Ep. 384 Steve Raye U.S. Market-Ready | Want to Know vs Need to Know

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. Hello, and welcome back. This week's session is going to be on what export wine and spirit suppliers need to know about the US market. Some years ago, we conducted some proprietary research among export wine and spirit producers. Regarding what type of information they most wanted to know about the US market. And here are the questions that weighed most on their minds. Market structure and regulations, finding an importer. How do you get one? Open versus control states, what strategies should you employ and where should you bring your product? Selling to accounts with locations in multiple states, is it the right strategy for you and your brand? Off premise? On premise? Independence stores versus supermarkets, understanding which states allow wine or spirits to be sold in supermarkets, drug stores, mass merchants, and which states don't. What this means for you in terms of marketing, pricing, and distribution? And last on the market structure and regulations, distributors, understanding what they really do, what you can expect from them, and what they will expect from you. Very important point. Well, let's turn to marketing too. The answers here were interesting. E commerce is a very compelling strategy for smaller boutique or specialty brands. That was true then several years ago, as I said, and that's especially true now as I record this during the COVID nineteen. Crisis, so much of the business is, shifting to e commerce. Many suppliers recognize that they only need to be in distribution in one store to be able to sell in multiple states. That's an interesting thought. But retailers can ship to consumers in about thirty other states. So if you only have a retailer in, say, New York State or California, they can ship from there to many other states. So you may not need to get distribution in a given state in order to be able to self direct to consumers. We'll talk more about that in the e commerce section. The second point on their marketing scores. How do I get my product scored? How should I effectively use them in US? And what are the options if the brand is not currently imported? One of the things, a lot of people find out as a surprise is many of the competitions only accept entries from brands that are already imported. So that begs the question for brands that are not currently imported. How can I get my wines reviewed? And in fact, there are about four or five competitions, and we'll go over that in detail in the competitions section that allow entries by currently non imported brands into the US. Public Relations, how consumers get information about wines, and spirits, what publications and websites they read, and how to capitalize on a growing digital industry, understanding the impact and importance of what I call traditional print wine publications, such as wine spectator, wine enthusiast, wine advocate. And how they have been transcended by social media platforms, apps, tools, and services. The days of one spectator's hegemony over the conversation in the US market are long gone, and they're, orders of magnitude more effective ways of doing it, things like Vivo and wine searcher. There are other ways to compete. Look at non traditional marketing distribution and sales strategies. One that's popped up recently that's doing very well is Libdip highly recommend that you give them a check. If you're thinking of coming into the US, improving your case, Libdib, may be the best strategy you can use. That's w w l I b d I b, Libdib. And then, of course, social media certainly had a has had an incredible impact in the American wine and spirits market and generated a whole lot of tools that you can use. Again, we're gonna go into that in detail in social media chapter. And, lastly, e commerce, why it's important and how you can participate in it and how it differs from traditional retail, both pros and cons. It isn't something that is an either or, it's a both end. And the last point under this was operations, contracts and agreements, why you need to get it in writing and what should be included. I find this to be, like, one of the most incomprehensible things. Many suppliers are so happy to have an importer talking to them that don't even bring up the subject of writing a contract. Well, at the very least, you should have a letter of agreement or an email stating who's gonna do what and when. And in fact, I have all chapter in the book later. We'll be covering it in detail where we list all of the things that, you might wanna consider in a contract. I highly recommend that if you're going to do a contract, you use an industry experienced lawyer to help draft that, but just in case the chapter covers a lot of things that are common. Second thing under operations is timelines. How long will it take to find an importer than the distributor or distributor network and to actually get your product on the shelf? Recognize that it always takes a lot longer, like maybe three times longer than you think, and that one of the biggest mistakes people make is rushing too fast. Like, they have, deadline in their mind that I have to have the product in the market this year in May. Well, if the market isn't going to allow you to get in May and you get pushed back until October, you gotta really rethink whether it makes any sense to introduce an OMD, which may be the worst time to introduce a brand. Market tricks. How often someone from your winery or distillery should visit the US, and what should their priorities be when traveling? Things like meeting with the importer distributor, management for business reviews, hosting wine dinners, putting on lectures, working with sales reps in market. We call those work withs. Also, take a look at trade events, an overview of the main trade shows and events in the US. And again, all of these are covered in detail later in the book. And then lastly, whether or not you should have a brand ambassador. What is the job description? Why you might need one? I have some more detail on that later in the book as well. The interesting thing on brand ambassador I'd like to mention is that ten years ago it was a unique concept and it was a differentiator, a point of difference that makes a difference. Now they're much more common, and I'm reminded of, was in a bar listening to a sales rep talk to a bartender about a new scotch and introduced himself as being the new scotch brand ambassador and the guy said, I already have twelve of them. I really can't handle any more help. So something to think about. Well, that's it for today. I don't wanna take up any more of your time. See you next week on how to get US market ready presented by the Italian wine podcast. Hi. This is Steve Ray. This is a great line from Samuel Johnson. I'm sorry I have sent such a long letter, but I didn't have time to write a short one.