With more than 10,000 bonded wineries in the U.S. today, your winery marketing needs to be targeted and effective. Starting your design process with a Creative Brief is a smart first step.

Writing a Creative Brief for Your Winery

According to the most recent numbers from the Wine Institute, there are more than 9,000 bonded wineries in the United States today, and estimates of the number of labels available in the American wine market exceeds 80,000. With the vast majority of consumers knowing very little about what they are drinking, your challenge of differentiating your particular wines is not an easy one. As a winery, your ability to identify where your wines fit in within this crowded marketplace, and how to appeal to your target market, will become the most important contributor to your ongoing viability as a business. To say that differently, it’s not the terroir, it’s not the brix, or the TA or the mid-palate. Of course, what you put into the bottle is of enormous importance, but without a market that consistently selects your label from an entire aisle of competitors, you won’t long be around for anyone to enjoy what you put into the bottle. You need to have a plan.

Improving Your Winery Marketing

If you are about to embark on a design project for your winery — be it a logo, a label, a website, an email campaign, POS displays, or whatever — starting the process with a creative brief reduces the likelihood of wasting your marketing dollars on sub-optimal results. The creative brief outlines the background of the current situation, what you hope to change, and some key details that must be factored in to affect that change — details which might include existing branding, timeline, market research, budget, and other considerations.

Download the Creative Brief template created specifically for wineries. It will help you answer the big questions before you spend a dime hiring a designer. When you've finished working through the creative brief, you'll have a better idea of what you're looking for, putting you in a better position to give direction to your design firm. This will substantially improve your results, and will likely reduce your design costs. So, go get it! It's free!