The majority of wine consumers are not looking to be educated about wine, but are interested in little nuggets of information or a "dinner party one liner" about the wines they have bought, according to Laithwaite's global wine consultant Justin Howard-Sneyd MW.
Justin Howard-Sneyd MW said Laithwaite's customers are
He told the audience at this week's Digital Wine Communications Conference in Montreux that his experience of working with Laithwaite's regular customers is that they are "wine enjoyers" and like buying and drinking wine, but were not interested in being immersed in it.
He believed the success Tony Laithwaite has had since he started his direct wine business is his ability to talk directly to his customers in a way they can understand and appreciate. It is also certainly not a case of "talking down" to people, but in a style they can relate to.
"You have to understand your customer and talk to them in a language they can understand," said Howard-Sneyd.
But get it right you have a customer with a reasonable amount of disposable income who is quite happy to be "sold to" and receive information about new wines and offers, and is prepared to buy on average around 48 bottles a year.
"They don't want to be educated in wine, but they do like bite size pieces of information. The dinner party one liner," he added. "They are fascinated by stories about winemakers, but you have to make sure it does not feel like being educated about wine."
He said Laithwaite's works hard to ensure it is giving the right kind of information to its customers be it interesting facts about the wine, where it is grown or by the winemakers themselves. They like it when it will champion a certain style of wine and respond well to feature like "five reasons why we're drinking Chardonnay this summer".
"Write in short sentences, have a clear message and keep it simple," urged Howard-Sneyd.