The Wine Inspector
UK Drinks Market – Strategic Marketing & Communication
Taking your brand to market
How do you create a market for wine in the competitive UK drinks scene?
How best to utilise your company’s resources, money, time and effort?
Who can put your business, brand and opportunities into a holistic context that gives it the best chance of success?
The Wine Inspector uses senior experience, and a wider view of the world to ensure that Return On Investment is the true focus of our relationship. We expect to ask tough questions and develop challenging solutions, always with the objective in sight.
The Wine Inspector has a ‘Go To Market’ strategy
with extensive experience in buying, selling, supply chain, distribution and brand creation Alistair puts focus and energy into your business development ‘Go To Market’ strategy.
Producer to Retailer
There are always innovations that change and develop consumer trends and consumer behaviour.
Opportunities rarely come to us as immediately obvious. It often takes introductions to the right people and insights into the right places in order for the opportunities to be captured.
A consummate networker, with 30 years trading experience in the UK market, Alistair shares an extensive network of trading partners, information providers and market insights.
In many ways the UK is the centre of the world’s wine trade where knowledge and insight come together with commerce.
So let’s talk and see how we can construct a path that leads to profitable, sustainable distribution with those extras that make it a worthwhile investment.
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Market Making – Changing The Perception of Cider
Cider has a generally low value reputation in the UK, and most other parts of the world. So how do you change that? Cider Is Wine has identified a new drinks category worth £150M and developed key activities to fulfil that revenue. Set up by The Wine Inspector as a distinct project to address this issue emanating from work with Brännland Ciders, Cider Is Wine through wine industry experience recognises that one brand can’t do it on its own – the market is too fractious. If cider is to change its perception, it has to offer a clear category choice of quality and has to do that through many producers not just one. Cider Is Wine is a consumer facing brand which describes a category that is recognised by a clear, trademarked logo.
Cider Is Wine is a not-for-profit producers alliance – transparent in its motivation – launched at the end of 2018, whose objective is to create a new global drinks category for ciders and perries made from 100% juice – never-from-concentrate – beginning in the UK.
We recognise the consumers, trade, press and producers stakeholders in this innovative development and it’s working. In 2019 the London Wine Fair Cider Is Wine brought 9 producers from 7 countries together and had nearly 400 visitors; Imbibe leading UK hospitality trade show 100 visitors; The Wine Gang, published in most trade magazines and national consumer publications. We are now on the road to establishing concrete distribution for our far flung and UK producers, each having their own individual styles, yet striving for better quality ciders to be recognised and enjoyed. Result!
Case Study 1
Take a little known product to the UK market and make it known, creating supply chain routes and activating its marketing.
Brannland IsCider now has established routes into the market, increased awareness and has its whole range selling in the UK market.
Case Study 2
Develop a rich and textured story for a family owned Prosecco brand, which represents their heritage, quality and is competitive in the market.
Colucci’s Prosecco has a unique food & wine matching strategy, The Perfect Serve designed to engage with new consumers around experience and value added, connecting to some of the most powerful in the industry.
Case Study 3
Explore the opportunities to develop an established UK importer into new channels and raise its profile.
TWI developed strategies which introduced Condor Wines’ proposition to leading major retail operators, previously beyond its horizons. Through this activity they were able to assess what the market and their suppliers capabilities were, whilst maintaining double digit growth for 5 years.