Caveman on Wine Biz Radio

In case you missed it, last week I was on Wine Biz Radio talking about this blog and the Academy of Wine Communications. Keeping up with Kaz and Randy was a bit of a challenge, but I think I managed well. Have a listen and let me know what you think.

Tags: academy of wine communications, caveman wines, The Talking Stick, wine biz radio, wine marketing, wine public relations

Over the past few months, I have been working on re-launching the Academy of Wine Communications. I had been thinking of starting an organization of wine PR and marketing professionals to provide a forum to pool resources and discuss issues. I then recalled that the organization already existed, but had been inactive for a few years. The organization was started back in 1994 by three industry pioneers–my boss at Balzac Communications Paul Wagner, Napa PR institution Harvey Posert, and Sam Folsom, owner of Folsom & Associates. Over the past few years AWC has languished until I took over this year.

My goal is to build an online community as well as local chapters. Traditionally, the Academy has been centered in Napa and Sonoma. But, with the advent of social media tools, we can expand beyond the immediate area. We plan to employ these tools to expand membership to the rest of the country and world.

We will be holding our first event of the new era on June 30th, 6:00pm at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in St. Helena, California. The fee to attend is $15 for members and $30 for non-members. The annual membership fee is $100 for individuals, $500 for ornganizations.

For more info on the event, interested parties can RSVP at the AWC website.

Tags: academy of wine communications, awc, The Talking Stick, wine communications, wine marketing

I wrote a guest post for Andy’s Goode Life blog on what to do if you aren’t picked for Murphy-Goode’s “Really Goode Job”. In it, I give 10 tips for future success after the MG job is settled. Check it out on Andy’s Goode Life.

Tags: Andy's Goode Life, Murphy-Goode, The Talking Stick, wine social media

New Vine Logistics, probably the largest direct-to-consumer fulfillment house in the business, shuttered their doors on Friday, May 29. The news has been all over the Blogotwittersphere the last couple of days. The overall impact of such an event is still being hotly debated with arguments ranging from “eh, won’t affect much” to “OMG! The sky is falling!” Since I’m not a reporter, nor have I been closely studying NVL over the years, I can’t add much information as to what is really going on. What I will address, however, is how the situation was handled by NVL on the PR side, and what wineries can do to deal with the situation.

First and foremost, let’s take a look at how the PR was handled on the part of NVL. Did the company make a public statement? Not exactly. How did most of us hear about the news? Twitter, blogs, and winebusiness.com. According to winebusiness.com, NVL did send an email to their clients stating, “New Vine will no longer be able to receive and/or process any further orders for shipment from its facility and will be shutting down the ability to submit orders electronically through New Vine Online.” Ok, good first step. What’s going to happen now? They haven’t been as forthcoming with that little tidbit. No press release, no letter to the public, no statement on their website, nothing. PR FAIL! It isn’t clear at this point whether NVL will permanently go under, or whether this is a temporary hiccup. If the later, then they may have done irreparable harm to their public image going forward. Since they didn’t offer any more info than what they did, they look like they don’t care (or worse, are hiding something) and therefore customers will less likely be as trusting going forward.

Ok, now, what should customers of NVL do now? Other than the obvious solution of looking for another vendor to take the place of NVL, what should they do on the PR front?

1. Send a letter to customers – first and foremost, contact anyone with pending orders and let them know of the situation and why their shipment may be delayed. If you have a wine club shipment coming up soon, contact members and let them know. Be open and honest, and you will have the support of your loyal customers.
2. Internal statement – Inform your employees of the situation and what you intend to do about it. Make sure you prepare everyone to answer questions from customers, partners, and media.
3. Public statement – Send a press release (or even better, a social media release) stating the situation and what you intend to do to find alternatives. Give people a contact person for any questions. Post it to the website and allow for visitors to comment.
4. Use the opportunity – Use the opportunity to remind people what products you have to offer and how they may be ordered.

The whole goal is COMMUNICATE with your various publics. By being up front about it, you head off any potential crisis. Hell, you might even get a few new customers out of the deal.

Tags: crisis communications, Direct-to-consumer, new vine logistics, The Talking Stick

In case you missed it, yesterday (May 26, 2009) I was on the New Wine Consumer broadcast/webcast/podcast discussing the Academy of Wine Communications. I think I did pretty good, if I do say so myself. You can check it out on the New Wine Consumer website.

Tags: academy of wine communications, michael wangbickler, new wine consumer