Contacts

Everyone knows someone, right? The best and fastest way to get word out is to tell your friends and colleagues. Networking key to Internet success.

Write Articles

One of best ways to promote your website and to “get it out there” is to write articles just as one you are reading now. Doing so will develop credibility for yourself as an authority in industry on which you are writing. To maximize effectiveness, write ways your visitors can benefit from your information. Make it so compelling that they can’t wait to send it to all of their friends. If you are an affiliate your articles should not have sales copy in body of article. When it’s apparent that article is associated with an affiliate program reader may not take it as seriously because they know you are getting paid from it. Ensure that you have your resource or bio box attached to bottom of article and make it available for republishing.

Tell-A-Friend

You’ve seen them everywhere. The tell-a-friend form asking you to spread word of this great product, service, or resource you’ve found. The Internet consumer who is passionate about a product or service is more likely to forward an email to others making this viral marketing technique a huge success. The great thing about tell-a-friend technique is that there is practically no effort involved as it is very easy to set up. You just install some code to your site and sit back and do nothing. Do not make error of adding these referrals to your opt-in subscribers list as you will be spamming them. You need to make distinction between your opt-in list and referrals you get from your tell-a-friend form. Never send email to referrals you get unless they come to your site and subscribe through your subscription form.

Right after 2001 grape season, Fred realized that his industry was fastly moving into an over supply condition of grapes. Soon it would become less expensive to let grapes rot on vine then to harvest them, and Fred felt this was unacceptable. Always considered a maverick within wine community, Fred decided to think outside traditional winemakers' box. Fred's marketing approach is simple and straightforward. He states, "Our strategy is to fish where fish are. I think more people want value in their wine purchase and realize it doesn't have to cost them $10-25 dollars."

Hence his Charles Shaw brand of budget wine was born and stage was set

Fred Franzia met with Dan Bane in early 2002 and Charles Shaw saga began. Dan recognized that budget wine from Fred Franzia's Bronco winery would bring customers into his store and while there, they would be introduced to his offering. He was confident in quality and pricing of his products and felt this would prompt many to conveniently buy items they would normally purchase at their regular grocery store. This was catalyst Dan was looking for.

The other force in this success equation is Fred and he clearly understands how to make money. Fred knew that Bonco was in a unique position to take advantage of present market conditions because his winery is one of just two California wineries with a distributor's license. The other is Kendall-Jackson. That means Bronco can dramatically cut middleman costs. Direct delivery to retailers is not something most wineries can do. Bronco delivers a case of Charles Shaw to Trader Joes for a meager $19. Trader Joes decided to sell this same case for $24 or $1.99 a bottle.

With virtually little promotion, Charles Shaw brand has become most successful wine brand ever. Mostly by word-of-mouth it has gained almost mystic status.

People need logic or a believable reason when a major price shift takes place on anything they purchase. Justifying new price and value of product must be rationalized.

Almost immediately, rumors began to surface about $1.99 bottle of Charles Shaw wine. A few well-publicized stories like tale that this $1.99 bottle of wine beat out a $68 bottle of Chardonnay wine in a blind tasting, although totally unsubstantiated, has given it front-stage billing. Another common rumor for low price suggests that Charles Shaw was a premium wine dumped by American Airlines because of a ban on corkscrews on airlines precipitated by actions of 9/11. Other rumors included that "Two-Buck Chuck" was a financial bailout of a premium wine from United Airlines trying to avoid bankruptcy. None of these are true (some say Fred Franzia floated these rumors, but he denies it), nor is Charles Shaw a fire sale Napa wine from a nasty divorce of Charles Shaw and his wife.

Charles Shaw continues to fly off-the-shelves resulting in handsome dividends to both Bronco winery and Trader Joes. With its Charles Shaw loss-leader marketing approach, Trader Joes has driven many new customers into their stores resulting in double digit growth for firm, with no sign of slowing. And Bronco winery, with its maverick CEO Fred Franzia, cannot keep up with demand. Bronco has already delivered more than 60,000,000 bottles (about $100M in Bronco annual revenue) of now famous two-buck-chuck.

Innovative, risk-oriented, marketing always trumps linear thinking in any market. How are you infusing innovation into your marketing ideas?