Alternative Pathways to Consumers
Innovative Ideas from the Land of Three Tier
Moderator: Brett deLeuze – President, ZD Wines
Panelist: Sara Schneider – Wine Editor, Sunset Magazine
Panelist: Dave Studdert – Managing Director, WineCountryConnect
Panelist: Elaine Honig – Founding Shoemmelier, Wine Women & Shoes
Panelist: Trent Moffett – Partner, Livingston Moffett Wines

Affinity programs that leverage magazines, and the internet, are creating new pathways for consumers to connect with your wines.

From the State's Perspective: Legislating, Regulating Direct Shipping
The Thin Gray Line: Direct to Consumer Legislation vs. State Liquor Control Regulation
Moderator: Steve Gross – Director of State Relations, Wine Institute
Panelist: Hobert Rupe – Executive Director, Nebraska Liquor Control Commission
Panelist: Representative Jeff Fitzgerald – Assembly Majority Leader Wisconsin

The direct-to-consumer marketing and sales of wine across state lines presents unique challenges to both regulators and legislators.  Steve Gross will moderate a panel including Hobert Rupe, Executive Director of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission, along with Representative Jeff Fitzgerald, the Assembly Majority Leader in Wisconsin, who was involved with passing DTC shipping legislation.  The panel will explore both the political implications of passing DTC legislation, and the regulatory challenges faced by states in trying to enforce state laws.

Enotourism: Food and Wine as Marketing Strategy
The Rise of Food and Wine as a Strategy For State DMO’s to Lure Travelers
Moderator: Brian A. Baker – Managing Partner, Cultivar Marketing
Panelist: Nancy Light – Director of Communications, Wine Institute
Panelist: Jim Trezise – President, New York Wine & Grape Foundation
Panelist: Ted Farthing – Executive Director, Oregon Wine Board

State tourism organizations are starting to understand the lure of food and wine in their destinations as driver of visitation. Oregon launched its Bounty program in early 2007, California Launches the Land of Wine And Food in February of 2008, and several other states, including North Dakota are planning or launching food and wine marketing initiatives in the coming year.

This trend has been driven by a body of research which supports the connection between travel and food and wine. Dining out is the most popular activity after a tourist arrives at a destination (NRA 2006). It is estimated that 17% of all California visitors are interested in or have visited a winery on their last trip. (CTTC 2007) TIA released a study in early 2007 detailing the characteristics of the Culinary Tourist. In 1999, the SFCVB and NFO research published the first ever study of the American Foodie; identifying the characteristics of a high spending traveler who seeks out specific destinations based on their food and wine assets.

This panel will feature Travel professionals who will share their vision on the strategy of using food and wine marketing as a means to attract visitors to their destinations.

Who’s Selling? Winery Benchmarking Study
From the Winery Perspective: Strategies and Practices To Grow Your Direct Sales Business
Speaker: Lesley Berglund – Co-founder, WISE Academy

This session will share the findings of a recent winery survey which tracks the adoption, successes and challenges of all aspects of winery DTC programs.  Strategies and lessons will be detailed from the following:

• Programs: What kinds of programs are working in each channel including tasting room, e-commerce and wine club
• Best Practices in CRM and customer service
• Infrastructure: What’s the best way to build the structure of your direct to consumer program- from internal systems to outsourcing management
• People: How to create effective DTC organizations focusing on your people. Best practices in hiring, training, managing & leading

Litigation Landscape: Coalition For Free Trade Litigation Update
Speaker: Tracy Genesen
Legal Director, Coalition for Free Trade
Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP

First Breakout Sessions:

Start Up Start Over:  Lessons from the Trenches
Lessons from the Winery Trenches

Moderator: Dennis Cakebread – Senior V.P. of Sales & Marketing, Cakebread Cellars
Panelist: Greg Ralston – General Manger, Chateau Montelena
Panelist: Donn Reisen

The panel will feature Direct To Consumer veterans with very successful programs of selling wine direct.  They will discuss their advice for wineries starting up new programs, what they would do if they were starting over and share their practical insights.  A great chance to hear and ask questions of some industry pro’s with strong programs.

The Down and Dirty of Compliance
What you need to know to stay on the right side of the law--When you start sending your wines out to play

Moderator: Mack Schwing – Co-founder, WISE Academy
Panelist: Matthew Botting – Councel, California ABC
Panelist: Jeff Carroll – VP Compliance & Senior Product Manager, Six88Solutions
Panelist: Ed Gomez – Proprietor, Russian Hill Estate

Whether you are shipping wine to customers across the country or donating to auction in your own backyard, you must stay up to date on the ever changing landscape of direct shipping regulations and rules which govern off-site marketing activities.

Do you know the current regulations in the 35 states that are reciprocal or have limited shipping? Do you know how to legally reach the 15 states that currently prohibit direct shipping? Are you aware of the permits required to donate wine to a non-profit and the liability that you have if they don’t get the right permit?

Whether  you are actively involved in direct to consumer shipping and are aware of the patchwork quilt of regulations that have to be negotiated, or planning to start shipping direct to consumer, this session will give you the “down and dirty” to help you stay on the right side of the law.

The session will also provide an insight into the regulations governing off-site marketing opportunities. From auctions to Food and Wine Festivals to supporting the owner’s favorite charity, these events can be a very good way to bring the wine to the people. But did you know that when your wine is poured on-premise by a non-profit association   the non-profit must have an ABC one day permit? Did you also know that the hotel must “suspend” its liquor license in that space during the event?

This session will discuss the most common violations and teach you the “Top 10 Compliance Basics”, you need to know when you send your wine “out to play”

Telemarketing: Next Steps in Customer Sales and Service
Please Phone Home! Using Telemarketing For Customer Service and Profits

Moderator: Brian A. Baker – Managing Partner, Cultivar Marketing
Panelist: Pamela Hiett – Regional Direct Sales Manager, Jackson Family Wines
Panelist: Mark Parton – Founder, Managing Director, Call For Wine, Inc.
Panelist: Abdi Humphries – Director of Sales, Vinfolio

As the internet becomes more and more a part of our winery direct sales efforts it’s easy to forget the personal touch that can be applied with a good old fashioned phone call. Whether you use the phone for customer service or increasing your sales, the phone is still considered to be the most effective way to connect with a customer outside of your tasting room.

You may already be doing basic customer service over the phone, but did you realize that telemarketing can be an effective weapon in your marketing arsenal? Telemarketing can be twice as effective in generating sales as traditional snail mail, and three times more effective than e-mail

The panel discussion will explore both customer service and telemarketing opportunities that you can increase your CRM skills and your bottom line.

Telemarketing professionals from inside and outside the industry will review their experiences managing telemarketing call centers which were focused on both customer service and sales.

This panel will help you discover how telemarketing can become an effective resource for your direct sales business.

Second Breakout Sessions:

Town Hall: Building Your Consumer Mailing List
An Open Discussion of Strategies for Building and Managing your Mailing List

Moderator: Alicia Kelley Raymond – Co-founder, Earth & Ethos Marketing
Panelist: Tanya Hansel – Founder & President, Hansel Group Marketing and Circulation Management
Panelist: Nathan McDonald – Direct Marketing & Sales Consultant, Quad Direct, a specialized division of Quad Graphics & Printing
Panelist: Bryan St Armant – Founder & CEO, Vinteractive Marketing
Panelist: Kathie Barclay – Account Supervisor, Benson Marketing Group

Considered one of the pillars of a strong direct sales program, building, managing and properly utilizing your customer database is critical to keeping your consumer direct program growing and profitable.

From strategies on managing your house file in order to increase sales and loyalty, to finding and utilizing prospect lists to acquire new customers, this unique town hall format will give you the chance to dialogue with your peers and to gain a better understanding of this crucial piece of your direct sales business.

When is it important to use direct mail versus email? What does it cost to purchase or rent a prospect list? What are some proven strategies for database management and usage? What are the differences between restrictions for mail versus email lists?

The discussion will be driven by your questions, with a focus on list acquisition, trading, buying and renting, sales and marketing metrics, average costs for list rentals and direct mail, ideas for alternative list sourcing and even guidelines for keeping your data safe.

Participants who register for this seminar are asked to submit questions in advance.

State of the States: The Legislative Landscape
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A Roundup of Current and Pending State DTC Legislative Stampedes

Moderator: Steve Gross – Director of State Relations, Wine Institute

Steve Gross will provide a round-up of current legislative and regulatory actions related to DTC shipping across the country.  The session will include insights into what wineries can expect as state legislatures grapple with the fall-out from various litigation efforts, the emergence of capacity-cap provisions, the transition away from reciprocity laws and other hot topics.

Climbing beyond 5K: Taking Your Wine Club to the Next Level
What are the challenges and opportunities when your Wine club membership exceeds the 5,000 mark

Moderator: Bob Kelso – V.P. Consumer Sales & Hospitality, Cline Cellars/Jacuzzi Family Vineyards
Panelist: Juli Barron – E-commerce & Private Cellar Manager, Domaine Chandon & Newton Vineyard
Panelist: Matt Wood – Vice President Retail Operations, ICON Estates

Wine clubs are the foundation of Winery loyalty programs and have been in existence since the mid-1970’s. Pioneered by Navarro Vineyards and Chateau Montelena, wine clubs are important tools for a winery direct sales effort which create opportunities to build tasting room prospects into brand advocates.

It is estimated there are more than 1000 wine clubs today in the U.S. More than half have 500 members or less; only 5% have more than 5,000 members.

Wine clubs thrive on providing access and privilege to their members by providing these benefits, wineries can retain lucrative customers; growing clubs mean cash flow and high net profit margins.

What does it take to climb the summit and take your wine club to the next level? Our panel of experts will share with you their experiences focusing on the details of providing service levels that support large club bases as well as strategies for retention, reducing churn and maintaining club member loyalty and managing basic product inventory.