The SVB Direct to Consumer Survey Closes Tonight, Monday, March 24th.

 

The SVB DTC Survey Closes tonight. Twenty minutes of effort in exchange for great information and benchmarks that only go to respondents.

Change in the wine business has come quickly. There is so much to do that you might wish you had extra limbs to complete everything. But rather than sprouting new legs, working smarter might be the more realistic approach, which brings me to the point:

The grandaddy of all DTC surveys, the Annual SVB Direct to Consumer Survey will close on Monday, March 24th, and I need 20 minutes of your time this weekend to contribute your winery's data, and your opinions. 

Do you need a success guide?

The Annual SVB Direct to Consumer Survey continues to be open through March 24th, and I need your help with contributing your own data. Only participants will get a success guide... And now you're asking, 'What is a success guide?'

What most wineries want today are answers. What should wineries do to get through this period? 

In this year's survey, we are collecting the solutions wineries are using to counter the headwinds. When finished, we will collate those thoughts into a file, and give those anonymized solutions only to participants. That's a success guide. 

Think of the success guide as a checklist or a muse. If you are searching for answers, you might get help from hearing what others are trying. 

What information will respondents get back in the guide? A very short topical list will include strategies that might fall into categories like:

Enhancing Wine Quality and Experience
Operational changes
Cost management
Supplier contracts
Inventory management
Marketing and engagement
Expansion and Distribution
Customer retention
Access to Capital
Navigating challenges

Respondents also will receive the full set of slides from which you can benchmark your operations. Neither of these two files will be released to the public.

Here are the [survey questions], and here is the [link to the survey]

Where Is the DTC business headed?

 

The answer to the blog title is the point of the Annual SVB Direct to Consumer Videocast, which is taking place this coming Wednesday, June 15th. 

You can sign up to receive the SVB DtC Report, receive a link to the live presentation, and a post-conference link to the videocast replay ----> [HERE.] 

Internet Sales are dramatically higher, but how do we know?

 

Selling Wine in a Pandemic

What an insane past few years! But doesn't it feel wonderful to be moving into spring and at the same time into the endemic phase of this crisis? With fewer mask mandates now, maybe we'll be able to smell the spring flowers! But before we linger too long on the warmer days ahead, we still have some work to do. So let me take you back to the start of this crisis in 2020 when the COVID case numbers began picking up. 

At that point in time, I wrote a piece called Selling Wine in a Pandemic which is one the most-read pieces I've posted. I wrote it on March 15th, 2020 - a date that is etched in my mind and probably yours if you live in California. 

If you don't recall, that was the date Governor Newsom first issued the shelter-in-place orders and closed tasting rooms, restaurants and bars. I finished writing that blog on March 15th in the morning, but by late afternoon, I had to go back and update it when news of the lock-downs came out.