Don't Patronize Me: Why Gender Marketing Won't Work with Wine at the Corporate Level
Dr. Vino has again struck gold. His latest post, "What Women Don't Want," discusses a new French marketing tactic in which wine is specifically marketed toward women. According to Decanter, WineSight has put forth nearly thirty French wines under the label Sublimelle, available only online, that they say are designed to be enjoyed for "...a girl's night out, individual tasting pleasure, a romantic dinner, after love making, or a business success." I swear, that's right from the brochure. They are focusing on the British market in particular.
Here's why this is positively idiotic and perfectly representative of the wine snobbery I so vehemently despise.
1. Most of the advertising industry is comprised of men. Many men are incapable of figuring out what women want in their private lives. If A=B, and B=C, then A=C.
2. Women are just as capable of finding an appropriate wine to celebrate a special occasion as men are. These 'special occasions' include all the other patronizing life-affirming events that men think women's lives are filled with. Whether that's a box of Franzia White Zinfandel or 1996 Dom Perignon, for many women the wine doesn't matter.
3. Women that care about the wine they drink know what they want. They're aware of varietals, regions and vintages. Women that don't care about the wine they drink don't care to know what they want. They'll pick a grape they know and not care about mundane details. If you're marketing towards the latter market, WineSight, stop while you're ahead. The household vineyards that already exist have you beat.
4. The reason it's available online only is because it would be laughed out of any self-respecting wine store. God knows, women who love a good celebratory wine search for it online. Come on.
5. Leave it to the French to marginalize a potential market, pander to it and then patronize it. They're the original wine snobs. "Hey look, female Brits. We have a wine that's good enough for you, but too good for American women. And just forget French women, we pick the wine for them."
Does this incense you like it incenses me?
Listen up, advertising agencies. You know what women want?
We want a respectable wine that tastes good and gets us nice and tipsy. We don't care who makes it, so long as the producer doesn't pander to us and make us feel uneducated and cheap. A pretty bottle and fair price helps, but neither are important if the juice tastes good. When we find the right wine, we'll drink it for months or years, and we won't stray so long as we can find it in a store. We'll support you through weak vintages and label changes, so long as you keep us informed.
Let the boutique wine stores and local outlets handle marketing to women. They understand their markets far better than you ever will, winemakers. Stick to making grape juice into wine and let the wine stores figure out how to sell it.
Am I wrong?
ZING!
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The wine industry is a traditionally male-dominated and male-focused one that wants to feel like it is trying to reach women - and so, the first attempts of any brand are usually "pink thinking," based on these bizarre assumptions. You hit the nail on the head. Women who want to drink and enjoy wine will want to be treated with respect and given great information (surprisingly, just like men who drink wine...). Women who'd respond to this pitch you've written about are not women who'd be long term good customers or referrers for any brand. Marketers make marketing to women so much hard than it needs to be. It is great to get your twenty-something perspective on this, as I think your generation will finally be calling it like it is (with regard to marketing to women and a whole lot more...)
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As a retired advertizing executive, I respect your passionate prose, but you're wrong, my dear. You see, we in advertizing have been manipulating you girls since the beginning of time. Stop and think about this for a few minutes.
Do you think men would risk their valuable feet and ankles that are so needed to perform heroic feats on the battlefield, as well as athletic fields, by wearing STILLETTO HEELS to make their legs look longer? Of course not. But you girls do.
Would a man, (a real man) spend an extra ten or fifteen minutes in the shower wasting precious water during a drought, shaving "unsightly" hair off his legs so that they'll look like they did when he was eleven years old? Never! A man wants to take his shower, get clean, and get out of that shower.
Grown up girls, on the other hand, must keep unsightly hair off their legs so their high heel money that makes legs look longer and shaplier, as they looked when they were pre-pubescent, won't be wasted.
Do you think a man would wear kilts to work? Would he bare his legs in the office to stimulate women's fantasies about what's under the kilts? Not in a million years! But grown girls do, every day of the week. And here's the ultimate irony...they then complain when men stare at their legs!
You girls have invented the concept of "sexual harassment" because you resent being hit on in the office as if you're a streetwalker! Want to be left alone at work? Stop wearing makeup! Do you think a man would spend an hour in front of the mirror trying to make himself look more beautiful to the opposite sex? Not on your life! But you girls do every day of the week putting on billions of dollars of artificial colors that we sell you to make your faces look more "natural."
I could go on and on about the frivolous items we in advertizing manipulate you grown girls into buying. Would a man wear a sleeveless blouse to the office? Absolutely not, but you girls do...the better for us to peek inside to see what's there! Panty hose? Well you must make those bare, well shaven legs look smoother, musn't you? And those ruby red lips you must display, even on the floor of the United States Senate!
Girls, every aspect of your lives have been manipulated by we in advertizing. The very concept of femininity is one of our inventions. Why, femininity is so artificial even men can look as beautiful and indistiguishable from a woman through the use of the same makeup you apply every day of your lives. So why rebel at the small manipulation of your palates? We have shaped every other aspect of your lives, haven't we?
If you want to rebel, throw away your razors! Out with your skirts, dresses, and sleeveless blouses. To the trash heap with your high heel shoes, and stop putting all those artificial colors on your faces! When you do all of this then maybe, just maybe, will we in advertizing stop trying to make you look so silly in the workplace. Bet you can't.
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I agree that men have manipulated women in the fashion and beauty industries, and that this has severely impacted the perception of women on a global level. I can't claim to have the power to overturn generations' worth of marketing and advertising in those industries, and even if I could, I wouldn't want to bear that burden. However, the world of food and wine is a completely different matter, one that doesn't have much to do with shaving, makeup or revealing outfits. From the dawn of time, women have played an integral role in food and beverage. During the 50s and the ascent of TV dinners, men have successfully marketed time-saving devices to appeal to a busy mom's lifestyle.
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Marketing is not only a question of presentation or communication. Base of marketing is to supply suitable products to targeted group of consumers.
Sublimelle approach is based on the fact that women have a different sense of wines than men. Last experience was made by GAULT et MILLAU (may 2007) showing that there were some clear divergences in women and men preferences in term of wines.
First of all women have naturally a better sense of smell and taste as it has been proven by numerous experiences and scientific ressearchs. This enables them to better distinguish the varieties of aromas in wines. As a result of this, women tend to prefer delicate wines, with a large range of aromas, subtes, harmonious and silky.
Women have also a more natural approach with wines as they less care about expert point of view drink out of any snobism.
Sublimelle wines have been carefully choosen to answer to these needs in a wine world dominated by producted mainly marketed by men for men.
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First, thank you for your comment. I appreciate your reading my blog and responding to it. You're the first representative of a winery that's done so.
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