If you do what you did yesterday, you’re doing okay, right?

If you buy the brands you have found and like, and they do their job, you’re okay, right?

Most people are satisfied with most things, and this applies to wine. Most people buy what they know and are comfortable with. Most people want things to stay the same.

But some are different. Some want the new experience. The new arrival. The unknown until now wine.

Identifying the people that are different, the people that want New and Unknown, is an important exercise.

Ideas:

• A wine retailer can create a segment of their customer email list for people to opt into. Call it the “unknown and awesome” list, to directly communicate with customers that are predisposed to the New and Unknown. Email them religiously every week, with a list of what is new and why you brought it in (very important to explain the “why”).
• A restaurant can do the same thing, expect even better. Have new menu nights. Have a secret verbal code to get the special truffle mac and cheese that nobody else knows about. Have new cocktail night. Have new wine night. Drive business on off evenings by embracing the customers that want something new and different. Find them, then give them what they want. Make a pop-up restaurant inside of your existing restaurant.
• A wholesaler needs to know the market drivers of New and Unknown. They need to figure out those six, ten, fifty, accounts that not only drive the energy of this category, but seek it out more than others. They also need to realize that New and Unknown is how their smaller competition is getting their foot in the door all over town. It’s an easy sales pitch: “You’ve never heard of me but in this bag I’ve got something new that you don’t know about yet and a segment of your customers will want.” As established wholesaler needs to know their strategy to counter that pitch.

There is nothing wrong with being satisfied with most things. But as wine marketers and salespeople, if you find customers that are different and then embrace them and give them the New and Unknown, you can build something exceptional.