Wine and spirits is a crowded industry where it can be hard to make an impact or get noticed. Sometimes the stars align and a product can succeed based solely on its own merit. But similar to businesses in other industries, sometimes wine and spirits companies need a hook to get customers to try their product.
There are a number of ways companies can do that. Some rely on star power, some with unique marketing techniques. Some combine both aspects. Here are a couple of ways companies have gotten themselves noticed in the wine and spirits industry, and how data can play a role in the process as well.
If you build it
Most baseball fans are familiar with the cornfield in Iowa where the movie Field of Dreams took place. Field of Dreams Whiskey took corn from that site and used it to create whiskey. The whiskey company is owned by a collective of current and former Major League Baseball players, and if that wasn’t enough attention-grabbing enough, they have other ways of enticing baseball fans.
Each bottle of Field of Dreams’ small batch bourbon contains a collectible wooden topper that features the image of a baseball legend. Its player series bourbon is released annually, with only 23,370 bottles available in 2025. That number corresponds to the number of players that have made it to the major leagues. Each bottle is hand-labeled with a number, and customers can enter their number into the company’s bottle lookup page to see which player their number represents.
AR experiences
For a growing number of companies, augmented reality (AR) is a draw. 19 Crimes Wine features not only corks that feature each of the 19 crimes for which British citizens could be sentenced to “Punishment by Transportation” – being sent to live in Australia – but also an AR experience. By scanning the QR code on a bottle of 19 Crimes wine, the label can come to life to tell the story of the convict.
For Jack Daniel’s, the AR is a little more traditional. By scanning a bottle of whiskey with your phone you can be brought to three different experiences: information about the founder, Jack Daniel, the whiskey-making process, or information about the distillery.
Storytelling and data
The approaches might be different, but all companies are trying to do through these extra amenities is tell their story. That’s what makes each organization unique and how it can get customers to relate. There is strategy involved in these approaches. The successful companies are using analytics to figure out how to target their desired audience and what they need to do to maintain those customers.
Data is a way of telling a story as well. Every company has numbers. What sets companies apart is how they use those numbers to create narratives. The best analytics solutions can help, turning data into actionable information. Executives can then use those reports to make decisions that help an organization – whether that’s the best AR experience the company can offer its customers or any other marketing ideas that can draw new customers into the already-existing experiences.
There are countless creative approaches companies can take to try to set themselves apart. For some beverages, you can scan the label and be given recipes for drink mixes, for others there are apps that give all kinds of extra information about the product. Every bit of creative marketing can help. What really makes a difference, though, is combining these efforts with data. By also using a flexible analytics solution that can continually adjust to a changing industry, companies can always ensure they are doing everything possible to see that their outreach finds the appropriate audience.
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