they switched to a clear bottle and a pressurized label, the sales increased by an incredible amount.

Collectors don't like long or wide bottles because most cellar racking is made with a standard bottle shape in mind.

[Jeffy Boy]

I recently purchased two mediocre German liebfraumilch's, only because they came in bottles shaped like cat statues. One a green bottle, the other red. Not only did I buy them, but I humped them back home across the country, through airports and connecting flights. The wine was crap, as I expected, but the bottles I had to have.

If I'd seen them near home I would have seriously considered buying a few cases and turning them into novelty jumbo checker pieces.

[JohnL]

Did the wine taste of "cat piss?"

(sorry!)

seriously--Is it possible that Portugese wine sales skyrocketed due to the crock flasks?

what about chianti in those wicker covered bottles--did the demise of these bottles lead to the development of the sconce when Italian restaurants could not get enough candle holders for the checkered table cloth covered tables.

and how about those snobs at Ch Mouton--trying to differentiate themselves by putting art on their lables! and those copycats at Kenwood!

will we ever see child proof safety tops in place of the ever popular screw top?

[Really Nice!]

Any marketer will tell you that getting you to notice the product is a huge part of the battle.

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I was going to write welcome to marketing 101. It's one of the four 'Ps' of marketing: price, product (which includes packaging), promotion, and place.

While many of us are more concerned with what's in the bottle, there are many more who are concerned with how the bottle looks.

Edited August 8, 2005 by Really Nice! (log)

[Gaucho]

What a waste...

←

Don't be so sure.

Any marketer will tell you that getting you to notice the product is a huge part of the battle. So to the extent that a wine comes in a differently shaped, weighted, colored bottle, an eye-catching label, etc., the greater chance that Joe and Jane Consumer will notice. Also, any marketer will tell you that if you pick up the bottle, there's a greater chance that you will buy it. So picking it up to check out the bottle shape, cool label, etc., well you can figure out the rest.

There was a "scientific" market research study conducted several years back ragrding bottling and labeling. If you recall when Sutter Home first released its White Zinfandel, it came in a green bottle with an off-white paper label. After they switched to a clear bottle and a pressurized label, the sales increased by an incredible amount.

Collectors don't like long or wide bottles because most cellar racking is made with a standard bottle shape in mind.

←

I agree completely with Brad on this one. As a wine merchant, its incredible to see just how many consumers are lured by the big & heavy 750 bottles that look more and more like magnums.... sometimes, you would think that a label and the bottle are secondary to its contents...