Round Two of: Know Your Target Audience 101, feat. Gin!

In a recent I skewered both The Door, a slick-looking PR firm and Rachel Ray's magazine. You, gentle reader, might ask why, so click here to find out. Now in this latest entry I look at another press release that I received on the same day as the previous gem about how Rachel Ray can make you a wine expert overnight.

The kind folks at Anderson Group, located in sunny Los Angeles, sent me a slick looking email inviting me to a release party for "Martin Miller's Gin". I know absolutely nothing about Martin Miller or his gin, however I am a huge gin fan, especially of premium brands such as Hendrick's.
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Hi Beau,

We would love to invite you to join the ultra gregarious leading gin maker/hotel owner/entrepreneur Martin Miller and his world famous ultra premium Martin Miller’s Gin for a relaxing cocktail mixer at the Miami’s Raleigh Hotel to kick off the South Beach Wine & Food Festival.

·         What: A relaxing mixer to meet Martin Miller himself.  Complimentary Martin

Miller’s Gin cocktails will be served and mixologists will be on hand to answer

any brand questions.

·         Where: Poolside at the Raleigh Hotel

1775 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL

·         When: Wednesday, February 23^rd from 2-4pm

·         RSVP: To be on the list, you must RSVP at (email removed)

Born of “Love, Obsession and some degree of Madness,” Martin Miller’s Gin is made of juniper from Tuscany and India, Cassia bark from China, angelica from France and florentine from Florence, which is delicately blended with pure Icelandic spring water, to create a marriage of rare softness, clarity of taste and appearance. 

As the trailblazer of the Gin Renaissance, Martin Miller set out to save premium gins.  In a time when premium vodkas were dominating the market and gins were only made for Gin & Tonics, Martin set out to restore the seduction and romance of premium gins.  The eccentric, quixotic gypsy began jotting down ideas on a napkin and decided to make a gin that was made with not only the best ingredients but distilled by using only the most traditional methods. 

Among many awards, Martin Miller’s Gin has taken home two out of three possible gold medals in the blind-tasting 10^th Anniversary Strength gins by the International Spirits Challenge, and is undoubtedly one of the most popular premium gins of our time. 

If you have any questions about the event, you can reach me via email at (email removed) or by phone at (phone number removed)

Cheers!

(name removed)

“Gin: The Dutch invented it.  The English Refined it. And the Yanks glamorized it.  NOW MARTIN MILLER HAS PERFECTED IT.”

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 That's a nice looking press release, complete with cool pictures and some very specific information. Upon closer inspection a few things show up that can only lead to questions from me. Here are questions I thought of as I read through the press release. They illustrate my point, which is to KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE.

1. In what capacity am I being invited? Private citizen? Blogger? Journalist?

2. What is expected of me should I attend? A series of articles on Martin Miller's Gin? A single post recap of the event? Twitter and Facebook use to promote the brand?

3. The Anderson Group is in Los Angeles, just up the freeway from me. Think about that for a second. Why then, am I being invited to South Beach, Miami, with no specification on how to actually get there? Did the person sending this email not do any background research? I counted at least five ways to figure out where I am located, all taking about two minutes. Less than that if you are smarter than a spatula.

4. Why is this particular mailing list that I'm on not broken down into better categories than "bloggers who write about booze and live on planet earth"?? My blog is almost entirely about wine, I've never reviewed a spirit before and while I do want that to change, I present that as evidence that this mailing list is way over-generalized.

As in my last PR-critical blog post, I'll say that I don't have any public relations or marketing experience, I studied finance and economics in college. I do have a little common sense though, and I am a blogger who is truly passionate about my subject. After all, I am doing this for free. For those reasons I feel like I can offer some advice to PR firms.

A. Please, know who your audience is, compile some background on whom you're targeting as brand ambassadors. Take the extra time to build a better database and your portfolio of brands will have their respective messages heard by the right people.

B. Like I said before, I absolutely love gin and would love to get a sample of Martin Miller's Gin. That is something of value to me and my readers. Inviting me to some schmoozy release party on the other side of the United States will not allow me to share anything positive about this brand with my readers. I am not asking to be flown out to Miami, just that PR firms look at who they're communicating with.

C. Be specific about you want and expect! I'll relate a little side story; back in late January the Social Media Manager for Kobrand contacted me about some wine samples for Valentine's Day posts and listed a bunch that all looked wonderful, so I requested several. I apparently requested too many because I got a follow-up basically asking me to pick one or two. So I did pick two that I thought would be fun to write about, and never heard back from the guy. That's borderline rude but also illustrates how important it is to BE SPECIFIC about what you want from us and are willing to do for us. The best wine/industry PR/Marketing companies (Folsom, Balzac, Boss Dog, Brand Action Team, etc) all ask if you are interested in what they're offering while being specific about what they are willing to send. Smart move and that's why they're among my favorites in my short time as a blogger.

Thank you for taking the time to read all the way through this, I realize it's a bit longer than my typical wine reviews. As always, I appreciate any and all comments, discussions, and feedback. I am not out to humiliate anyone necessarily, nor should anything I say be taken as a personal attack.

Beau Carufel

Rachel Ray Can Make You a Wine Expert!!! No, Seriously!

I've been blogging since November 2009, a short period of time compared to other bloggers in the wine world. Within about six months of starting my blog, I was receiving some wine samples and emails from PR firms started trickling in. Those of you who are veteran public relations or marketing types are undoubtedly familiar with pitches and press releases. While the vast majority have zero bearing on my little wine blog, some do come along that capture my attention. Of those, there are press releases that capture my attention for good things, like Joel Peterson being elected to the Vintners Hall of Fame. Still others capture my attention for all the wrong reasons.

Yesterday I received a press release from The Door, a firm that handles such clients as Rachel Ray, Audra Rox, Spike Mendelsohn and the rock group Train. The Door promotes itself as an "idea house", all well and good I suppose, but sending out the following press release was a terrible idea and has no place in a house. Or anywhere for that matter.

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FIVE WAYS TO BECOME A WINE EXPERT…
OVERNIGHT

Every Day with Rachael Ray Magazine Tells Us How

Always wanted to be an expert in wine tasting or picking out the best bottle but feel intimidated?  The March issue of Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine shows how to in five simple steps. They break down what to look for, ignore, what the shape of the bottle means and more.  Enter the next dinner party or prepare a wine paired meal with confidence!

What To Look For To Become An Overnight Wine Expert

Alcohol level

·       The percentage will tip you off to how heavy the wine will feel in your mouth--12% or 13% is ideal for a full bodied feel.

Ancient

·       Spotting this on the label or “old vines” means that the grapevines are decades old with fewer grapes produced resulting in a stronger flavored wine. 

Flavor Clues

·       The back of the label is full of hints to the wine’s taste and a peek into the type of wine. Descriptors like vanilla, smoke and nutmeg indicate a woodier taste. Words like zesty, racy, tangy suggest a fresher, brighter style

Ignore

·       Fancy Artwork. Beautiful pictures of vineyards or estates come across as a serious bottle of wine-but the wines might not live up to the imagery. 

Phantom Grapes

·       If you don’t see recognizable terms such as “merlot” or “chardonnay” that doesn’t mean the wine isn’t one.  Wines from Europe are often labeled by origin rather than type.

Shape

·       Shape Matters! Bottle shapes hold specific wine styles.  Tall and narrow bottles contain mostly crisp wines such as a sparkling white. Slope shouldered bottles are typical to subtler wines such as pinot noir, chardonnay, or syrah and high shouldered bottles hold heavier reds and lighter whites such as a sauvignon blanc

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That is the unedited press release that I got from The Door. I feel like it should be a lesson in "Know Your Target Audience 101".

1. Why would you send this to WINE bloggers? Every blogger whom I discussed this press release with was either snorting with derision or howling with laughter. Wine bloggers are passionate about wine, or else they would not invest time and energy into blogging, basically for free, about something as complex as wine. Some bloggers I spoke to felt that being sent this was tantamount to a slap in the face, because by creating "overnight wine experts", Every Day With Rachel Ray (and by extension, The Door) is eliminating a large part of what wine bloggers love to do.

2. This "article" is going to appear in the March issue of Every Day With Rachel Ray. That was confirmed when a fellow blogger emailed the girl who sent all of us this press release. Therefore, this article was most likely written between three and six months ago, leaving ample time to make edits and solicit feedback from the very bloggers whom The Door was sending this press release to.

3. Beyond being so utterly full of worthless, idiotic information (the article itself), I am shocked to see the word "expert" tossed around so casually these days. If this article was written by a wine expert, that is even worse. The casual wine drinking 30-40 year old woman will read this article and since it comes from lifestyle mogul Rachel Ray, think that it's gospel. As a result, that 30-40 year old woman will make poor wine buying choices. As if subscribing to that magazine wasn't enough of a bad choice.

There are more things I could rail on about regarding this press release, hopefully you will take the time to comment on whether you agree or disagree with my statements. If you're a PR or marketing person, please take note, this is not how you approach bloggers with a pitch. I have no idea how respected The Door is within the industry, but this is a big swing-and-miss for them. Still, perhaps the redeeming benefit is the amount of Twitter chatter this press release generated. Again, for all the wrong reasons.

Beau Carufel