Wine naming - smile with me or laugh at me?

Twenty or so years ago most wine sold in the UK was purchased by professional class men at specialist stores where dim lighting, and knowledgeable, intimidating staff ensured that wine stayed elitist. Then the grocery supermarkets changed everything. They put lots of different bottles on brightly lit shelves, added descriptions, serving suggestions, clear pricing and let shoppers look, loiter and of course purchase - and mainly it was women who did the purchasing.

Over 60% of the wine sold in the UK is now purchased in Grocery. I understand that the US figure is nearer 30% and maybe this at least in part explains the explosion in “strange” names that now stock the US wine shelves.

There seem to be two categories, animal or comical. The first group follows the extremely successful Yellow Tail, a brand which on launch, changed all the rules by defining its competitors as all alcoholic drinks rather than just wine. Yellow Tail turned its back on the wine attributes of prestige and complexity of flavor and sought out fun and easy drinking - a market worth 3 times as much!

I’ve never tried 3 Blind Moose or Cool Fish or Smoking Loon but I surely hope that they have learned that success takes more than just a name with stand out.

I accept the need to create real change and to continue to de-mystify but I think that the second group may be in danger of mistaking the subtle difference between laugh with me and laugh at me.

I can smile with Marilyn Merlot, enjoy Tusk ‘n’ Red, even just about “get” Goats Do Roam but Old Fart, Big Ass Cab, Royal Bitch, and Mad Housewife seem to miss the point. A joke to buy once, something to take to a party, maybe even an enjoyable drink, but a long term brand, a name to still comfortably accept as one of my badge choices in 5 or 10 years, probably not.

Claude C. Hopkins, one of Americas finest advertising minds (who was earning $185,000 in 1907!), wrote that “the right name is an advertisement in itself” He also said that “People don’t buy from clowns”

I wonder how he would respond to the offer of a glass of Fat Bastard.