 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
We had been working for the importer, W. J. Deutsch and Sons, LTD. for about a year on various projects. They liked the work, named us agency of record and we began work on their flagship brand, Georges Duboeuf. Duboeuf is the number one French wine in America. The brand was built largely on the salesmanship and distribution savvy of Deutsch, with very little consumer ad support. The leading sku for years was Beaujolais Nouveau, which had built a reputation for being a fun, festive holiday wine.Sales had been flat in recent years. Our assignment was to revitalize the brand.
We faced a number of challenges. French wine as a whole was rapidly losing ground against 'new world' varietals, particularly those from California and Australia. French wines are perceived as overly complex and inconsistent, with incomprehensible labeling. France also suffers from an elitist image to the average American consumer.
We were also faced with the fact that the core wine consumers (baby boomers) were rapidly aging. We needed to reach out to a younger audience without alienating the core. And we had a very modest budget to work with.
Our first step (which is our first step on any assignment) was a strategic positioning statement. We did extensive research and discovered that although the typical core user for most other wine brands was in the 35-50 age range, the typical Georges Duboeuf user was skewed somewhat younger. This gave us the bridge we needed for a unified message that could reach both the core and the younger fringe.
We identified our key differentiating benefits; the leading French brand; leadership in Beaujolais (only available in France); recognizability of the flower labeling motif; consistent high quality; good value. The 'French' positioning was unique but had questionable marketing strengths as listed above. Leadership in Beaujolais was both unique and highly marketable.
The strategic solution was to lead with the Beaujolais products (Beaujolais Nouveau and Beaujolais Villages) and limit the 'French' references to associations with romance and sophistication. The flower motif was used heavily in the art direction on the television spots. We hired a world renowned cinematographer (Barry Mankowitz of Sling Blade and All the Pretty Horses), to bring it all to life.
We created three spots; one for Nouveau; one for Villages and one for general Georges Duboeuf brand building. The Nouveau and Villages spots use humor to cross over to the younger demo. The Georges Duboeuf spot is very romantic and seductive for the female skew. It concludes with the new positioning slogan: Georges Duboeuf...How the world speaks French.
The Nouveau spot aired last Fall and was a resounding hit in the limited New York metro test market. Sales were dramatically higher and distributors reported selling out their orders faster than any previous year. So far, the ad has won 16 national creative awards. The other two spots debut in Fall of 2001. Wešll keep you posted on the results.
