How did Rombauer brand themselves so well?

Wine Pimps
21

Now we are talking. This is the information I was looking for, a little insight to their marketing.

22

I was in a session at the SWE conference last week being conducted by Paul Wagner of Balzac Communications titled The Price is Wrong.

We were challenged to try and identify an expensive wine, not quality mind you. We did some preliminary stuff going over how does a winery price a wine. Say they want to price it at $22 retail so they go out and get 9 wines at the same price point and put them all in a blind tasting. Which wine do you think is the wine that is priced correctly ranked from 1 to 10, 1 being the winner of the blind tasting.

His answer was that the wine that finished first was priced incorrectly it should be more, the guy who had his wine priced correctly were the ones at 8, 9 & 10 as long as they could sell it.

I Just finished reading Wine Politics and Coleman talks about Dick Arrowood just picking $24 out of the air to price one of his wines.

The first two wines were two chardonnays I guessed the first was between $16 and $20 a few thought it was over $35. The second I thought was between $11 and $15.
So the first wine was the Rombauer Chardonnay at $35.00 the average price thought by the group was between $22 to $25. The second was $11-$15 range.

Rombauer certainly has their wine priced correctly.

There were 3 more flights after this and I did pretty well. The best was where one guessed over $35 for a wine describing the wine having great intensity, concentration and length along with ageability while the second was crap.
The results here show how humbling wine tasting can be…
The first was an $8.00 Blackstone Merlot and the second was a $40 Paloma Merlot, 03’ I believe.

23

Perhaps our own Randy Sloan can share his perspective since he used to use their facilities for his winemaking.

On a side note, I’ve visited their tasting room a few times back when I was just getting into wine and I was really impressed with the genuine enthusiasm of all of the employees. It seemed to stand out among the others.

24

Dear Mr. Wood;

I believe that you will find quite a few people that pair the Rombauer chard with both lobster and shrimp. I guess I could have been more precise and said shell fish, but some also like it with grilled swordfish.

Since you have vividly demonstrated, via your numerous caustic remarks, that everyone you happen to disagree with their tastes are stupid or uniformed, I would expect a similiar reply here. But people buy the chard and pair it seafood.

25

I realize that some may have an axe to grind with Rombauer but the point of this thread was really to discover the genesis of their brilliant marketing and for those who have contributed useful info, I appreciate it.

26

I must have misunderstood you, Gordon. I could have sworn that you were stating your own opinion when you said it matched well with seafood. Just to clear things up, do YOU think it does or are we talking about what “people” think?

And yes, Jeff . . . they’ve done a hell of a job marketing this wine, which to me is undrinkable. I wish I knew what their secret is.

27

I don’t understand the axe. Like I said, the one time I bought a bottle to put into a comp tasting, it showed pretty well. Not what I would have considered in line with the reputation as a butter, tropical, oak over-the-top mess. Quite honestly, that was the first of theirs I had tried in years.

In fact, there was another, more highly-regarded “artisan” Chardonnay (175% of the Rombauer price) that was much more a caricature of a wine.

Lord knows we would all love to trade for Rombauer’s sales reports…

28

When I sold it back in '97, it was wide open to everyone. I would have retailers stacking it at $22.99, and blowing through it. Koerner and Joan would also make a point to come out at least twice a year to visit customers and do wine dinners, which always sold out. Koerner is quite the entertainer, and was always very generous and complementary. That goes a long way.

29

Although I don’t buy a lot of Rombauer these days, I am a big fan of them as a winery and business.

As Chris mentioned, we made our wine at Rombauer from our start in 2002 through the 2007 crush. They always treated us as a welcome guest and valued client, and treated our wine as carefully as they did their own. Everyone on their staff was a class act. We only left there because they no longer had excess capacity.

Even before we harvested our first grapes and established a business releationship with them, we enjoyed their wines. When Sasha and I were married in 2001, we chose 1997 Rombauer Cabernet Sauvignon and 1999 Rombauer Chardonnay to serve at our wedding.

So, How did Rombauer brand themselves so well? I don’t think they have a secret. They just do some of these no brainers so well.

  1. They make a product that the public likes. Rombauer Chardonnay in its current style is hugely popular with folks who identify themselves as Chardonnay drinkers. Those folks have never read a wine board, subscribed to a wine magazine, and probably don’t consider themselves wine collectors. They also account for a big percentage of wine buying dollars.

  2. They are focused. They use the core brand and varietals to promote their few ultra premium bottlings, not the other way around. It seems like many wineries try to build based on the success of their flagship and carry the other bottlings along. Rombauer supports its few flagship bottlings with the success of their core. Is this a key to their brand building? I don’t know, but it is a difference.

  3. They have a sales staff that can move this product that will be popular with the target audience. They make enough of the product so that they can compete aggressively on price.

  4. They sell the story. Koerner and Joan were great ambassadors of the winery and Napa Valley. They used their personalities and true love of the place and the business to build their brand. Being active in Valley events and charities, Koerner’s antique trucks, tractors, and carts, etc… they all get the name out there. They used the Rombauer name and Joy of Cooking (Irma Rombauer, was Koerner’s aunt, not grandmother I believe) connection to tie in with the brand.

  5. They built smart. They built a winery that could handle a large capacity before they needed that capacity but still only made the quantity of wine that they could sell. It was also important that they built this all years and years ago at a much lower cost than one could build it now.

  6. Expand in ways that benefit their brand in an economical way. I don’t know the exact relationship with Frank Family, but I believe the Rombauers are at least partial owners. By buying in to Frank Family, they gained a tremendous amount of storage space and all Rombauer bottling goes on at Frank Family.

  7. They have a family member to take on the cause. KR is a great guy and I believe pretty much runs the whole business now. Having a family member who had paid his dues in the business ready to take over as Koerner began to step back and Joan fought her illness was invaluable in transition and in the future.

  8. They have a very stable work force. In the 6 years we were there, they had many of the same folks in the cellar, on the crush pad, and in the tasting room year in and year out. That kind of stability and professionalism builds a brand by creating quality in the bottle and quality experience for the visitor.

  9. They have a great winery dog, Moose, a big chocolate lab.

30

They make a product that the public likes. Rombauer Chardonnay in its current style is hugely popular with folks who identify themselves as Chardonnay drinkers. Those folks have never read a wine board, subscribed to a wine magazine, and probably don’t consider themselves wine collectors. They also account for a big percentage of wine buying dollars.

That’s the key. You can work in a wine store, taste a few dozen wines, and then publicly announce that you’re disgusted by the oaky chardonnays and you only want to drink wines that scour the enamel off your teeth. You may get a niche following. Most customers will end up passing you by though. I’ve only met Mr. Rombauer a few times but found him to be a really great guy. Not a huge fan of his wines, including the chardonnay, but I’d drink it if someone poured it and I understand the appeal. And the Joy of Cooking connection is nothing to scoff at. It’s like the GoodHousekeeping seal of approval.

31

With all this buzz on the brand, you guys have prompted me to get out there and get my very first Rombauers…I’m actually excited! [winner.gif]

32

Well Jeffz…there you go. Another pre-satisfied customer. Now that’s brand strength!

Enjoy your virgin Rombauers Stu! Cheers.

33

How is you Aunt doing? neener

34

Hey, I am ready to stack it! Give the people what they want…

35

atta boy. might as well make some coin off of it, right?

(again, no affiliation blah blah)

36

It seems a lot of their restaurant placement is with steak houses, where their ‘seafood’ isn’t anything too delicate, and more often than not you’re seeing the surf and turf special go out, so in that case Rombauer is actually a decent pairing as it will make a white wine drinker happy while eating both steak and lobster.

We don’t have a manditory buy in with their reds to get the Chard, but we do have to wait our turn after the restaurants speak up for their allocations. We get probably 2-3 cases a month and have them all spoken for by several regulars, so it rarely even hits the floor for us. Could sell 2-3X that amount if we got more.

37

I don’t have any deep insights into their marketing plan, but I can tell you this: I stopped in there on a whim once, and even though the place was busy, their staff were some of the friendliest, nicest, unpretentious, knowledgeable (without the "I know-more-than-you bit) and most patient tasting room folks I have run into. Simply a really nice time which left me with a lasting fondness for their winery even though most of the wine isn’t my cuppa.

I rarely buy it (and I can say that the memory of that visit has led to most of these purchases), but when I do, a lot of the womenfolk around my digs LOVE the stuff and it goes in a hurry.

38

I think it’s cultural. Few wines say middle class more than Romabauer.

39

My wife LOVES Rombauer (I like it too…but like other styles as well). A couple of months ago, Bristol Farms (a high end grocery in SoCal) had its annual “25% off ALL Chardonnays” sale. When you stacked a couple of other discounts on top (gym membership/senior/10% 1/2 case) you could get the discount to 45% or more which brought to bottle price to about $22 inc. tax. We are regular customers of the Manhattan Beach Bristol Farms and when I heard about the sale, I called the wine manager at the store (who knows us) and asked him to put aside a case for me that I would pick up that evening.

When I stopped by about 8, he told me someone had accidentally given it away to another customer but he was going to try to get more the next day. That store alone had sold 20 cases in 4 days of the sale. Apparently, a woman client (of a certain age) had come by on the first day, learned of the sale and spread the word to the rest of the tennis club ladies of Manhattan Beach. There was a run on the Bristol Farms Rombauer inventory to rival the stampede of investors trying to get their money back from Bernie Madoff. He finishes the story and says, “that’s why they call it Cougar Juice!”. [rofl.gif]

I haven’t told that story to my wife yet so…mum’s the word, ok?

40

Whoa Peter, that is a good story.

But $22 with tax is below wholesale cost. So selling 20 cases in 4 days is impressive and may be great for cash flow but it didn’t net them any profit.

I guess the idea is to bring the Cougars in the store with the Chard deal and they will buy lobster tails and goat cheese too… the classic “lost leader.”