It comes as no news to anyone that
the American people love their animals. What did come as a surprise
to me is that we also love animals on our wine labels. Yes, a study
released in March by ACNielsen confirms that wine labels with animal
images are becoming increasingly popular in this country.
I felt compelled to do my own research on this topic. So one evening
I stopped by my local liquor store to check out the wine selection.
Sure enough I was greeted with a veritable zoo of animals on labels.
There were Dancing Bulls, Leaping Horses, Black Swans, Little
Penguins, Kangaroos, even a hippopotamus courtesy of Fat Bastard
Wines (which is French would you believe). This very informal
research confirmed that there seems to be a much larger selection of
wines with animal labels than ever before.
Critter Labels Rule
In the wine industry these animal labels are affectionately known as
"critter labels", and the trend began back in 2001 with the
introduction of the Yellow Tail brand of wines into this country
from Australia. Pictured on the label is what looks like a kangaroo
(but which is in fact supposed to be the yellow-footed rock
wallaby). These wines had labels that looked striking, were priced
very reasonably and they tasted great - so they became a runaway
success. So much so that they spawned an entire new "category" of
wine.
The ACNielsen study has some hard data confirming the popularity of
this new wine category. In the past three years there have been 438
new Table Wine brands that have been successfully introduced in the
American market (those wines that sold more than $20,000 annually).
Of these 438 new brands 77 of them featured an animal on their
label, around 18 percent. Combined with existing "critter label"
wines, sales reached $600 million in 2005 out of a total of just
over $4 billion, based on ACNielsen sales data from supermarket
point of sale purchases.
"Critter-labeled wines are on the rise, quickly gaining share in the
table wine category," said Danny Brager, vice president of
ACNielsen's Beverage Alcohol team. "The sales generated by new
brands featuring a critter outperform other new table wines by more
than two to one." That's right, taken across the board new
critter-labeled wines have proven in the marketplace to be more
popular.
"While placing a critter on a label doesn't guarantee success, it is
important that wine makers realize that there is a segment of
consumers who don't want to have to take wine too seriously," said
Brager. "Not only are they willing to have fun with wine, they may
just feel 'good' about an animal label presentation."
With hundreds of new wine brands being introduced each year, wine
makers realize that they need to stand out from the crowd if they
are to make an impression. The easiest and most cost effective way
to stand out is with an attention grabbing label on your bottle. The
wine industry has also realized that there is an increasingly large
segment of consumers who are attracted by fun labels. They want to
buy a non-pretentious wine and they don't want to pay a fortune.
These are the people who walk into a liquor store and supermarket
and have no idea what they are going to buy - they decide by looking
at the labels.
Chasing the Yellow Tail
The Yellow Tail wine phenomenon is the perfect example of this. From
Casella Wines, a small family-owned winery in New South Wales,
Australia, Yellow Tail went from zero to the number one imported
wine in the US in just two years. The first year the Casella
brothers expected to sell 25,000 cases of wine here, they ended up
selling 200,000 cases. That was back in 2001. In 2005 they sold 8
million cases of wine. Yellow Tail Shiraz is now the #1 selling red
wine in America (not just imports but ALL red wine). In the crowded
and highly competitive US wine market with over 6,500 wine brands,
Yellow Tail has become the #1 wine brand, and it took just five
years.
Now, I realize that Yellow Tail's success is not just because of
their label. They have a great product that is reasonably priced -
the Shiraz is just $6.99 - and they have a very loyal base of repeat
customers. But could they have become #1 without their unique label?
I don't think so. One of the biggest barriers they faced was getting
people to try the wine in the first place. With what looks like a
brightly colored kangaroo on the label on a black background, it is
a visually striking label. It was able to break through the clutter
at the retail store with this label.
Perhaps the biggest indication of the success of Yellow Tail is the
number of copycats it has spawned. Penfolds, Australia's leading
winery, was obviously disappointed in missing out on this
opportunity, so they responded with the launch of the Little Penguin
brand of wines. There is now a deluge of animal themed wines, so
much so that ACNielsen is tracking their sales now. Despite all this
new competition Yellow Tail remains the most successful wine brand
in terms of total sales.
Labels are a Powerful Tool
While the wine business is somewhat unique there are lessons here
that can be applied to any industry. One lesson is that with a high
impact label you can make inroads even in a conservative and image
conscious industry such as the wine industry. Your label should be
working hard for your product. It should be informational, be a
sales and marketing piece, carry any necessary regulatory
information, and at the same time be eye catching. If you are
selling your products at a retail store, then your label needs to
perform well in all these areas for your product to compete with
other more established brands.
The good news is that as a Lightning Labels customer you have an
advantage. You are getting state of the art digital printing at high
resolution and in vibrant color. So, your labels will look
professional, your text will look crisp and your colors rich. You
have the choice of our shiny gloss laminate or our muted matte
laminate to add that extra sparkle to your labels.
But what about your label design? We can print with tremendous
quality but what will have an even greater impact is the design of
your labels. I encourage you to take a good look at your labels. Are
they working hard for you? Are they conveying everything you want to
say? How do they perform against your competition? What do they say
about you and your company? If you need an independent perspective
we would be happy to take a look at your labels and give you some
suggestions.
Your label is your sales tool. The success of Yellow Tail wines
demonstrates that in any competitive industry a good label can help
bring success. Of course, it doesn't have to feature a critter, but
a visually appealing and eye catching label will help. We are your
partners in producing great labels - together let's make your labels
memorable.
