Ep. 354 Steve Raye U.S. Market-Ready | Preface

Thanks for tuning in. I'm Steve Ray, author of How To Get US Market Ready. And in this podcast, I'm going to share with you some of the lessons I've learned from thirty years in the wine and spirits business, helping brands enter and grow in the US market. I've heard it said that experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. My goal with the book and this podcast is to share my experience and the lessons learned from it with you so you can apply those lessons and be successful in America. So let's get into it. You are, write a book. And that's a suggestion I've been hearing for years from a lot of friends in the industry. And like many other folks, I found a ton of excuses not to. I'm too busy working on paying clients, being the primary one. But the more work I did consulting with new to the US brands and lecturing teaching and writing on the subject, it became clear the information I had was really useful and valued, but it needed to reach a wider audience. And then Stevie Kim called with an idea having successfully published Italian wine grapes unplugged the prior year. True to her nature, it was more of a command than a suggestion. And like so many of the projects she conjures up, it took on a life of its own. With our team at the wine to digital operation in Verona helping us, we took an idea and made it into the reality you're listening to right now. I get a lot of calls on a regular basis from people from Austria to Zimbabwe. Asking a common set of questions or variants thereof. Like, can you help me find an importer? Can you connect me with a distributor? Or I've already launched my brand, but I'm not getting the support I expected from my importer or distributors What do I have to do to get them to pay attention to my brand and actually sell it? Or I tried to do it myself, but made a bunch of mistakes. Can you help me get restarted in the US? And last, how do I bring my wine or spirit brand to the US? I had a coworker once who described me as the guy with the answers to all the questions nobody asks. And my glib response was they're just not asking the right questions. In order to successfully break into and grow in America, the critical first step for producers is to get educated on how the market works and then develop a customized plan so that they can make sure they're doing not just the right things, but doing the right things in the right order. The US market is rapidly evolving, driven in part by two major forces. The first being the seventy seven million plus age cohort of millennials having reached legal drinking age. The second being the globalization of communication and awareness resulting from the confluence of the internet, smartphone, and emergence of social media. The latter has created channels and tools that allow brands to rapidly reach audiences, orders of magnitude larger than TV magazines and newspapers were able to deliver just a few years ago. The impact of that communication is influential. Recent Nielsen data showed that only thirty three percent of people surveyed trusted ads, but ninety percent trusted peer recommendations. America is also a curious market. Not just open to, but seeking innovation and creativity. Consumers and not just millennials are driven by an interest in discovery of what's new and what's next. On the spirit side, examples include Fireball and Ramchata. And on the wine side, we've seen similar major markets created with the growth of red blends, Rossello, Moscado, and Malbec. Nineteen crimes, such as one example of innovation that goes beyond product, with a wine that built a million case business based on a creative augmented reality app. On top of the product and population trends, we're also witnessing a concomitant growth and availability. Wind selling locations have increased to five hundred and fifty three thousand in two thousand eighteen from three hundred and sixty three thousand just ten years ago, Perneals and data. Cocktail culture has revitalized the spirits and bar business. Indeed, a new version of Cool is being defined daily by influencers using social media and tools such as Instagram and new shopping tools, such as delivery within an hour, pioneers, mini bar delivery, and drizzly. And tools such as wine searcher are making information transparent, and therefore products more accessible. Mass merchants such as Costco and Amazon Whole Foods are reshaping how Americans shop, not just for wine and spirits, but all products. And e commerce is expected to grow dramatically from a currently limited base. And to top all that off, both spirits and wines are going through premiumization. And that's a made up word to describe consumer purchase trend towards more expensive and higher quality wines and spirits. And that represents increased sales revenue and margin potential for everyone. So clearly, opportunity exists in America for export brands, whether they are already established in other markets, or new to the world. Remember, though, opportunity is merely potential. It has very little value unless it is exploited and made real. And that's what this book is all about. Well, that's it for today. I don't want to take up any more of your time. See you next week on how to get US market ready presented by the Italian wine podcast. Missus Steve Ray never confuse accomplishments for results.