http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2022/01/144-total-wine-post-card.html
#144
Blog Post – Wednesday, January 19, 2022
Posted by Denny Hatch
About Postcards… and Introducing
Truly Amazing New Print Technology!
We received the above 6"x9" postcard from Total Wine—our mega wine & booze emporium across the bridge in New Jersey. It took me a minute to figure the thing out.
Then I realized the three bottles of wine at top left were Peggy’s and my regular purchases.
Detail at right: Peggy’s beloved Anakena ($9.99). In the middle is the red Prototype Zinfandel ($8.99) that I grabbed once because of the cool racing car on the label. We liked it and buy it regularly when we have red meat and guests. The third bottle at left we tried and preferred the racing car brand.
Amazing Personalization!
In 60 years of marketing, this is the some of the most sophisticated photographic and data-management technology I have ever seen—a one-off photo of 3 wines on a color postcard personalized for me!
This means if the promotional postcard went to 100,000 customers, every postcard had a unique four-color photograph of 3 purchases by the individual buyer. Ergo, 100,000 different postcards.
The Non-Sequitur...
Consider the headline: If You Like These…
You’ll Love These…
No… I emphatically won’t “love these”!
For starters Total Wine is comparing the three wines we bought (at top left) to a vodka, a tequila and a wine (at the bottom). This ain’t apples to apples.
Yeah, I regularly buy upmarket vodka from Total Wine—French Grey Goose ($39.09). I’ve never heard of the vodka they are touting—STARR BLU ($16.99). Sure, as a pensioner I would be interested in finding a down-market (cheaper) vodka akin to Grey Goose in terms of taste and kick. But Total Wine provides no copy… no testimonial… no description of STARR BLU. C’mon Total Wine guys & dolls, convince me to try STARR BLU. I’m game.
Alas, on a postcard, there is no room for lengthy product information or convincing.
The bottle in the middle is El Padrino Tequila ($28.99). We have never bought or served tequila in our lives—not at home… not in a bar or restaurant, not on one of our Viking cruises. (One of the reasons we like Viking is “No Children, No Casino, No Umbrella Drinks.”)
Nowhere on the front or back of this postcard is there any descriptive copy on the contents of the nine bottles shown.
The Reverse Side of the Total Wine Postcard
The offer on the coupon above
$15 OFF EVERY $100 Wine
Save $15 on EVERY $100 of 759ml
and 1.5L Winery Direct* Wines.
The 15% saving applies to “Winery Direct Wines.” So why are they showing me photos of Vodka and Tequila?
I sure as hell am not going to try a strange vodka based only on a photo of the bottle with no copy, no pedigree, no reviews, no testimonials, no huge price discount.
Simply using eye-popping, razzle-dazzle technology and then showing me three totally unfamiliar bottles will NOT change my behavior.
Here's the Postcard I would Have Sent.
All About Total Wine & More.
It's Huge. From the Website...
Total Wine & More is America's Wine Superstore® — the country‘s largest independent retailer of fine wine. We started in 1991 when brothers David and Robert Trone opened a small store in Delaware. Today, we operate 221 superstores across 27 states and continue to grow. . . Our typical store carries more than 8,000 different wines from every wine-producing region in the world. The typical Total Wine & More also carries more than 2,500 beers, from America‘s most popular brands to hard-to-find microbrews and imports, and more than 3,000 different spirits in every style and price range.
We're also committed to having the lowest prices on wine, spirits and
beer every day. Our tremendous buying power and special relationships with
producers, importers and wholesalers bring us considerable savings, which we
pass on to our customers.It's our Team Members who make the Total Wine & More shopping experience so special. Total Wine & More employs more than 4,000 dedicated men and women, including 600 wine service team members and 50 of our most knowledgeable wine experts, the Total Wine Professionals. All of our wine team members participate in extensive training programs, weekly team wine tastings and monthly wine-producer seminars. Many travel to winemaking regions to meet our producers and learn about their wines firsthand. —TW&M Website Copy
Takeaways to Consider
• The two-sided postcard is a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am announcement of an immediately obvious product or service and a super simple offer that requires an instant yes/no decision.
• In the 30 years I ran the WHO’S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service (and having pawed over hundreds of thousands of mailings) I can recall only one product that used a double postcard for the launch announcement: VERMONT magazine in the fall of 1989.
The title was obvious. It went only to Vermont residents and businesses (and maybe—if the list was available—former Vermonters that had moved out-of-state).
Launch offer on the postcard: Send for the premier issue Free. (A collector's copy!) Send no money now. No risk. No obligation. Half-price Introductory Offer. If after seeing the first issue you decide VERMONT is not for you, simply write “cancel” on the bill and return it in the postage paid envelope. You owe nothing. Keep the first issue as a free gift.
• Instant recognition. VERMONT for Vermonters. Send no money now. Detach the reply card and drop it in the mail. Quick. Easy peasy.
• Postcards are a wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am sales opportunity.
• “Of all practical advertising media, only direct mail offers a sufficiently large canvas for telling a complete story.” —Bill Jayme
• The classic direct mail package includes an intriguing Outside Envelope [Bill Jayme called the OSE "The hotpants on the hooker"], Letter, Circular or Brochure, Order Form and business reply envelope plus such extra goodies as little gifts freemiums) that turn it into a lumpy, attention-getter that stands out from the rest of the mail.
• Compare this to the Total Wine Offer. "If you like these.... You'll Love These."
• IMO: Here's a case of a marketing guy at Total Wine— dazzled by the combination of personal data with personal photography of some hotshot young techie—who assumed the wines pictured would sell themselves.
• "Successful Direct Marketing/Direct Mail copy is one writer whispering into the ear of one reader and quietly bringing him/her into your fold." —Harry Walsh
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Word count: 1036
Fascinating, Denny . . . as usual!
ReplyDeleteThanks for taking the time to comment, Ben.
DeleteYeah, this was fun.
Cheers.
Denny - Not sure I'd call digital print postcards amazing; for most of our clients they don't pull as well as a regular OE package personalized only with text.
ReplyDeleteThey do work for realtors to display home photos - along with a beauty shot of the [usually blonde!] real estate agent.
I agree that Total Wine, like most big box stores, doesn't use personalization effectively. For example, Total could have made the offer: "Save 15% on a case of your favorite wine," thus upselling you to a larger quantity.
Or they could use it to upsell you to a higher-ticket wine with similar characteristics to your favorites. But that would require deeper, smarter data, which is usually the limiting factor in personalization.
Peter,
DeleteGreat hearing from you. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
What fascinated me was going to all the trouble to personalize the wine photos—telling me they are so tech-smart in matching wine photos to me (us). They are showing off how smart they are. There was no benefit—or new information—for me. In short, a waste.
Do keep in touch.
Long-time subscriber David L. Amkraut gave me the okay to share his email with readers in this Comment section.
ReplyDeleteWed, Jan 19 at 1:00 PM
Denny,
I agree with you that this mailer could have done so much more with their database and ability to personalize. But one other thing struck me too. Maybe, just maybe, the customer would prefer not sharing with the postal delivery person or others who happen to see it, the fact that he regularly buys liquor. (Even if it is only wine). Young people, particularly, seem oblivious to privacy issues. I’ve received similar annoying postcards surprisingly often. E.g., stating the value of my house; referring to my ownership of rental property and an industrial building; referring to the type of law I practice; referring to health care offers for a sick relative, referring to [nonexistent or long-resolved] tax problems, offers to save me from threatened foreclosure, and much more.
Years ago, I went to a seminar by the late E Mayer, author of “How to Make More Money With your Direct Mail.” He praised judicious personalization, but quoted from a letter that began, “Ed, you and your wife Amy…” (I can’t remember the wife’s name, but the mailer used her given name.) Ed thought that was offensively familiar, and I agreed…
Anyhow, they could have done so much to personalize. How about suggesting wines that match the ones you buy, in price and type? Or in type, and an upsell in price? Or…? Or maybe postcards are inappropriate for an offer like this?
Regards,
Your faithful reader, David Amkraut
Granted, it was 15 years ago and I'm sure HIPAA regulations have regulated such issues now, but I can recall receiving the results of a medical procedure I had done delivered to me via a postcard. Needless to say, I've never used that healthcare provider since.
DeleteDear American Observer,
ReplyDeleteThank you for writing… and for reminding readers what this grizzled direct marketing veteran of a basic rule long etched into my DNA: always be sure personal information is sent and/or received in a sealed envelope.
Do keep in touch!
John Vinokur gave me the green light to share with readers the content of this email to me in the Comment Section:
ReplyDeleteHi, Denny,
Interesting article!
Leaving aside for the moment the effectiveness - or lack of same - of the marketing possibilities for this kind of postcard mailing, the technology needed to accomplish this printing customization is really bno ig deal. The software to match up photos with customer IDs in a relational database and then print in a particular format has existed for at least a decade or two - and probably the only reason why you've never seen anything exactly like this before, is that no one ever thought of asking a programmer to make it happen before! To summarize ... it's a fairly interesting printing application - but it's not rocket science, nor dazzle-dazzle!
Best,
John Vinokur
Hey, John….
DeleteMany thanks for taking the time to comment on this postcard blog post.
I guess I did not make my case clearly. Okay, although I am not a tech person, I’ll take your word for it that the technology is “no big deal.” IMO what happened here is the Total Wine folks glommed onto the idea of not using personalization in headlines and copy, but rather with individual 4-color photos of 3 wines each customer bought. That’s the technical side of this thing. The next challenge is: how d’ya translate that into sales? Quite simply what’s needed is a direct marketing/direct mail copywriter to come up with an irresistible offer.
Remember Professor Ed Mayer’s dictum: “The ratio for success in direct mail is 40% offer, 40% list and 20% everything else.” In this case, Total Wine has the list (40%). So far so good. Now… where and what is the offer (40%)? Where and what is everything else (20%)? In the immortal words of Grolier Enterprises magnate Elsworth Howell: “Always make it easy to order.” What is the recipient being asked to order? And how to order? In short, “a fairly interesting printing application” does not—by itself—generate revenue. The consumer must be (1) persuaded to buy something… and (2) guided every step of the way.
In other words, “There’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip.” — Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621-1651).
Anyhoo, thank you for stirring the pot. I love it!
Do keep in touch!
Great blog Denny. So many unforced errors with this postcard, when they really could have driven an impressive ROI with their customer base. Your blog was passed along to me by a colleague, as we've put together a working POC that includes omni channel personalization for Total Wine. It's always a challenge to balance personalization with privacy, but we pride ourselves on keeping things above board while making customers feel special and valued. Keep up the good work Denny!
ReplyDeleteHey John,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for taking the time to comment. Am embarrassed by the delay in replying—cataract surgery. (All’s okay; I can see sans glasses for the first time in 80 years!)
The whole privacy thing has me nuts. In the case of Total Wine, it’s benign. They know what we bought and are reminding us of it. Rather clumsily, but no harm done if the world knows we are not wine afficionados.
My first brush with privacy was many years ago when I wrote:
Once upon a time, if a marketer wanted to make an offer, a mailing was created and a list was rented. In the 1960s, legendary freelance copywriter Ed McLean was hired to write a direct mail subscription letter for Newsweek. At the time he wrote it, McLean was new to the business and became fascinated with the whole concept of list selection while sitting in on meetings with Pat Gardner (later circulation director of Family Media) and Red Dembner, then Newsweek’s circulation manager. McLean’s letter began:
Newsweek
33 Whitehall Street, New York, NY 10004
Robert H. Reordan
Circulation Director
Dear Reader,
If the list upon which I found your name is any indication, this is not the first – nor will it be the last – subscription letter you receive.
Quite frankly, your education and income set you apart from the general population and make you a highly-rated prospect for everything from magazines to mutual funds.
Blah… blah… blah…
It was an offbeat approach—one that both flattered the reader and, at the same time, let prospects in on how they came to receive the solicitation. Many people wrote in to ask what list they were on. A few complained. Many more responded by subscribing to the magazine. It was an unbeatable control for many years and was mailed in the tens of millions.
I once had a long conversation with Ed McLean about his Newsweek letter and how revealing private information about the lives and lifestyles of the recipients could be spooky.
(Compared with the deep dive today’s marketers take into every scintilla of a person’s life and sell this data to any and all buyers, this was charmingly tame stuff.)
Ed agreed and came up with a basic rule: “You have to dumb down what you know.”