Wine Symposium Networking

The Oregon Wine Symposium is a great event for Rose City Label. This event is packed with people following their dreams.  They are passionate about making the best possible wine – they want to earn a good living, but for most producers, it is calling to make great wine. There are three main parts to this Wine Symposium Networking:

  • To connect with current and future customers
  • To stay current on the issues, pressures, and trends facing the overall industry
  • To network with others that serve the wine community

In a previous post we talked about the amazing, grass roots marketing advice from Clare Carver – check out that post by clicking here.  Besides that fantastic, motivational session, we got several other good ‘nuggets’ of information from the Symposium.

Keeping Up with TTB to get a fast, easy COLA

This presentation falls under reason number 2 above – Demaris Brown from the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is actually one of the people on the other end of the label approval process.  She and her colleagues sign off to award a Certificate of Label Approval (COLA).  Ms. Brown gave a fast paced presentation about the required (and non-required) elements on a label.  She also gave great tips about common errors – if wine label designers can just eliminate these common errors, their approval rates will go way up.  These slides have current, important information about wine label approvals.

Band Together – The Power of the Wine Industry

Our customer, Pattie Bjornson of Bjornson Vineyards, gave a wonderful testimonial about the power of joining and supporting your industry association.   Some time ago, Pattie and her husband Mark learned about plan by a national company to build an asphalt plant right down the road from her vineyard and tasting room.  They contacted the prospective ‘neighbor’ to express their concern about the aesthetic (and ultimately financial) impact that this smelly, loud plant would have on their vineyard and business.  The company, she said, was very polite but also very candid, stating – ‘nobody wants a plant of ours near them – we fight this everywhere we build, and we never lose’.  Since her direct contact approach didn’t work, Pattie turned to the collective power of the industry.

Through smart connections and advocacy, Pattie and the industry were able to convince the permitting and zoning authorities of the tremendous negative affects the asphalt plant would have on the region.  With this collective voice, the pressure and the economic facts were strong enough to get things done that Bjornson couldn’t do on their own and the plant was never built.   This real life example was a compelling reason to support your trade and advocacy groups, regardless of your industry.

Click here to visit the website for Bjornson Vineyards – it shows their beautiful setting that would have been greatly impacted by this industrial asphalt plant.

Wine Symposium Networking – The Social Sip

Since our business has been around since 1928, we have built up some great relationships.  We have connections and vendors in nearly every area connected to print or marketing.  We love to connect our clients to good resources.  This almost never results in direct business for us, but it serves our customers and it gets repaid over time.

One great new resource we met at the Symposium is Brooke Huffman of The Social Sip.  This is a boutique marketing agency based in Seattle that really understands and caters to the wine industry.  Brooke and I spent some time on the phone and she really knows her stuff – she loves wine, loves helping people grow their brand, and has the technical smarts to make it happen.  Check out the Social Sip by clicking here.

Why give her a try?  Besides being good at her craft, she makes it easy!  I love the simplicity of monthly packages with a fixed, predictable price.  Working by the hour, a project can quickly get out of hand.  With a fixed monthly budget, you know what you get and what you pay – no surprises.  Packages are even themed specifically around the different point ratings applied to wines – you can get the 85 point value package, the 90 point, or the 95+ point ‘extraordinary quality’ package.  If she has this clever marketing twist for herself, I’m pretty sure she does a great job for her clients,, too!  Check out the affordable packages by clicking here.

That’s a Wrap!

Wine Symposium Networking is a valuable part of how we grow this part of our label printing business.  Hopefully we will see you there next year.  In the meantime, if you need advice or suggestions about your labels, we would love to help. For anything in a bag, box or bottle, we can print a high quality label, delivered on time, at a fair price – call us today!