Wine clubs are nothing new; wineries have been using them for ages in the fight for customer retention. Usually linked to some sort of incentive (invitations to special events, discounts on wine purchases, first dibs on new releases) wine clubs offer the winery all kinds of marketing mileage in exchange for a freebie.
Membership to a wine club creates a certain air of exclusivity for the member – they are entitled to things that other mere mortals can only dream about – and any winery with a half decent marketing team knows how to turn this sense of exclusivity into real-world benefits.
One such benefit is the creation of what’s referred to as “Brand Advocates” – people whose loyalty to a winery is so strong that they will plug the estate, the wine and the brand to anybody who will listen. Once a winery has these loyal members, they need to reward them accordingly in order to encourage repeat business. All those invitations to special events and discounts on cellar door purchases ensure members return to the estate. And with more visits, comes more sales.
Another perk of a successful wine club is the resultant data. Wine clubs allow wineries to quantify their customers and their respective spending habits. Being able to tell which member bought what wine helps the winery deliver more targeted marketing messages.
So how does one build a wine club? Well, there are two possible options for any wine estate looking to create their own wine club : you can pay an external company to do it for you, or you can do it yourself. With the former costing anything from R15 000 a month, doing it yourself is a much cheaper option.
The Abuzz Marketing Package provides wineries with the toolset necessary to create, grow and manage their own wine club. Included in the package:
- Individually branded loyalty cards to power your loyalty campaign and log transactions
- Flexible rules and rewards for your loyalty program; the Abuzz program allows for any reward structure, tiered or non-tiered
- Web-terminal; as the loyalty programme is run online, it is independent of any one Point of Sale system and completely portable
- Access to your customer purchase behaviour and demographics via the reporting function
- Full training for your staff on all aspects of the loyalty program
- Telephonic and on-site support
So, if you’ve been considering a wine club for your winery, why not give Abuzz a call on 0861 ABUZZ or email them mailto:abuzz@abuzz.co.za to setup a meeting.
Take a look at how many wine estates in South Africa are up for sale, and ask why is this happening?
What is the core business of a wine estate? To make and sell wine, of course!
So if not enough wine is being sold, the estate will suffer financially, unless it has either a marketing package in place to buffer the deficit (such as a restaurant, deli, etc), or it must attract more wine buyers through incentive schemes such as a wine club.
As an affordable marketing tool, any wine estate that doesn’t run a wine club is missing out on valuable sales, and maybe missing out on survival.