The Wine Shuffle

Consider for a moment that there are over 10,000 wines released every year.

Then go read this post on ShuffleWorld (go on - it won't hurt a bit).

Then consider this quote (from the post):

The only win I see in the long run is for the winner of today's attention lottery to earn a subscription (an RSS feed or an email sign up or a podcast subscription) that gives them a chance to be noticed tomorrow as well.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is direct marketing of wine in a nutshell.  It's the reason we talk about visitor effectiveness for winery Web sites.  And it's something you *must* be thinking about.  How do you earn people's ongoing attention in a world overflowing with new vintages from new places?

You've got to be noticed (a visit to your Web site, a bottle from a friend, a great glass at a restaurant, a day on woot! or RadCru, a postcard mailing, ...) and it must be sufficiently remarkable that people will subscribe to it in some fashion (sign up for your e-mail, subscribe to your blog, join your wine club, etc.).

You may only get one opportunity to gain their attention.  Attention lottery, indeed.

Comments

[Vincent van Wylick]

Thanks for the analogy, Michael (?). On my blog, I made the point that a good creation will never be put on shuffle. I guess it's maybe different in the wine-world.
Take care, Vincent

[Mike Duffy]

Thanks for the comment, Vincent. It's actually harder than that - many people tend to buy what they've bought before. So if you gain their attention, you've got to be more compelling that "the ususal."

The "good creations" you mention become standards and crowd out new possibilities.