A marketing plan is important for any business looking to identify its target market, determine the value proposition of its products, what campaigns it should start, and how to assess the effectiveness of its strategy.
Lieb Cellars (and its spinoff brand, Bridge Lane Wine) began developing its current marketing plan about nine years ago when its General Manager Ami Opisso came on board.
The winery began producing wine under its flagship label in 1992, and opened its first tasting room in 2000, but Bridge Lane has a different image and a different audience.
“With one brand following the other, it was important to us to determine the differences between the two and make sure that those differences were clear to our customers,” Marketing Manager Alice Falcone said.
Because Lieb Cellars was previously a family-owned company, and is now owned by a group of investors, it was necessary for it to change the narrative it presented to its customers. Over the years, Lieb Cellars has developed an overall outline of guidelines and goals that can be expanded on and added to in order to suit the upcoming season.
“It is still often assumed in our region that the person behind the bar at a tasting room is either the owner, the winemaker’s daughter, or some relative of the family behind the winery,” Falcone explained. “And while that is not the case at our winery, we do our best to convey to guests that we still take the same pride in our work as we would if we were family.”
Falcone said they strive to have an active presence on both social media accounts, which includes posting 3-4 times weekly, responding to comments and direct messages, and reposting customer content.
“We also do our best to include our special events and any newsworthy updates in our local publications,” Falcone added.
COVID-19 has required tweaks to the marketing plan, but not a complete overhaul.
“We did begin to focus on key components of our story that we felt would be more suitable for the current climate,” Falcone said. “For our Lieb Cellars brand, we focused on conveying a sense of place and making our guests feel welcome at our tasting room. For our Bridge Lane Wine brand, which is packaged in four formats (bottle, box, can, and keg), we want to focus on reminding customers that our wine can be enjoyed casually, with friends or in the backyard, no matter the occasion.”
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