Roy Cecchetti sits at a wooden desk in a 200-square-foot shack, a former tack room in his backyard that serves as an office for his $15 million company.
It is perhaps a fitting home for his latest brand, "Austerity," which his company launched last month.
The modest Sonoma office space belies the success of Cecchetti Wine Co., which has grown at double-digit rates over the past five years and has, like Cecchetti's previous ventures, repeatedly been named among the fastest-growing companies in the country by Inc. Magazine.
The latest branding opportunity occurred to Cecchetti as he watched the morning news on CNBC following the Italian elections, which recently roiled stock markets worldwide as voters rejected austerity-minded politics.
"It's kind of a play on the times we're in," Cecchetti said. "All you hear about is this word 'austerity,' and it dawned on me that it would be a cool brand name."
His proposition with Austerity, like his other brands, is to deliver wine that tastes great but doesn't break the bank. The company took its message to Wall Street, attempting to deliver bottles of Austerity to the CEOs of major banks with a video crew in tow. They didn't make it very far into the banks, but they're hoping to try again in Washington, D.C., if they can figure out how to deal with those pesky rules regulating gifts to lawmakers.
Brand development is crucial for companies like Cecchetti Wine Co., which owns no winery, vineyards or tasting room. It's all about delivering the message, by catching a customer's eye on a crowded supermarket shelf or creating viral web campaigns spread by social media.
The company owns five brands, including Redtree and Line 39, which have both received "Impact Hot Prospect Awards" and were named "Rising Star Growth Brands" by Beverage Information Group. Cecchetti Wine Co. has been named among the hottest wineries in the state repeatedly by Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates, a wine industry consulting firm based in Woodside.
In 2012, Cecchetti Wine Co. enjoyed its fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth, selling 340,000 cases of wine and achieving more than $15 million in revenues, Cecchetti said. This year he expects to sell 400,000 cases with $17 million in revenues. The operation is lean, with seven employees nationwide.
The company is an avid user of social media to promote its brands. Each has its own Facebook page, and the Line 39 page offers pairings ranging from creamy broccoli soup with cabernet sauvignon to M&M's with merlot.
"The target for all our wines is Millennials, which is the future of the wine industry," Cecchetti said. "Those kids, as I call them, are driving wine."
A promotional flier called "Austerity 2012 Annual Report," sent with wine samples to media outlets, includes a chart showing that Millennials, aged 21-34, mostly buy wines priced under $15, and buy less wine as it gets more expensive; the opposite buying habits of Baby Boomers.
"My generation, we're hung up on terroir, and this and that, and I can't drink that wine because we're having fish," Cecchetti said. "You drink whatever you like. Whatever you want. And it's hard to change that mindset of our generation, but I think this financial crisis we went through showed people of my generation that why in the world do I have to spend $50 to $100 on a bottle of wine?"
Millennials buy wines because they like the label, or they think the name sounds cool, unlike Baby Boomers, who are more likely to buy wines based on reputation or reviews, Cecchetti said.
"Brand names are important, but the packaging is just as important," Cecchetti said. "You've got to get that consumer to pick it up."
Line 39, a brand named for the latitude line that runs through Lake County, where most of the brand's grapes are sourced, has a look specifically designed to catch the eye of particular customers. For the Line 39 sauvignon blanc, the design firm CF Napa chose a light blue hue that resembles the color of a jewelry box from Tiffany, and a bright orange screw cap, to draw the attention of its predominantly female consumer base.
"You can see that a mile away," Cecchetti said.
The brand's red wines - cabernet sauvignon, merlot and petit sirah - are outfitted with a cream-colored label designed to appeal to men.
"I don't think it's enough anymore to create a wonderful wine," said David Schuemann, owner of CF Napa, which re-designed labels for Line 39 and Redtree. "It used to be enough to follow the European version, to create a wine, and have a very information-based label, or very traditional."
But marketing to Millennials is different, he said.
"It's definitely a demographic that doesn't like to be pandered to, overly marketed to," Schuemann said. "They're very much about discovery, so creating brands that they feel are something they've discovered, that are not mass market. Creating brands that feel more boutique."
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