The Berger Project

It’s been busy, so here is a quick look at some things I have been reading:

• Where does Google Go Next (Fortune)
• The Shape of Things To Come (WSJ)
• What Do You Know (Seth Godin)

I’ll add more as I land on interesting things…

These are three great viral videos. Can you guess who sponsored each one? Do you think they result in sales?

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While we are on the topic of wine , I also thought that this (WineSide ) is a great way to sample various bottles, without having to go to a tasting or spend $$$$ on a whole bottle to decidie if you like it.

I am sure there are other industries that could reinvent the way they get consumers to try their products. It just means breaking category rules and pushing the envelope.

I would bet money that most of you couldn’t not tell me the brand name and type of your top three favorite wines, let alone even one. Why not? You could name your favorite cookie, car, beer, etc. (unless you are indecisive — but that is a different issue).

The problem with wine is that there are just so many brands and varieties from all over the world. Then you factor in the year the wine is from and the fact that you ordered it at a restaurant from a last over over 200 bottles and the chances of remembering are slim to none.

So if you are a wine seller how do you breakthrough? There seems to be two standard solutions and one really interesting idea.

1. Advertising – Major wine brands like Yellow Tail and Gallo wines have huge marketing budgets.
2. Turn the market on its head - Why sell wine based on some funny variety names, why not send it as people drink it…with food. "Wine that loves " did just that.
3. Give people something to remember – Tons of people collect corks, but as far as I can tell they don’t really tell you what bottle (brand, type and year) you just drank. So the first option may me to brand the corks, but why not give people something a little more useful to take home with them. Like a place they can get all the information they would need to find the bottle again — the label. That is what Oxford Landing did with their label. Just peel it off and take it home, now that is how your create loyalty.

Now don’t you wish you thought of that last one?