Vender vino

It depends. It is a question of visibility, of getting the customer’s attention and of having a convincing message.

The message from a winery is like a drop of water on the Amazon River unless it is different than the messages from other wineries.

But our customer may fall in love with the message if:

1)      That drop of water is special, if it sets itself apart from the rest of the drops, if the observer sees our message and understands what makes us different. This can happen for several reasons: 1) We have positioned ourselves very well in a niche appreciated by the observer (Search engines) 2) We are highly rated and recommended by someone who is respected. The social network not only spreads messages, it also filters the messages we receive.

2)      If you as a customer have a relationship with the winery in the real world, then you go looking for that differentiating factor on the social web.

Only if we get the observers attention will we be able to transmit our message. And that is not easy to achieve, due to the huge flow of information people receive on a daily basis.

To put it differently:

A winery sells more if it has done the conventional homework in the real physical world, but being active in the real world is like bravery in a soldier’s heart: It is necessary, but not sufficient.

 A winery can sell much more, if it sells a product that stands out for its quality, its quality/price ratio or other distinguishing factors that make it preferred over other wineries. Moreover, it must connect with influencers, both in the traditional and the new digital world, who do a good job at communicating and spreading the message through Social Media.

All of these principles existed before the time of the Internet, but the Internet rewards the extra quality, the differences and the connections to the influencers far more than the traditional channels do. This is even more important today where we all have created filters that only let information through if it comes from certain people. We are talking about word of mouth. The digital word of mouth is far more powerful because just pushing one botton you can spread messages virally without distorting the message in the process. (Effect copy pasteit, the original message that is copied and pasted across the social web).

A winery can sell far more if it uses Social Media, not just as a marketing and branding platform, but as a sales tool.

This image comes from: 3.bp.blogspot.com

 This post in Spanish: ¿Vende más una bodega si utiliza Social Media?

In the world of wine, when the information is known about Social Media and what this tool can do for them, the initial idea to be drawn from this is that it seems like a proposal to substitute the personal presence activities by the Social Media.  I personally do not think in that way, but quite the opposite. Both systems are complementary for two reasons:

1) Social network and Internet can be a filter and a tremendously powerful channel of communication, also a way of finding people with specific affinities. If someone, under certain circumstances gets acquainted with specific individuals through the network, and from those contacts, in function of their common interests, then the intention arises to meet with them personally. In another cases, if you meet someone in person, then you maintain afterwards the relationship via Internet.

2) There are situations were being personally present is better than Internet and Social Media. Basically what it means is that being in person, one has the ability to capture the attention of an audience, the ability to convey emotions and experience what men kind have been relating to each other from thousands of years . This experience allows us to know if we like a person in the first two minutes of conversation and if we are willing to learn more about that person and if we would consider doing business together.

At first, what new technologies have worked out, is in the way of trying to match them up with the personal presence way of activity, giving the emphasis in what Internet communications improves over those previous personal means of transferring information. New technologies have improved a lot, but will probably never fulfill and replace what brings the personal presence.

The first ones to recognize that Internet brings a lot but not everything are those Internet users who get together in many events and attend in person to conferences related to this subject. They are aware that the information received directly in person, is different from the information they would receive   virtually, because it gives a chance to interact personally with other internet users.

There are two kinds of worlds that still are not very close together:

Hay dos mundos, que aún no están muy cerca, la de aquellos que no ven más que la tecnología y que todas las soluciones tienen que venir de la mano de la tecnología, y que, de alguna manera, casi diría que desprecian cualquier tipo de comunicación que no tenga que ver con la tecnología. Y un segundo mundo en el que están aquellos que viven en el mundo convencional, que las nuevas tecnologías les suenan a chino y que se asustan cada vez que se les acerca un freaky a ponerle la cabeza como un bombo.

Those people who see nothing else but technology and think that all solutions have to come from the hands of technology. And a second world of those people who belong to the conventional way of living, in which the new technologies will  sound like Chinese to them and  they will feel  scared  every time they are being  approached by a freaky, who will end up putting their heads like nuts.

The world is neither one way nor the other, but a combination of the two, and with time, gradually will appear more and more people who enjoy both worlds.

To make this go faster, it has to be accomplished a greater transfer of people to the mixed zone. Agencies have to propose solutions both in the conventional and the digital way, in a full understanding that digital technology is not unable to coexist with the conventional way. After the passage of time, people will apply both systems by simply considering its effectiveness and bringing out their own ability and willingness to adapt themselves to the proposed changes suggested by the new technologies.

The digital approach is not better than the conventional one. In a similar way, riding a motorbike is no better than cycling, it all depends on what you want do.

How about if you enjoy the good things that have both worlds?

This image comes from: destinoespana.com

Thi post in Spanish: En Social Media (Internet) para ser más efectivo en el mundo real.

I do not really know how did it happen, but this is the way how I see it.

In the past there were telephones being used to do business, but mainly at local level. With the invention of the telephone, there was a huge boom in the economical activity. And when viewed from afar, it seemed that everyone came up on using it at the same time, but for sure it did not happen as seen. At first, someone came up to use it as a communication tool, but there were few telephones to reach communications, so the tool lacked effectiveness. With the passage of time, it began to have more and more telephone users.

The smarter companies, not necessary the best ones, simply the most innovative, (i.e., early adopters), plunged themselves on using this device that allowed them to contact their customers at remote distances.

These more innovative companies were approaching to people with whom their own competitors not even imagined that they existed and probably they weren’t offering better products. And then they started to sell. The use of the telephone did not mean being able to sell their product regardless of good image or quality. But of course, they had an advantage over their local competitors, as they were not an option for those new consumers.

And what were the new consumers doing after receiving a telephone communication? Some of them purchased merchandise and used the telephone to inform their acquaintances, about the new kind of suppliers that were using the telephone as means of communication, Were those innovative companies doing more business? Probably not much at the beginning, but gradually sales kept up getting better. Sales improved so well that the word of the usage of a new communication system, spread around, and after a while, all companies had to have telephones to do all the transaction business. What all this implied in business? Several things: 1) An award for the innovative companies that started to sell earlier and more quantity than others that followed them up in the new sales technique. Also they learned the do’s and don’ts of the media (get mistaken soon) 2) A general increase in consumption. 3) A gradual decrease of the competence within a good number of companies that had enjoyed the privilege of being high competitors previously. 4) A growing attention and concern about what new technologies could do for them.

Should we call this story over? No sir. There are many examples like the phone: i.e. the printing press, railway, television, fax. Those are examples alike the telephone, with many common facts among them. One of the facts is the invariable market share, that business people experienced doing their habitual way of sales. With the appearance of new technological developments, the playing rules of for the actual way of marketing could get changed, and those new advances also would become the fundamental variable to change the results of each of the players.

We are deep in a crisis and everyone wonders when we all will be out of it. Some hypothesize that within a year, others said up to ten. But when responding to this question they are actually thinking on a time average, considering that some will come out earlier than others.

What does the Internet and Social Media imply? Just like the invention of the telephone 100 years ago, but with a larger impact.

Are you actually producing good quality products? And are you giving a good service? Don’t stop doing it!!!

We are experiencing the largest moments of change in history. Consequently there are new deal of cards. What are you doing to get good cards?

Image Source:  kalipedia.com

This post in Spanish: Con la invención del teléfono ocurrió. Ahora, Social Media.