Global Package Bottles at the White House

All bragging aside, it appears Global Package bottles are indeed on the best-of- the-best list. Oded Shakked, winemaker and surf instructor for Longboard Vineyards, just informed us that he received a request from the White House for a case of his 2007 Late Harvest Semillon, which is bottled in our special glass. Oded’s 2007 Semillon scored 95 Points by the editors of Wine Enthusiast Magazine. As described in the December 15, 2009 Buying Guide, it’s “a gorgeous dessert wine…super sweet in honey, apricot jam, orange blossom, crème brulée and vanilla flavors.” Our congratulations to Oded for such a wonderful wine and this extraordinary opportunity to prove the quality of our bottles! Click here for the Longboard website.

Show Season
Unified was a tremendous success for Global Package. Our booth was on the main concourse this year, and we had lots of visitors coming to view our new line of value-priced European bottles, as well as our popular Elegant Light line. The show drew over 12,000 people, a welcome sign of a reviving industry. We also exhibited at the Fancy Food Show in January and felt a renewed sense of energy there, too. Next, we’ll be at the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) show in Las Vegas April 6-8, 2010. Look for us at Booth #819; we’ll have new products there, as well

Fancy Food 2010

Avoiding Low-Cost Pitfalls
Recently, a couple of Oregon wineries told me about getting burned several years ago with glass imported from China. I’ve worked with many of these wineries over the years and have always been impressed with their smarts and their early-adopter spirit. Unfortunately, several ended up on the bleeding edge and not the leading edge of the early movement of outsourcing to China. While Chinese wine glass manufacturers have multiplied over the past several years, quality can still be an issue, unless you work with folks who are expert in wine bottle manufacturing and in doing business in China, which is a tricky combination of what you know and who you know. Global Package takes pride in holding high quality standards at all our manufacturing sites. Of course, our credentials in the industry have been proven over two decades. So, to all my conscientious winery friends out there who want to lower production costs but not compromise quality. . .Global Package has your back. If you’d like to learn more about supplier selection in China, here’s an article from Industry Week offering 10 tips for successful supplier engagement in China:  10 tips for successful supplier engagement in China.

What Color is Your Brand?
“Color … impacts our appetite, sexual behaviour, business life and leisure time,” according Eric Johnson of the Chicago-based Institute for Colour Research. Its research reveals that people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone. Another study by the University of Loyola, Maryland, finds that color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent. So it’s important to know why and how colors communicate to your target audience before designing your label or logo. For instance, did you know that that while green is universally associated with vegetation, it may also be symbolic of good luck, seasickness, money and greed. In the US, it’s even associated with extraterrestrial beings. In the Muslim world, green symbolizes heaven, whereas a green M&M in the US is associated with sexuality. Colormatters.com is a good resource for marketers wanting to research a color’s associations. You can download ebooks on a variety of  color design books by clicking here. I’ve been using Tucker Creative for my branding needs, and Traversant Brand Communications has been a great resource for me through the years. You might give them a call.

News ‘n Notes
A reminder to visit our newly opened showroom at 2793 Napa Valley Corporate Drive in Napa. You’ll be welcomed by Karen Howard, our new staff member. . .Check out this new wine sales innovation: Smart Carts, or Cocktails made Tableside. We say smart marketing: good packaging recall and good selling by sommeliers . . . According to a Reuters report, China has become the biggest export market for Bordeaux wines outside the EU as the sour economy and a strong euro has put French wines beyond U.S. and British buyers . . . California’s 2009 crush totaled 4,095,297 tons, up 11 percent from the 2008 crush of 3,673,858 tons, only the second time the State’s crush has exceeded 4 million tons . . . Back in November, we reported that Walgreens was rolling out its private wine label over the next 12-18 months. Well, the trend has caught on, with new wine brands cropping up at convenience stores. Nielsen data finds that “private-label wine sales increased by more than 10% in a four-week reporting period late in 2009, compared with the same time a year earlier. These sales are being spurred by C-store brands such as 7-Eleven’s new Yosemite road wines.”