Hot Take: Napa Valley Wineries Complain About Not Having Young Consumers But They Aren’t Connecting With Us
Written by: Makenzie Payne – Chair
Edited by: Kendall Swanson – Marketing Team, Karlie Cowell – Marketing Chair, Whitney Diver McEvoy – Secretary
Now, we’ll start off this hot take by saying this is not all wineries. However, we do see that this is true for many wineries.
Don’t worry, this isn’t just another article for us to complain, we actually do have some ideas to share. (and it’s not just lower prices!).
Idea #1 – Market to where we actually are – social media.
Print publications may have worked well in the past, but times have changed. Meet us where we are- and that’s social media. Oh, and do it well! This does not mean hiring your 16-year-old niece to post every few weeks. This means hiring an expert, creating a strategy, and actually following it.
There are many social media experts in the Young Professionals Community. We’ll make it easy for you. Here’s a list of marketing professionals that are up-to-date on all things Napa Valley marketing (to young people):
- Michael Cuffe, Napa Valley Creative Agency
- Karlie Cowell, The 87 Collection
- Maria Pavlou, WSI Next Gen Marketing
(If you are a young professional marketer that would like to be added to this list please reach out, we’d be happy to help promote you).
Idea #2 – Provide more “Wine 101” or “Introduction to Wine” tastings.
Help us walk through the door without feeling like we’re dumb. Many of us grew up around wine, or know what we like. That doesn’t mean we know everything, so teach us! (Social media is also a great way to teach us!) This means, though, that you have to find a way to make it resonate with us. This does not involve outlandish tasting notes, overly technical one-sheets, or vernacular that makes us feel dumb. We want a mature, informative conversation, but without all the pretension.
Idea #3 – Show us how cool it is to drink wine.
Yes, it’s true. We love an aesthetic moment for our Instagram. We tend to value an experience more than the actual drink. A perfect way to lure us in! Show us how cool the experience of drinking and tasting wine can be and watch us fall in love with the product itself. Show us how to serve the wine at home, with our friends and family. Give us real life examples, not just posed models.
Idea #4 – Host Events Tailored to a Young Crowd
And no, we don’t mean 12pm DJ’s. What we are asking for is simple. Maybe a picnic on the lawn, live music on Saturday’s, pickleball and wine, paint and sip… ask Chat GPT for more ideas. An event that isn’t member focused. And market it to us. Social media- That’s where we’re looking.
Idea #5 – Entry Level Club Memberships!
We want to buy wine, and we want to buy a variety of bottles to enjoy! We do not want to get locked into crazy minimum spends, though. Give us an option for a low-commitment subscription or membership so we can get the wines we love, without having to commit to extra bottles of Reserve Cabernet that we’re just not ready for. This will help us for the first few years as we learn more about wine. And, we promise, this will help us transition into the higher level clubs once we have greater discretionary income.
Still lost? Use this guide to ask more young professionals. Already doing this? Ask more young professionals for feedback. What do I know, I’m just a young professional that isn’t even in the wine industry. But we do care about the businesses and people here so we want to help.