Full parking lots and empty shelves are what you can expect if you have not yet done your shopping for Easter Weekend.
While Easter, like Christmas, is not supposed to be about everything commercial, it is a time when family and friends get together and in many circles, that means preparing some special food and opening a few bottles of wine. Also in China, the holiday season is the most important time to sell your wine – because of the family get-togethers but also because of the gifting culture. The two holidays around Chinese New Year and the Mid-Autumn festival account for about 60% of annual wine sales in China.
While it seems almost natural that wine sales will increase during holiday periods, it does not mean that it happens generically. A lot of marketing strategy and promotion – especially from a retailer’s perspective – go into encouraging shoppers to add that something extra to the shopping basket.
At La Motte and Leopard’s Leap we believe in creating an experience around the wine. We enjoy telling our stories and sharing our passion for wine with our guests in ways that are innovative and special and will hopefully have them remember our wines even when they are back in Gauteng or even Europe.
There are however many tricks of the trade. Here are some marketing strategies and promotional tools to show you how much work goes into creating good holiday sales.
1. Add to the experience
Special holiday entertainment such as food and wine pairings, children activities, hikes, etc. can encourage people to visit your winery and eventually leave with a few bottles of wine.
2. Sample opportunities
Wine is not only sold from the estate. Encourage people to sample your product in supermarkets or at markets or holiday festivals. Having a well-informed and enthusiastic staff member at these tasting events makes all the difference and be sure to organise credit card facilities.
3. Incentives
Holiday or not, everyone is always looking for a good deal. Work in a volume discount, free gift wrapping or delivery.
4. Convenience
Promote your online sales, vouchers, delivery service, gift-wrapping and other initiatives that make it easy to choose your product. Make sure that your website is user-friendly.
5. Special offering
Create a special selection of wine packed together as a festive or holiday gift set.
6. Make it practical
Share ideal food and wine pairings, hand out recipes fitting to the theme of the holiday and suggest serving temperatures.
7. Time
While it is great to offer easy solutions to the last minute shopper, start your campaign well in advance. Even if sales start at a later stage, make people aware of what you have on offer.
8. Communication
Make sure to add your extended hours, added offering, promotions, special gifting, etc. to your website, newsletters and social media communication. Have a communication strategy.
9. Be cost-conscious
Remember that while the whole motivation is to sell more wine, the added offerings will also cost you more. Carefully calculate your added expenses.
10. Staff
They have to work when everyone else is on holiday. Make sure they are motivated and enthusiastic. They can make or break a guest’s experience.
