Why Offer Tastings

While offering free products to bring in more money may seem counterintuitive, complimentary tastings are a vital component of most winery operations. While offering free wine to visiting tasters, wineries can use the Passport to drive additional revenue and market to new customers.

Offering a small, initial tasting of 4-5 wines at no cost to Passport holders will entice new consumers and draw a crowd. Then, offer additional tastings for a fee. If guests enjoy the initial free tastings provided, they may choose to purchase an additional tasting, hors d'oeuvres, a branded wine glass, or a few bottles to take home.

Give your potential customers a taste of what they're missing. 48% more people will purchase something after they can sample it. This doesn't have to happen only at your winery, either. You can set up a pop-up shop in places where you might find eager wine customers, like farmer's markets or festivals.

The Proustian Moment

Whether it's a fresh spring breeze, your mother's perfume, or even the faint whiff of tobacco on a leather jacket, a "Proustian moment" is when a particular scent conjures up a specific experience, time, or place. Sensory marketing is a type of marketing that engages consumers' senses on an emotional level, and affects their perception, judgement and behaviour about the brand/product/service. Emotional bonding using sensory marketing has been widely used in the luxury goods industry to create long term brand loyalty that has moved far beyond merely 'wanting'. This is because other than utilitarian products consumers do not buy products or services only, but they buy experiences, and experiences are created using the senses.

Engaging the multi-sensory component of the wine-tasting experience allows sensory marketing to enhance the emotional part of flavor perception and tailor it into a memorable winery experience.