Starting a marketing campaign for your wine or spirits brand?

First, you need a brand strategy, and that starts with a compelling story. Too many wine and spirits companies sound the same to consumers, let alone to your own sales team. In a sea of similar brands with vanilla branding, how does your brand compete for media coverage, shelf space, and consumer buzz?

Solution: Benson’s Brand Messaging Plan

We research your winery or distillery, understand your category and how you compete. We moderate a series of meetings with your senior team to capture and then brainstorm, refine, and document what is unique about your story. We capture and sharpen your story in clear, concise language.

In other words, we create the narrative for your wines, spirits, and company. But this effort doesn’t just gather dust on a shelf.

Your Brand Marketing Blueprint

We deliver a messaging blueprint, a useful document arming your sales and marketing teams with:

• Positioning Statements: a bold, differentiated statement with supporting points and a “why they should care” summary
• Brand Essence Wheel: identifying your brand’s personality and values
• Key Brand Benefits: Core advantages repurposed for sales presentations
• Core words: 4-5 words used repeatedly and consistently
• The Story:  Your unique legend/founding story
• Future Vision: Milestones–in finance, sales, marketing, distribution–that will define success in the next decade
• Elevator Pitch: the 10-second summary of your company you tell a stranger
• Boiler Plate:  The “About Us” paragraph capping your PR releases.

Who’s the Brand Messaging Plan right for?

This marketing service is best suited for wine and spirits companies that need:

• An outside marketer’s perspective on how to frame or create a “story”
• A sharper definition of points of difference
• A story that rationalizes the brand’s architecture of SKUs
• A set of communications guidelines that supports growth goals over the next 2-5 years.

Because many of our client engagements start with the Brand Messaging Plan, the service is a great way to learn how we work together. It’s a low-risk on ramp to a larger marketing activation.

Our process

Step 1. Develop the Foundation: Benson researches your positioning and packaging, reviews existing collateral and PR materials and coverage, audits your digital presence, as well as the category in which you compete.

Step 2. Brainstorm Ideas: Benson conducts internal brainstorm meetings with to refine themes, ideas, and directions.

Step 3. Strategy Meeting: We moderate a 4-5 hour strategy brainstorm meeting with your senior management, offsite.

Step 4. Draft 1: Benson summarizes findings in an initial draft for client feedback.

Step 5. Iterations: We exchange ideas and refine the document with you.

Step 6. Finalize/Customize Document: We present our final document, then condense it into bit-sized slide decks customized for your 3-tier sales team, DTC team, and others.

Great marketing campaigns start with the right marketing strategy, and that starts with a great brand story. We’ve conducted our Brand Messaging Plan for well-known companies, categories and famous winegrowing regions.

Ready to stand out in the crowd?

For a free consultation with Jeremy Benson, schedule a call, email him at benson@bensonmarketing.com, or call him at 917.633.6002, extension 2.

There’s no commitment.  But be forewarned–you might like what you hear. Even though our contracts have a no-penalty cancellation clause, our average client engagement exceeds four years.

 Ok, but how much will this cost?

Brand Marketing Plan projects are often in the range of $15k – $20k, and completed in 60 days. But while you’re here, learn what PR, social media, and digital functions are best in-sourced, outsourced, or combined – and how much it all costs. Join our email list and we’ll send you our presentation, “Wine Marketing Communications Guidelines.” Twenty years of advice in less than 20 slides.