10 soul inspiring small business marketing lessons from the Barefoot wines epic
By: Sayeed Ahmed
Tags: Wine

Barefoot wines is one of the most popular and loved wine brands in the US today. In fact, it was at the top of the list of the drinks business global wine brands 2017. But to acquire this huge fame and such warm place in the customer’s heart, its founders Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey had to overcome lot of adversities and painful rejections.

When they started out they had hardly any industry knowledge, experience or capital that is required to succeed in the wine industry. But they were still able to make it big through their passion, tenacity and resourcefulness, utilizing the 3 most important entrepreneurial competencies.

Their epic naivety to virtuosity journey which upended the wine industry, is truly a source of inspiration for entrepreneurs, especially who are new or struggling.

So, let’s delve into the 10 most valuable small business marketing lessons from the story of Barefoot wines.

Be Opportunistic

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey while working as consultants were trying to help a client when they saw an opportunity to start their own wine brand.

The client was a vineyard owner who was unpaid for his grapes, which he sold to a winery that went bankrupt. When Michael visited the winery he quickly realized it was impossible to recuperate the losses of his client but he saw some unfamiliar things there, which he perceived as a chrome locomotive in a handball court.

A normal person under the circumstances would have ignored the little details but Michael dug deeper and came to know that the handball court was the clean-room and the chrome locomotive was actually a bottling line.

He also noticed there were tanks full of bulk wine. Based on his astute observations he came up with a brilliant idea and asked the CFO that instead of paying back his client he would clear the debt under goods and services, if he bottled some of the wine that was in the tanks, to which the CFO agreed.

Michael and Bonnie both seized this opportunity and decided to label and sell the wine in the marketplace which will benefit them as well as their unpaid client. So, the inception of Barefoot was possible due to the ingenuity and opportunistic nature of its founders.

Utilize Resourcefulness

Michael and Bonnie lacked resources when they started out, but what they lacked in resources they compensated it with their resourcefulness. They might have started small but they had much bigger goals and vision for their company.

They couldn’t afford to rent a place for their business so they used their laundry room as their business office. They made their working desk by putting a door on stall horses which they found in their old barn. Bonnie’s nephew and mother were the initial employees of the company.

They didn’t focus on what they lacked but utilized whatever was available to them, optimally and efficiently.

Ask Questions

As both the founders were new to the wine industry it was natural for them to have lots of questions in their mind.

So, to increase their knowledge they went out in the market and started asking questions from the industry people, without being deterred by the fact that most of the people they meet would refuse to help them. They took it in their stride.

By asking questions they were also able to find the pain points of their customers and end consumers which enabled their company to deliver value and gain brand equity.

So, be intrepid and ask questions, as it is equivalent to conducting market research and gain invaluable customer insights for your business.

Find strategic partners

To keep their business running they needed the right partners who would gel well with their operations, vision and culture.

For their bottling supplies such as the glass, foil, corkscrew etc they started asking their questions from various companies which most of the time would not answer them or not able to answer appropriately.

But they kept looking and their perseverance paid off when a company called California glass helped them with their operations and satiated their knowledge hunger by answering all their questions. That’s how they found their strategic partner who worked with them closely for 15 years.

So, find your strategic partners and develop a strong symbiotic relationship with them which complement yours and their business as well.

Speak the language of business

When Michael met one of the top buyers of wine in California after a lot of struggle and persuasion, he according to Michael gave him a master’s degree in wine marketing in that brief conversation with him.

When Michael humbly asked the buyer, Don Brown about what kind of wine was he looking for, Don felt special that he was being asked about his preferences as nobody before him did that. He told him that he wanted a salt and pepper act that was better and cheaper than Bob, within a pig.

At that moment, Michael had no idea what the buyer was talking about, but he played along with him and seized the opportunity that was presented to him.

Michael then went to one of his friends who was well versed with the wine industry and asked him to translate the buyers language in plain English.

He told him that the salt and pepper meant a pair of Red and White wine like Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. By Bob he meant the great Robert Mondavi and pig was the big bottle, twice the size of the standard 750 ml to 1500 ml, 1.5 magnum the fat one.

Michael then understood that the buyer wanted a pair, Red and White varietal which should be cheaper and better than the Robert Mondavi’s wine company within a big bottle.

Prioritize distribution and retail

By connecting the dots Michael and Bonnie realized that the buyer had actually told him where the niche existed in the marketplace. It dawned to them it was something they would never have found out, had they invented their product first and then tried to persuade the buyer into how it would enhance his portfolio.

According to Michael you could have a great product, unique logo, competitive pricing and even implement top notch marketing practices, but if you haven’t factored in distribution and retail in your overall brand strategy the rest of the things won’t matter at all.

As he thinks distribution eclipses everything because the ultimate goal is to get sales and if your product is not present on the shelves then the end consumer won’t be able to buy it.

Keep it simple

While choosing the brand name and logo, Michael remembered what the buyer had asked him to do in addition to the salt and pepper act in a pig. He had also asked him to keep the logo same as the brand name in plain English so she can see it from 4 feet away while pushing the cart.

They paid heed to that buyer instructions and kept the brand’s name as “Barefoot” inspired by how the grapes are crushed to make wine and it was easy to pronounce too. Also, instead of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc they opted for something that was short and simple for their first wine products, barefoot cab and barefoot blanc.

For their logo they chose to use a print of Bonnie’s slender foot with a high arch. The company founders were perceptive enough to comprehend the rationale behind the buyer’s specifications.

It was the power of simplicity. They realized if they want to connect to the masses quickly they should not use complex language which is difficult to read and even pronounce. It’s one of the reasons why Barefoot gained so much popularity and brand resonance.

Label is key

Michael and Bonnie knew how crucial their label was to their brand voice. In order to understand how their label should be they started to learn from the bottling line managers who initiated them to the nuances of labeling.

They learnt that the bottles with quality labeling were the ones that possessed a white paper background, all along the edges and were easy to see in the middle as opposed to the less fine ones which had squiggly curlicue lettering and were hard to read and understand on a dark paper background.

They also learnt that they would have to pay extra attention while designing their label as that label would be put on a surface that would not be flat but curved on the bottle, which would render the edges invisible to the consumer.

Another key information they gleaned was that the edge of the label should be white instead of being colored. The reason being that when the bottles were put into the case by the bottling line women, the cardboard dividers often would scuff the edge of the label.

Now if it’s colored all the way to the edge then that color would be scuffed exposing the white paper underneath it, thereby making it look damaged. Your wine wouldn’t be damaged but the consumer will perceive it as damaged and hence won’t buy it.

Michael and Bonnie followed the buyer’s instruction to the letter and presented him the wine that he asked for which was the salt and pepper act, red and white 1.5 liter that was a pig.

But to their dismay, he refused their wine as it was new in the market and nobody knew about it. There was no proof of concept.

They learnt this the hard way that they would have to build their brand themselves from scratch and get some sales in order to get distribution and retail which could take years to happen.

But without losing hope, they quickly bounced back from that setback and started selling their wine door to door, to every grocery and independent mom and pop store.

Even there, they encountered the same hurdle which they had faced earlier with Don Brown, the buyer.

Worthy cause marketing

They had no money to advertise their product and their business was in dire straits. Then something interesting happened that turned the tide for them and they never looked back after that.

Michael got a call from a person in Chinatown, San Francisco who used to run a neighborhood association. Thinking that Michael was a successful winery owner, he asked him for a donation of hundred thousand dollars for buying some equipment for a park that they were building for kids after school.

Michael told him honestly that he was mistaken and explained that he didn’t possess one of those hundred thousand dollars that he was asking for. But he offered to donate some wine from his company for that noble cause. Michael told him that he could raise some money through the fundraiser or may be even auction it off to get the equipment for the park, to which he agreed.

A month after that Michael was perusing the sales report from their San Francisco distributor where he had placed Barefoot wines in those stores. To his utter surprise, he observed that the sales around the stores in Chinatown area had remarkably proliferated. He realized that the shoppers at these stores were the members of that same neighborhood association to which he had donated his wine.

Both Michael and Bonnie at that moment, had an epiphany and realized that they had stumbled upon something that actually works better than advertising. They decided to follow this unique approach to their marketing strategy which they named it as worthy cause marketing.

So, they started visiting other neighborhood groups in various cities and supported other worthy causes that were important to them regarding environment, their livelihood, rights etc. They would help them with their wine and send their own staff to organize their events to raise money and reap the rewards in the form of increased sales.

They would put a neck tag on their bottles which would advertise their worthy cause and help them generate funds in the process. They would also assist in explaining the buyers of their wine why endorsing that cause is worth their money and good for their children or society.

Those were some of the tactics that Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey applied to succeed, in spite of all odds against them. So, learn and take inspiration from their wonderful journey which is not all about success but about failing and learning fast while adapting to the changing circumstances.

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