What’s Your Customer’s Emotional Wine Journey? (And Why Should You Be Obsessed With It?)
What makes people buy wine or wine services? I mean, what really makes them buy?
A lot of wine brands forget to think beyond their product or service’s surface level features, to dig into the bones of what’s driving their conversions.
It’s like buying a gym membership. You don’t sign up for the equipment. You sign up so you can feel healthy and confident as a result of the membership. The equipment is part of the journey, but it’s not the end goal.
Wine is the same thing. People don’t buy a bottle of wine because they want a bottle of wine. They want the feelings they’ll get from the bottle of wine — the emotional payoff.
When it comes to your standard ecommerce products, this often comes down to meeting a customer’s basic desire or need. No time to cook? Try this meal-prep service. Want cute workout clothes? These leggings are to die for.
Wine is a little different though because the desire can be more subtle and nuanced, and may cross over a few different categories.
They may be thinking: Will that wine look great on my wine shelf? Will it stand out on a dinner table? Will it share a great story about a winery? Will it give me a new flavor experience? Will it elevate a food pairing?
Answering these questions in your messaging will help your customer connect with your product or service on a much deeper, more emotional level. After all, people buy with their hearts first, and their minds second.
Showing them how they’ll feel after using your product/service helps overcome natural hesitations of trying a new brand for the first time, or risking wasting money or time.
Of course, it’s important to also address these hesitations in your copywriting to demonstrate why you’re a great choice for them. But the emotional drivers compel someone to keep reading and engaging with your brand.
Here’s an example of six important emotional needs and some ways that a wine industry brand might go about satisfying them.
1.) Certainty
Humans need assurance that a product is going to help them get the things they want, or avoid the things they don’t want. For example, can they be sure your bottle of reserve Pinot Noir will be any good? Does the older vintage mean it’s bad or optimal? How can they be sure spending more money on this premium bottle will be worth their investment?
They need to feel certain that what they’re getting lives up to the hype and price tag. Some great ways to provide reassurance are through quotes from real customers, showing genuine reviews, critic scores, or some backstory about the winemaker’s track record and experience.
2.) Significance
Deny it if you want, but we all want to feel special and needed. When it comes to wine, you may be wondering how this can possibly relate.
But think about the occasions where people share wine. That feeling of contributing to a great meal by offering a really standout bottle for your group. Picking out the perfect wine at dinner. Seeing your friends’ eyes light up when they taste your favorite bottle.
It may seem irrelevant for some people, but for wine enthusiasts, sharing the joy of wine can be one of the best feelings in the world. So consider how your wine or service meets that desire of feeling significant at the table, the tasting room, and beyond.
3.) Growth
One of our greatest capacities as humans is our ability to learn, grow, and expand our knowledge. And when we do it successfully, it feels amazing. Anyone who has gone down the rabbit hole of wine education knows the joy of discovering new wine regions or styles. When I first fully understood how champagne is made, I couldn’t stop telling all my friends about it!
Wine consumers are no different. They may not be as interested in the minutiae of soil composition and pH levels. But if you can give them a nugget of value, it makes them feel accomplished and confident.
Whether you share wine 101, deep dive into your wine specifics, or just show how to properly open a bottle, think about ways you can foster their yearning for knowledge and capability.
4.) Variety
We humans get bored easily. Exhibit A: social media, where we endlessly scroll for new and (not always) interesting pieces of content. We crave new discoveries and stimuli, anything to avoid monotony. Luckily for wine marketers, we have just the cure for monotony.
New vintages, new vineyards, new wineries, new winemakers, and new experiences are a constant in our industry. The challenge is avoiding overwhelming our customers and focusing on the things that bring them value. This might take some testing and experimenting to see what resonates most with your audience.
Do they love trying new vintages when they’re released? Do they want to meet winemakers and get deeper experiences on the vineyard? Figure out how you can offer them new and exciting things to keep their interest piqued.
5.) Contribution
Appealing to our sense of altruism, this is the idea that deep down, we all have a desire to help others and support good intentions. Ok sure, not everyone has this desire. But some customers certainly do.
Think about the people who only buy organic or sustainable products. Or the movement for natural or low-impact wine. More and more, wine customers are demanding that their wines reflect their values.
So when your customers value giving back or protecting the land, it can help to find ways to highlight that in your service or product. Aligning yourself with those same values shows your customer how you’re helping them stay true to their ideals.
6.) Love and Connection
Hey, sometimes all you need is love. But taking that a step further, this is the idea that people naturally want to foster stronger feelings of closeness and community in their lives. How does wine fit into that?
Imagine there’s a bottle you’ve been saving for years and you share it with your family. Or think about bringing your closest friends to a favorite winery and showing them the time of their life. It doesn’t stop there, and in fact the ideas are limitless. And you may even already have a few ideas in your pocket that it’s time to pull out.
When we can dig deeper into where our customers’ minds are, it’s easier to connect with what they really want from us — and how we can serve them. It could be an exciting new vintage or a really cool experience, or something else entirely.
That’s my first step when I create custom messaging for a brand. Before jumping into your copy, I take a step back to strategize what your customer is really looking for and how you can help them meet that desire. It’s about going beneath the surface level and digging into the emotional layers.
If you’re interested in getting *eMoTiOnAl* with your messaging (lol) so that it has a bigger impact on engagement and sales, I’d love to learn more about your brand and see how I can help!