If you are a wine retailer, the words that you attach to products matter.

These are the words your staff says when suggesting wines (you are training them on what to say about certain wines, right?). These are the words that are on your hand written shelftalkers that show your endorsement of a product (which you put up every week, right? And YOU write them, not your sales reps, right?).

On one end of the spectrum are the words to appeal to the customers that are always looking for the next great thing. New, fresh, unknown, under the radar, limited, allocated, controversial, natural, secret.

On the other end of the spectrum are the words that appeal to the customers that want the safe and predictable. Reliable, consistent, tested, proven, industry leading, popular, everyone, guaranteed, highly rated.

Know who you are targeting before you utter or write a single word. Different wines, different purposes, different audiences.

Words do matter.