Why your audience doesn't care about vineyards in New Zealand (sorry).
The Art & Science of Memorability
"Not everyone cares about a vineyard in New Zealand. I know some of us do. But lots of consumers don't."
Vicky Wood said that at our Lock-In webinar a couple of weeks ago. She's the person you'd least expect to say it, with 30 years in wine and a career built partly on caring about vineyards, running brand and insights at Kingsland Drinks.
Here's the bit that should worry you.
Even the people who do care about the vineyard don't care about it first. Their first thought about a wine is what they want to use it for — the taste, the occasion, the mood, the moment. The vineyard comes into their head, if at all, somewhere after that.
The mismatch between how drinks marketing is written and how drinks are actually chosen is the biggest single memorability leak in the category. The brief begins in Marlborough. The drinker begins on the sofa on a Wednesday night, after a long day, wanting something that takes the edge off. Marlborough doesn't do that job. A Sauvignon that speaks to the moment does.
It isn't just wine either.
Whiskey brands lead with the founder from another century. Their drinker isn't thinking about him on a Friday night with mates catching up for the first time in six months. Gin brands go big on a Cornish botanical their drinker won't remember the name of once they're at a hen do, laughing. Low-and-no brands lean on health and goodness while their drinker is trying to survive Dry January without missing the pub.
Every one of those brands is leading with the origin story. Every one of those drinkers is somewhere else in their head.
Here's why it matters, because this is where memorability actually comes in. Recognition drives recall. When a drinker's brain sees something in your marketing that maps onto something in their life, they remember your brand when that thing in their life comes round again. Wednesday night in a kitchen shows up in your work. Next Wednesday night in their kitchen, your brand shows up in their head.
Show them a slope in Marlborough, and the only person who recognises anything is the person who owns the vineyard.
The question for your next brief isn't "how do we tell the origin story better?" It's "what moment does our drinker actually reach for us in, and how do we get that moment onto the shelf?"
Your vineyard is a fact about you. Your drinker's Wednesday night is a fact about them. Only one of them earns your brand a place in memory.
Want to know how to bring more of your drinker into your next brief? The Behaviours Agency's free Brand Memorability Hacks playbook is a good place to start. Link below.
