Neo-tribal wine-marketing or How to transform ordinary people into “every-day somms”

They say that intuition is when your brain has collected enough information about the subject so it unexpectedly strikes you with the most right and logical solution of the problem. That decision is coming as an insight painlessly and naturally. We often say this woman has taste implying cloths. But this knowledge couldn’t be stored initially in her DNA. It’s just the observations which the person has made subconsciously helped him to become aware of style or fashion.

Therefore, there is a chance that people can collect information about wine in the same manner-subconsciously and easily. So that further wine-choice will stop being endlessly difficult. It depends on how the wine knowledge was delivered to them. We could try to link wine with ordinary people’s association dominants. In other words with what is interesting to them or what is their every day routine.

It’s quite difficult to appeal to each potential winelover personally that’s why some king of segmentation (uniting people in particular groups with common features) is necessary. Let’s say neo-tribes segmentation. The theory of neo-tribes was created by social scientists Maffesoli and Cova, where they say that informational society, which we live in, doesn’t want to be mass anymore. Hence, they unite in smaller dimensions called neo-tribes, depending on the people’s interests and activities. There could be neo-tribes of fishermen, winemakers, fashionistas and manga creators, etc. All of them have their own slang.

So wine marketers just can try to speak with this people their tribal language (=slang) instead of ingrafting their own. If you tell to an obsessed with beauty-products girl about wine bottles collection as if it’s her countless cosmetics sets, in which she knows every small thing precisely, wine stops seeming so far and incomprehensible to her.

Here are 2 sets for him and for her, on which I’d like to demonstrate the approach described above.

This choice has been made basing on author’s own preferences, the men set was especially tried on the sample of The Boat Club members-7 men aged from 50-55 years old-who approved all 3 wines.

Trolling set

Trolling is a method of fishing where one or more fishing lines, baited with lures or bait fish, are dragged through the water. It’s a sport for a company, because there are some moments when a fish doesn’t bite a bait, it depends on a weather or time of the day, etc. For example, in the Northern part of Russian Urals pike prefers to come out at around 5 a.m. so it’s much more pleasant to be with a buddy to chat at this time then being completely alone. For this type of fishing I’ve chosen Berthet-Bondet, Cotes du Jura, Tradition 2001,  the blend of Chardonnay and Savagnin grapes kept in barrels for two years under the flor. It has very warm nutty aromas (warming up when it’s chilly wind) together with great acidity (refreshing when the sun is high) and easily paired with hard cheeses which you can take as a snack while fishing.

Fly-Fishing set

Fly fishing is another fishing method, which needs a lot of skills and attempts. It’s sometimes called hunting, because you need to suppose where the fish could possibly be. Also you’d better try to put the fly (=bait) very naturally on the water as a real fly would do otherwise a fish won’t believe it’s eatable one. Elegant fishing let’s pair with elegant wine, whose creator loves fishing as well – Bouzeron Aligoté 2011 from Domain de Villaine. Mr. Benoist (the winemaker) shared one secret: while fishing he puts the bottle out of the boat to chill. Also he said that 80 million years before instead of Bouzeron it was a salty sea, and now while drinking that chilled bottle in the boat you feel as if drinking that sea, thanks to charming salty hints in the wine.

Apéritif set

Every fishing trip should be finished with a great dinner, prepared of what you have caught. And while cooking it’s necessary to have something light, tuning you on the note of the upcoming dinner and at the same time interesting…to distract from hunger. Quinta do Vallado Douro Moscatel 2011 is exactly like that. It has a very pleasant nose composed of sweet fresh apples and flowers while unexpectedly hits you with a dry palate. Well paired with super-fresh just caught grilled pikeperch.

Next are the 3 sets for women who have cut their teeth on Beauty Products and fashion.

Anti-aging set

Très pure, mini face trio suits well to Domaine Weinbach, Gewürztraminer, Cuvée Laurence, because the best advertisement of the brand is its owner. And Colette Faller the head of Domaine being a grandmother has just brilliant skin on her face. That’s why I truly believe if to consume Cuvée Laurence moderately even at 70 you’ll look fabulous!

Rock-star set

I read somewhere that White Burgundy is a wine for the Rock Stars and I fully agree with this statement, for this wine being seductive and elegant at the same time. Here are two classic brands going into rock – Chanel Rouge Allure, Luminous Intense Lip Color Rouge №ir and white that conquered my heart this august – Frederic Mugnier, Clos de la Marechàle 2005. It’s citrus, creamy, briochy and amazingly smells white currant from grandma’s garden. Chanel said: “The woman without aroma is a woman without future”, this wine has great future not only because of its structure but also because this aroma you want to “wear” all day long.

Youth-friendly set

From one of the contributors of The Formula (Fashion and Cosmetics platform edited by Aimee Blaut) I’ve learnt about Cleanse. Cleanse “is an initiative founded to help young models achieve their career goals in a healthy and sustainable way while also  helping to preserve the health and beauty of our planet”. This summer I’ve met a winemaker who implements the same initiative at the Austrian wine scene – Fritz Wieninger. I’ve associated Wieninger Rose de Pinot with Cleanse, because this winery helps young winemakers ,for example, providing them with bottling facility. Also they promote sustainable, biodynamic viticulture together with the active group of winemakers called “Respekt”.

For further questions and clarifications just write a comment or to my e-mail: a.burakovskikh@gmail.com

Neo-tribal wine-marketing by Anastasiia Burakovskikh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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