The world according to Accolade

[Sean]

deleted

[swirler]

I guess most people wouldn't see the problem of treating wine as just another commodity. And it would be hard to argue against such 'logic.'

[Ian S]

The supermarkets themselves are tough B*stards and to get the prime promotional positioning, you'll have to pay for it, and when they want some offers to drive footfall, then the wine company will be expected to foot the bill.

I can see some logic in the brand argument - and being the leading brand can drive an awful lot of sales. What comes out strongly in this is that it appears not to be a battle on all fronts, but just to get the most recognisable cheap volume brand. If so, then some of those historic names need to be dropped. They're not on message and will never make it as volume brands. Hardy's would get widely recognised in supermarkets here, but then beyond that Leasingham might be recognised by a small % of supermarket shoppers. The rest of those mentioned would be unknown, including Houghton.

Time to devise some new brands.

[dave vino]

Strange how beer seems to be going in the opposite direction, people are hunting out craft type beers, the big boys are bringing out traditional, with more character type beers. Sales of the sessional style beers are falling.

[swirler]

Dave, I'm sure the amount of craft beer sold is small vs the dross that most people drink.

[dave vino]

Yeah you are probably right. Interesting article http://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/co ... ralia.html shows how much they big breweries are willing to fight tooth and nail for very small percentages that craft beer represents, maybe in such a mature 'commodity' style market any single digit percentage growth is seen as a big bonus. Anyway back to normal programming...

[swirler]

Hang on a second

I was persuaded to do a blind tasting in the green wine supermarket. The VB and Carlton Draught were so bad it was laughable. Even the store's 'hone brand' was much better (probably the reason for the tasting.)

It's a bit like Holden/Ford, Coles/Woolworths, etc, the masses have been brainwashed into thinking that there are the only two possible choices.

Back on track.....

[Ian S]

... and swirler's point is perhaps the answer to Dave's observation. Craft/quality beer in itself should not be a challenge to the big brewers, but perhaps it exposes how dull and charmless the industrial lagers are.

[sjw_11]

For me, I am OK with there being a craft product and a generic mass produced product... whether in terms of lager, ale, or cabernet sauvignon.
Personally, I have lived in the UK for 18mths and I haven't bought a single Hardy's wine. Despite all the talk of the big players squeezing out the smaller wineries, there are still several thousand wine makers in Australia alone... there is a big enough market among those who actually care about wine for a broad range of boutique producers to make ends meet - albeit the industry might need some names to drop out to make it more sustainable.

I would offer a different example again- with the rise of the internet, people predicted music sales would die out. Of course, record stores did- you don't need the physical artefact anymore. But in fact, sales of the #1 album/song generally has increased. What dropped off was sales of maybe #2-50, while at the same time the ability of the internet to connect people across huge distances and hence connect small common interest groups meant that the sales of previously unheard of music probably increased dramatically.

I think the same is holding true for "artisanal" food and drink- now it is much easier for me and the other 1,000 or 10,000 etc people who want it to collate our orders via an online site and have them shipped to London even though the small producers might be anywhere in the Eurozone or elsewhere.

Will Accolade still make more money by ignoring this? Sure. Will I ever buy their products? Nope. As long as I still have a choice, its all good.

[Ian S]

while at the same time the ability of the internet to connect people across huge distances and hence connect small common interest groups meant that the sales of previously unheard of music probably increased dramatically.

A friend of mine made #1 of the Prog. Folk chart in Japan a year or so ago. We figured a dozen downloads would have done it