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Wine Brand Protection and the Fight Against Counterfeits

Posted on by rfxadmin

Today we’re talking about wine brand protection. Why it’s important for the industry and how to use your supply chain to make it as strong as it can be. Specifically, we’re focusing on counterfeits, an evergreen problem for the industry.

Talking about brand protection is a fitting conclusion to our series of articles about wine and a great way to mark the last day of the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium. Speaking of which, stop by Booth 807 to meet us and our other Antares Vision Group team members, FT System and Applied Vision. We’d love to see you before everybody heads home.

Now on to wine brand protection and the fight against counterfeits.

Why is wine brand protection important?

In the wine industry, your brand is critical to success. Whether you’re a multi-generational operation or the new kid on the block trying to make your mark, it’s one of your most valuable assets.

Your brand tells the story of your wine, from the soil and the vines to the bottle to your customers’ tables. It connects you to your partners and consumers. It sets you apart from your competition. It’s your identity out there in the world.

Alas, wine — and spirts — are under a constant barrage of brand protection threats and challenges. The circumstances range from bad actors trying to rip you off to the ebb and flow of the market and the trends that are defining it as we’ve made our way into the 2020s. Today, we’re focusing on the bad actors. Let us know if you’d like us to write more about factors or have anything to add to our discussion.

Counterfeits and fakes

Counterfeits and fakes are the undisputed champion of threats to wine brand protection. It’s an age-old problem, though industry observers rightly note that the pandemic has created more opportunities for fraud. The increase in online sales, including auctions, and less in-person due diligence because of travel restrictions are two examples.

How is wine counterfeited? Let us count the ways. There can be theft at production and storage sites. Theft and diversion also happen as wine is being delivered across the supply chain.

Counterfeiters also like to misrepresent a wine’s origin, vintage, variety, blend — really anything that distinguishes a brand and increases their chances of making a profit.

“Damaged wines” also manage to get into the marketplace. These might have been stored at the wrong temperature or have torn labels and bad corks. Adulterated or cheap wine is bottled in a prestige package.

In Part 1 of our wine traceability series, we mentioned the notorious Rudy Kurniawan. But the daily reality of counterfeit wine (and spirts) is much less dramatic. Consider these news items:

In 2011, hundreds of bottles of fake Jacob’s Creek wine were seized in the UK. More recently, a shopkeeper in England was fined more than $5,000 for having 142 bottles of fake Yellow Tail on his shelves. He said he bought the wine from a man who popped by his shop in an unmarked van; authorities say he could have profited in excess of $600 by selling the plonk. He didn’t get a receipt or an invoice, and the man in the van has not been found. Interestingly, analysis showed that the bogus Yellow Tail was less than 12 percent alcohol. Real Yellowtail is 13.5 percent. This is another example of how counterfeit wine is adulterated.

In 2020, 4,200 counterfeit bottles of Bolgheri Sassicaia, a prestigious (and very expensive) wine, were seized in operation “Bad Tuscan.” Revealing the international nature of counterfeiting, investigators said the fake wine originated in Sicily, the bottles came from Turkey, and the labels and wooden boxes came from Bulgaria. Furthermore, “The 2010 and 2015 vintages, celebrated by Italian and international critics, were the most prevalent among the fakes.”

As for the spirts industry, fake bourbon is hot right now and authorities nabbed 400+ liters of counterfeit vodka this month in Scotland.

To illustrate the problem more broadly, about 1.7 million liters of counterfeit alcohol was seized in Europe between December 2020 and June 2021. That haul was part of a joint INTERPOL-Europol operation called OPSON X, which netted almost 15,500 tons of illegal products with an estimated street value of nearly $60 million. Upwards of 68,000 checks were carried out by 72 participating countries, resulting in more than 1,000 criminal cases.

The upshot is that up to 20 percent of wine sold worldwide is fake and counterfeits cost the industry as much as $3 billion every year.

What can we do about it?

Counterfeiters and fraudsters exploit weaknesses. This is what gives them openings to assault your brand. The good news is that you can mitigate these weaknesses and gather real-time intelligence for effective brand protection strategies using your supply chain.

Your supply chain mirrors your brand. It’s the embodiment of your business. If it’s not healthy, your brand can’t be healthy. You need to be able to continuously scan it, diagnose it, and take immediate action should a threat arise.

Four supply chain solutions in particular are vital for wine brand protection: serialization, real-time monitoring, end-to-end traceability, and mobile traceability.

We talk about these in Part 2 of our brand protection series, “Brand Protection Strategies and Your Supply Chain.” Part 1 talks about top supply chain threats and your brand protection strategy. We encourage you to read these articles, as well as our consumer engagement series.

Final thoughts

Your success and reputation depend on how seriously you take brand protection. This means being able to authenticate every ingredient and every bottle. You have to monitor and prove storage conditions and provenance. You have to have deep, real-time insight into what you’re doing and where your products were, are, and will be. And you have to have the granular data to back up every claim and demonstrate to your customers that your wine is exactly what you say it is.

If you read our “Wine Consumer Engagement: Ten Things to Know for 2022” post from the other day, you saw that our mantra for wine consumer engagement is “A message in every bottle.” For wine brand protection, we like to say that you should tap into the “Brut” force of your supply chain. The short list of benefits includes:

    • Fortify with supply chain data and protect with unique digital IDs
    • Create an indelible provenance and create your product story
    • Monitor in real time 24/7
    • Inspire consumer trust and crowdsource brand protection
    • Leverage IoT to eliminate blind spots
    • Maintain chain of ownership
    • Protect trading partners and consumers

And, of course, combat counterfeits and theft. Contact us today to learn more about pairing your brand with the finest supply chain solution for wine brand protection. Also be sure to read our other articles about the wine supply chain and why your supply chain is vital for effective brand protection and consumer engagement:

Wine Consumer Engagement: Ten Things to Know for 2022

Posted on by rfxadmin

Virtual tastings are so 2020. Don’t get us wrong: They’re still a thing. But to do wine consumer engagement right in 2022, winemakers have to do a lot more than ask people to hop on a Zoom call. That’s why today we’re talking about 10 things that are vital to successful wine consumer engagement.

Also, don’t forget that the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium starts today! We’ll be exhibiting with our fellow Antares Vision Group member companies FT System and Applied Vision, so sign up today and visit us at Booth 807.

Ten things to know about wine consumer engagement in 2022

Like our recent “Five Wine Supply Chain Trends for 2022” and “Trends for the Digital Wine Supply Chain” blog posts, we’re not ranking these aspects of wine consumer engagement. They’re all important. Winemakers should consider each carefully when crafting their engagement strategies.

1. Nail your story

Your brand’s story is vital to wine consumer engagement. (All consumer engagement, actually.) It’s the foundation of “the face” and the heart of the personality you’re going to project to your customers and potential customers. What do you want people to know about you? Where is your brand “coming from”? What sets you apart from other brands?

Many of the other aspects of wine consumer engagement we’re discussing today stem from and overlap with the decisions you make about your story. To get this right, expect to do some soul-searching and ask yourself some tough questions about who and what your brand is.

2. Know your customers

It’s Marketing 101, right? If you don’t know who’s buying your products, you’re missing opportunities and wasting money. Today, however, knowing your customers requires elbow grease. You have to devote time and resources to gather information (i.e., data) and develop profiles to inform your wine consumer engagement.

Here’s a handy tool: ALE. It’s an appropriately wine-and-spirits-flavored abbreviation for ask, listen, and engage. Ask consumers questions. Listen — really listen — to their answers, feedback, suggestions, opinions, etc. Importantly, what they say might not jibe with your own vision of your brand, so be willing to adapt and pivot and do the extra work to give people what they want, not what you want them to want.

To engage, pull out all the stops. Social media, of course. But you can also get out into the real world. Talk with sommeliers to see what’s trending with wine lovers. Talk with retailers to learn what people are thinking and buying. For instance, is there a cheaper brand that people are being drawn to? What brands have buzz?

We all know that wine can be a very personal experience. It’s part of its appeal. It’s why people get excited about wine and anticipate the purchase as much as the uncorking. Take advantage of that. Ask, listen, and engage.

3. Customer first, brand second

So, you’ve done the research and know who your customers are. Time to let them know all about your brand, right?

Not really.

Always remember that wine consumer engagement is about the consumer. They are the hero, not you. It can be a difficult lesson to learn, but your job is to guide people toward what they want and demonstrate the value your brand brings. Don’t make it all about you, because it’s not. Give people what they want to see and share, not what you want to show them.

4. Accept that you might not be that special

This might sting. You have to be self-aware. You have to know your strengths and weaknesses. You have look in the mirror and do an honest self-assessment.

What, if anything, makes you unique? Remember, unique means unlike anything else. One of a kind. Are your competitors saying they’re unique while making the same claims you’re making?

Industry observers are noting that wineries are saying the same thing. “Estate-grown,” “multi-generational,” “visionary winemaker,” and “terroir” are on their short list of traits and lingo that are decidedly not unique in the market. You can talk about these things, but don’t pin your identity on them.

Knowing your customers is what will make your brand stand out. What do they like (and dislike) about your wines? Where do they drink your wines? How do they “use” your wines? Are they talking about and sharing your wines on social media? What do they expect from you? Meeting their demands is what will make your brand special.

5. Be yourself

All this said, it is critical to be yourself. Don’t put on airs. Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. Don’t be a bore. Today’s consumers have a nose for you-know-what. If they get even a whiff of phoniness, watch out. So, you have to be authentic. Keep it real.

6. Focus on sharing

Think of wine consumer engagement as a self-perpetuating chain in which the links are interactions, including sharing between and among your customers. For this to happen, you have to create content that people want to see, experience, and share. The possibilities are virtually limitless — videos, contests, loyalty programs, giveaways, prizes … . Just remember to focus on your consumers, not yourself.

7. Always bring value to consumers

Ask yourself this question every day: What have you done for them lately?

You must always bring value to your customers. “ABV” — another industry-appropriate abbreviation. This means different things to different people, of course. For some, it might mean proving the provenance of your wines and demonstrating that you’re focused on transparency and sustainability. For others, it could mean sharing a picture of your team out in the vineyard or a fun promotion, such as winning a prize for sharing a video. If you’re not always bringing value to your customers, who are the heroes of your wine consumer engagement, you’re going to push them away.

8. Devote resources

Wine consumer engagement isn’t a “set it and forget it” proposition. It shouldn’t be an afterthought delegated to whoever might happen to have some spare time.

You need a person or a team to conceptualize and create content, push it out across all your channels, monitor and analyze reactions, make changes, and respond to what people are saying and asking. You also need to pay attention to what your competitors are doing and saying.

In other words, you have to be fully engaged in your consumer engagement.

9. Business as usual probably won’t cut it

It’s a cliché because it’s true: You have to think outside the box. Running an email campaign* or posting a video on Facebook then kicking back with a nice Pinot to watch your sales boom isn’t how wine consumer engagement works. It’s called consumer engagement for a reason: You want to get a response. You want to build that self-perpetuating chain of interactions. Creativity is key. It’s another reason to devote resources to make sure you’re doing it right.

*A note about email and marketing: Some people say it’s dead; others say it’s alive and well. Only you can decide if it works for your brand and if it should be part of your consumer engagement strategy.

10. Leverage supply chain data

We’ll let you in on our secret: The key to effective wine consumer engagement is your supply chain, which is a goldmine of actionable data.

The basic building block is serialization, which turns every product into what we call a “digital asset.” Each digital asset has a unique digital identity that can be monitored from production all the way to the person who buys it. With rich, traceable data about every item in your supply chain at your fingertips, you can establish and maintain connections with consumers before, during, and after the sale. For example:

    • Link every product to unique content and brand interactions
    • Give consumers the information they demand (e.g., provenance, transparency, sustainability)
    • Hyper-personalize and hyper-target every engagement based on location, time, or purchasing data
    • Empower consumers to reject counterfeits, alert for diversions/gray markets, authenticate products, help with recalls
    • Gain valuable insight into your customers

Final thoughts

“A message in every bottle.” This is rfxcel’s mantra for using your supply chain for wine consumer engagement. Our Traceability System provides granular data from the vineyard all the way into your customers’ daily lives. You can use it to define and tell your story, know your customers and bring them value, and inspire your brand to think outside the box.

If you’re at the Unified Wine and Grape Symposium this week, stop by Booth 807 to see our solutions in action and learn more about how we can help your brand stand out in a very crowded market. If you aren’t there, contact us today to schedule a short demo with one of our digital supply chain experts.

And be sure to read our other articles about the wine supply chain and why your supply chain is vital for effective consumer engagement and brand protection:

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