Power in Location: New Angelsmith Survey Published on How Consumers Choose Winery Tasting Experiences

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Dec 21, 2017, 19:15 ET

RICHMOND, Calif., Dec. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A new consumer survey reveals how affluent Americans across the United States choose wine tasting room experiences. With hundreds of tasting rooms and wineries in every state, consumers have an overabundance of choices and the wineries must compete more effectively to earn a shrinking share of visitor traffic.

This survey comes on the heels of the recent North Bay fires when tourism and visitation is at an all-time low in Napa and Sonoma and wine regions across the country have more opportunity to increase their tourism than ever before. The goal of the survey, conducted by digital marketing agency Angelsmith Inc., was to better understand how consumers choose new winery tasting experiences and the ecosystem surrounding those decisions.

Location, Location

According to our survey respondents, they ranked location as both the first (37.7%) and the second (31.62%) most important consideration when looking for a new winery tasting experience. This data indicates they already know which region, AVA or general area they are going to visit, and they are looking for wineries in those pre-determined spots. This may indicate that organizations such as area-specific vintners groups and associations can have a meaningful impact on consumers' decisions about which area to visit.

Limited But Diverse Opportunity to Earn Visits

The majority of our survey respondents (70%) reported that they consider five or fewer wineries, with the bulk of those (38%) considering between 3-5. Wineries only have a brief opportunity to set themselves apart from the competition and grab consumers' attention. But consumers research winery tasting room options across multiple channels including social media, search, wine country-specific websites and others. This provides a more diverse playing field and additional opportunities for wineries to Intercept & Influence™ consumers along their path to purchase. But it also increases the necessary marketing know-how for wineries to master in order to have a meaningful impact on their tasting room traffic.

Social Media Reigns Supreme For Awareness

The largest percentage of survey respondents (41%) ranked social media as the place where they first learn about a new winery tasting experience. Additionally, nearly 6 out of 10 (56%) survey respondents reported that when they see information about an unfamiliar wine tasting experience in their social media newsfeed, they are "likely" or "very likely" to click on the post to get more information.

Overwhelmingly, more than 67% of respondents reported checking consumer review sites when they begin searching for new winery tasting experiences. These reviews play a key role early on in the decision-making process and are used to veto wineries that a consumer is considering. Another item that disqualified wineries was the inability to find information.

"Some of the wine survey results surprised us, but others confirmed long-held beliefs we've had as marketers," said Carin Oliver, CEO of Angelsmith Inc. "The key takeaway for wineries is that consumers are looking for great winery experiences and wineries have an opportunity to intercept and influence consumers among many points on their path to purchase."

Consumers take a journey of complex steps and apply various levels of importance to a variety of channels when they are in different phases in their decision-making process. Other key takeaways of the survey include:

Location is decided first before any wineries are considered
The experience a winery offers is key, the wine varietal itself is secondary
Price is less of a factor than expected
Overwhelmingly, consumers want unstructured, public experiences vs. private events

Click here to view the full survey report.

The survey was administered to more than 1,200 affluent Americans who self-describe as wine and food aficionados. They are geographically diverse and all participants visited a winery within the past 12 months.

For more information on the survey results or other digital marketing inquiries, please contact Carin Oliver at 415-228-0850 ext. 796 or email [email protected].

About Angelsmith Inc.

Angelsmith Inc. is a San Francisco area-based, award-winning digital marketing agency that invests substantial resources to better understand consumers' path to purchase in wine, beer, restaurants, retail, healthy CPG and fitness. Angelsmith's Intercept & Influence™ Digital Marketing Success System has helped clients such as The Hess Collection, Rodney Strong Wine Estates, Gloria Ferrer Caves & Vineyards, Club Pilates, Kite Hill Foods and others to cost-effectively increase sales through digital marketing. We offer a full suite of services including digital advertising, SEO & SEM, website development, social media marketing, consumer insights and email marketing. Our brand experience includes Fortune 500 mega brands and mid-sized companies in wine, beer, restaurants, entertainment, retail, travel and technology.

SOURCE Angelsmith Inc.