More than Gabriel: How Gabriel-Glas can connect with today's wine drinkers

In our first class, I asked Tempe about how she can connect with consumers who aren't familiar with Rene Gabriel. The power of that name only exists for older, higher class, more refined wine consumers -- a very small portion of Gabriel-Glas's target market, and an even smaller portion of the broader population. I wanted to offer my own assessment and recommendations to help Tempe. To start, who is the customer? Excluding the refined, older, wealthy consumer for whom the Gabriel brand holds meaning, there are two major paths to becoming a Gabriel-Glas (GG) consumer: 1. Be in the upper quartile of income (for domestic US population) 2. Be engaged and put Gabriel-Glas on your wedding registry There's a fundamental truth that I need to establish upfront: truly middle-class families (median US household income = $55k) cannot afford to spend $29 per stem or $174 for a set of six. That's fine, we just need to own who the market is. For the first sub-market, the persona I build for this customer is a 28-38 year old urban dweller who enjoys indulging in a good meal and a solid wine. She or he frequents restaurants with friends or a partner, but also hosts the occasional dinner party or wine and cheese night. Her or his days are spent building a career, and evenings often start with a glass of wine to wind down. There are two potential paths to reaching this consumer: upper-mid market home stores (e.g., Crate & Barrel, West Elm), and restaurants. I think the second path is the most exciting, and would recommend GG explore retailing through urban higher end restaurants and wine bars (entrees ~$20-30). GG could offer the stems at a wholesaler price point to these restaurants, which would use them for dinner service and benefit from the refined image that the wine glasses represent. The wine list would include a note to "inquire for purchase of our Gabriel-Glas stems." Because the experience of using a Gabriel-Glas is so delightful, I think many patrons would be interested in purchasing stems at the restaurant and simply adding it to their bill at the end of the night. I've seen this model pursued successfully by restaurants like Porsena in New York (www.porsena.com). Porsena lists cookbooks and high end ingredients as well as lotions at the bottom of their menu. They pull it off seamlessly because the entire restaurant is so refined and classy that selling items seems like a special favor they are offering to patrons. I also think there's space to partner with digital wine retailers who focus on educating customers. GG should consider a partnership with places like The Perfect Sip or Winc. For the second market (engaged people who may not be able to afford wine glasses on their own), Gabriel-Glas would be a strong fit for any registry. Because GG does not offer volume discounts, the $29 per stem price point is perfect for wedding guests who might not be able to afford a more expensive gift. The trick is standing out from other wine glasses on the registry. On the push marketing side, GG could try to cut a deal for preferential sorting when a customer is selecting stems. On the pull marketing side, GG should reach out to wedding websites (e.g., The Knot) and Instagram handles to be featured on their sites. If there's only one outreach that GG does, I recommend Instagram influencers (e.g., think lifestyle handles and more targeted audiences, like Bachelor contestants -- only the classy ones though! -- or home decorators) and wedding handles; because this is such a visual product, the stems will stand out for their beauty and elegance. Additionally, I think video marketing would be strong for GG. GG should explore creating visually full but verbally subtle (probably word free)30-second videos for placement on Facebook or Youtube, and measure conversions off of those videos. And in general, I think Gabriel-Glas should redo their website to be more visually strong, and update the content to focus on messages that resonate with today's wine drinker. The website looks stale, and the commentary almost exclusively from sommeliers and wine critics misses the point of people drinking wine because it brings them together. When I look at the website, I think these glasses are for an older, stuffier wine drinker -- not for me. The visuals and messages should resonate more with young people, and should take advantage of the visual appeal of the glass. Instead of posing the stems with the black box, the landing page should be a video of a relatively youthful hand swirling wine in the glass, or an image of a table set with bread and olive oil with the wine glasses glimmering around the table. GG needs to take advantage of their website as a way to connect with customers. I hope this helps!