Booker Vineyard Marketing Project

REPORT ABSTRACT

This report illustrates the marketing strategies currently employed by Booker Vineyard & Winery of Paso Robles, California. Information has been gathered from contact with their manager, Chelsea O’Grady, along with personal experience as a tasting room attendant at said winery and from select online resources regarding wine marketing.

PRODUCT

Booker’s flagship wine is Syrah, it’s 100% Syrah called “Fracture” that is distributed solely to its wine club members. The 2013 “Fracture” was voted #68 in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2015, the only Paso Robles wine to make the list that year. Various winners of the Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator claim that their businesses received an increase in sales after receiving the award. In a few months, Booker will potentially reep the benefits of a positive wine review. On the other hand, according to March 2016 Wine Business Monthly, “Syrah continued its decline, down 7.6 percent by volume and 6 percent in price” on a national level. However, Booker is known in the Paso Robles area for producing high-quality 100% Syrah and Syrah blends, according to word-of-mouth as well as Yelp reviews. All wines from Booker vineyard are produced biodynamically. Biodynamic viticulture stands out among organic or sustainable as the farmer treats the vineyard as an ecological whole and specifically donates more attention to the soil. On average, Booker produces 4,000 cases of wine per year, having considerably decreased in the recent years of drought.

PLACE

Booker wines are primarily sold to club members, directly from the tasting room, and in select wine bars and restaurants. While there are no international markets, Booker does ship within the

United States from orders made on both the website and from the tasting room, and to wine club members. Most years, all Booker wines are estate grown and produced on the estate, meaning that the vineyard source is controlled by the winery. As an exception in 2015, the winemaker has chosen to source Pinot Noir grapes from the Santa Rita hills while he produced it on Booker property.

The incentive for joining the wine club is gaining access to wines not available in the tasting room, including the flagship wine. Potential members are directed to the website, www.bookerwines.com, where they input their contact and payment information. Members are consequentially billed for a mimimum of 6 bottles, with no additional discounts.

PRICE

Booker places its wines at a high price point with their rosé and white wines at $30 and $50 respectively, the non-estate-grown Pinot Noir at $45 and all other estate-grown red wines in a range of $75 to $85. According to the Wine Business Monthly Nielsen report, Booker sells luxury wines. L’Aventure wines, Booker’s neighboring vineyard and vineyard where Booker’s winemaker Eric Jensen apprenticed, sells its wines at a higher price point at an average of $100 per bottle. While Booker wines are placed at a higher price point, the value is in the small production rate (4,000 cases/year) and high-quality product as determined by various critics and ratings.

PROMOTION

Booker Vineyard hosts an annual Spring release party for their wine club members onsite, which includes special tastings of select vintages. Booker belongs to PRWCA (Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance). Benefits involve community outreach and connection with seminars, educational opportunities, tasting room manager meetings, and statistics on events and tourism in

community. PRWCA also provides advertisement via brochures, event participation, and screened opportunities for interviews/articles. Aside from PRWCA, there is no outside marketing or public relations firm helping to promote Booker wines.

PEOPLE

Booker Vineyard has an appointment-based tasting room with 2-3 attendants behind the bar at any point. The tasting room is open Friday through Sunday. The staff are not trained as much as expected to learn by doing and asking questions as they come. This method of training resonates with the relaxed, casual environment put forward by the winery in order to prevent an arrogant tasting experience. High-quality wine is expected of Booker Vineyard; therefore, the duty of tasting room attendants is to provide the high-quality personable experience that is separate from the literal wine tasting. As an appointment only tasting room, this allows each party to have a “one-on-one” conversation and discussion with the attendant. Along with reservations, Booker provides personalized tasting menus printed with the reserved party’s name.

POSITIONING

Booker Vineyard wants to be perceived as a low-production, family-operated winery that produced high-quality wine. For the Paso Robles area, Booker’s tasting fee is higher than most at $20/person waived with a 6-bottle purchase. The reason for the higher-than-most cost is in relation with small production. Although Booker has won various awards based on the quality of its wines, they do not advertise this in the tasting room. By providing young, vibrant tasting

room staff to accompany the tasting experience, Booker intends to prevent an arrogant “feel” to the winery and instead intends to promote an accommodating “feel” at a high-quality establishment. Booker has established relationships with other local wineries for word-of-mouth marketing and recommendations. Tasting room attendants provide a list of recommendations to their customers upon request to neighboring wineries that promote Booker’s tasting room as well to create a mutually beneficial relationship.

INFORMATION NEEDS

Operated by Booker’s owner, manager, bookkeeper, and offsite accountants and consultants, information is both routinely analyzed and created upon specific requests. Information needs

include reports on sales in the tasting room, wine club, and distributor sales. Collected by field studies and wine club membership information, demographics on the average sale or tasting room customer including the type of customer (walk-in, industry, member or returning customer). Other reports include wine club sign-ups and cancellations, pour costs, sales by SKU, sales by state, and charts of accolades per publication. Booker Vineyard desires access to the change of demand, in terms of quantity, once an SKU surpasses a certain price point.

SURVEY RESULTS

Information provided by random sampling of wine consumers in San Luis Obispo county illustrates the demographics of the average wine consumer. According to the survey, Booker’s target audience is not the majority of wine consumers.

The majority of wine consumers were between the ages of 50 and 64.

The average consumer spends on average $78 per month on wine and 25% of the sample would spend more than $18.50 on a bottle.