Lorenzo Biscontin
Here below the second part of 2024 VML The Future 100 trends most relevant for the wine business in my opinion.
More will follow. Hope you enjoy.
Forage tourism
Forage tourism is growing all over the world, from mushrooms dovetail in US Pacific Northwest Region to luxury 40-foot schooner excursion to catch, clean, and prepare cod in the Lofoten Islands in Norway.
Emily Fitzroy, owner of Bellini Travel, has seen a spike in requests to learn a culinary skill while on vacation. “Clients want to return home with newfound knowledge,” she told the New York Times.
Why is it relevant for wine: in setting offer to (wine) tourist, wine estates must offer also participative experiences beside the simple visit. Harvest is most obvious one, together with cooking class, but also the much broader agricultural / horticultural / countryside knowledges should be considered.
Fanspiration
“A billion-person focus group”: that’s how chief product officer at Abercrombie & Fitch, Corey Robinson, referred to TikTok.
Fan hacks are becoming central to fast-food culture and in 2023 Chipotle responded to the Keithadilla craze—a quesadilla customization popularized by TikTok food critic Keith Lee—by making the dish available at its 3,200 US locations and training more than 100,000 staff in how to make it.
Brands can satisfy consumer craving for creative influence by tapping into fanspiration, rewarding and delighting fans with real-life innovations based on viral hacks.
Why is it relevant for wine: wine as an industry is often patronizing its consumers, if not snobbing their consumption behaviors. To attract new consumers, it must listen to them and be open to innovation coming from the people.
Brand India
Is “India’s moment.” As its population, domestic market, and tech capabilities continue to grow at pace, it is fast becoming a global political, economic, and cultural powerhouse. This makes it a market that brands, manufacturers, and consumers simply cannot ignore.
Why is it relevant for wine: simply because India cannot be ignored and 1st quarter 2024 numbers of wine imports in India are very promising. ProWein with ProWein Mumbai in October and Vinitaly with the India Preview in November are creating the tools to develop this market.
Creator to consumer (C2C)
New platforms are allowing creators to build their own storefronts, enticing shoppers with a blend of content, storytelling, and personality, while offering a new discovery channel for brands and retailers.
“Online shopping today is uninspiring, and incentives are misaligned”, says Maddie Raedts, cofounder of Bond, a “content-first and creator-led” social commerce experience centered on discovery and personalization. “We are creating the social shopping experience of tomorrow”.
23% of gen Z and millennials already say they are interested in buying directly Bond from influencers.
Why is it relevant for wine: creators/influencers are ready to make a step head in their personal branding a become a retail channel. In the wine business we already had the example of Lady Penguin in China, so we should be more ready than other industry to follow this trend.
Dopamine packaging
In 2023 brands like Jell-O, Fanta and 7UP did rebranding in order to make the new visual identity “unleashes imaginations”, capture a sense of “playful indulgence”, be all about being
Uplifting” and creating a “joyful moment”.
Upliftment is a concept that resonates with people globally. A 2020 study by London’s Science Museum Group concluded that the world is becoming less colorful, based on an analysis of everyday objects in its collections that spanned two centuries.
Consumers will actively seek out brands that give them a reason to smile.
Why is it relevant for wine: packaging is crucial in wine consumer choice. Nowadays the large majority of wines are communicating tradition, reliability and consistency. To change the tone of voice of the industry and make wine closer to consumers, the role of labels cannot be underestimated. Joy is automatically linked to sparkling wines and is not by chance that Prosecco labels tend to be colorful and iconoclastic, it must sparkle from still wine bottles too.
World-building brands
88% of people say that companies have a responsibility to take care of the planet and its people.
Twenty years ago, a brand was really just an icon and colors, today brands are evolving into organic ecosystems. They become living, breathing documents that can change and evolve.”
Consumer-brand interactions are moving from distinct, standalone touchpoints to interplay in all-encompassing worlds.
Why is it relevant for wine: behind a wine brand often there is a strong personal commitment and/or a long history. In other words, there is already a world in potential, to became more relevant and interesting for the consumer we have to get it out and let him live.
