Having a wine: The fine margins between good and intrusive marketing   

I enjoy a good bottle of wine, although I would stop well short of labelling myself a connoisseur. In truth, my wine rack at home is a pretty sorry sight. The sort of display that I’m sure leaves some of my more well-heeled friends feeling embarrassed on my behalf. 

In order to replenish it, over the last year or so I’ve signed up with a few home-grown viticultural success stories. Vinomofo I find to be fairly insistent marketers; I receive a regular stream of texts promoting sales and “Insane, never to be repeated value!”  

Of course, I can unsubscribe easily enough, but I find they know just how often to engage without overdoing it. Plus, they redeem themselves with humour and an excellent e-commerce user experience. Several debits on my card reflect the success they’ve had with me.  

My experience with Naked Wines has been a little different.  

Last week a charge from this business appeared on the family statement; a fairly innocuous $40. This was queried by my better half and I sheepishly admitted I had probably signed up a while ago and taken my eye off the ball.  

So a day or two later I blew the dust off my account and logged in. Surprise and delight! There’s an unspent $220 balance there. 

Then about three minutes later my phone rang. It was an unrecognised number, but being in a good mood, I answered. On the line was an enthusiastic young woman – I’ll call her Libera*, after the Roman Goddess of Wine. She was calling from none other than Naked Wines.   

This took me a little by surprise, and I quickly deduced it was unlikely to be the world’s greatest coincidence. What transpired was a friendly 10 minute call, where Libera said she would happily package me up a mixed case that aligned with my tastes.  

In the end, she decided based on what I was after, I’d be better to make my own selections online. But in the interests of more wine sooner, I went with a few of her picks. 

Did I feel a bit like my hand was being guided towards Libera’s “favourites”? A little. Did I cynically think these “favourites” might actually be slightly irksome stock she wanted to shift? Yes, I did. But at the same time, the call was so friendly and the outcome so welcome, that I wasn’t too fussed.  

From a business perspective, it raises a few issues though. Given I hadn’t logged in for an eon, my interaction was the equivalent of the zombie’s hand bursting through the earth at a gravesite. From that point of view, I get that it absolutely makes sense for marketers to re-engage a lapsed customer.  

But at the same time, the speed of the call following my login made me think Libera might as well have been sat over my shoulder. And that’s a trifle unsettling.   

Richie Kenzie

It called to mind a piece of research our team at Bud conducted earlier this year in partnership with GumGum – in particular a finding that when a brand’s advertising feels invasive or too personal, 56.2% of Aussie consumers say they are very likely or somewhat likely to stop using that brand’s services. 

Now should anyone at Naked Wines happen to read this, rest assured, I won’t be cancelling my membership – hell, there’s still $70 of credit there. Plus, Libera very kindly added three complimentary bottles of grenache to my order that I was apparently entitled to. 

For marketers though, I would ask the following question: is prompt re-engagement with a lapsed customer, such as myself, worth the risk of an invasion of privacy? I can’t honestly give an answer. While I’m happy my wine rack is 15 bottles to the good, I’m also a little unnerved that my online activity is monitored so closely. 

The best thing I can say is that if you are going to employ fairly ‘hands-on’ tactics with your customer base, then the best bet is to offset it with plenty of generosity in return. Now, about that grenache… 

*Clearly, not her real name 

Got a tip?

topics Naked Wines Vinomofo

Share Tweet Share