How to avoid being pigeon-holed

Winning a specialist merchant award can have an opposing effect on people’s perceptions of a retailer. While the kudos associated with receiving a prize can be a commercially welcome bit of free PR, it can also inadvertently pigeon-hole a business with the inherent risk that the rest of its portfolio is neglected.

Unless, of course, the merchant takes action to ensure this doesn’t happen. Mail-order merchant SWiG is a case in point.
 
SWiG is eager for people to understand that its portfolio extends far beyond South Africa, according to SWiG partner Damon Quinlan. And in order to do this, the retailer, which has won several awards for its impressive range of South African wines, is now considering rolling out a series of consumer tastings as they will not only be beneficial for business, but they will also serve to demonstrate the breadth of SWiG’s portfolio.

Quinlan said: “We came to a lot of peoples’ attention as a result of the specialist merchant awards, but they proved to be a double-edged sword in that many people assumed that we only offered South African wines. We’ve been telling anyone prepared to listen that we have a fantastic range of fantastic boutique wines from around the world but it takes time for the word to spread.”

About 15-20% of SWiG’s portfolio hails from South Africa, but it lists wines from every corner of the globe. The breadth of their offering can be seen from their agencies – Yabby Lake from Australia’s Mornington Peninsula, Cupano from Montalcino, Ferragu from Veneto, Domaine Serene from Oregon, Domaine Mallard from Burgundy and Pyramid Valley Vineyards from Canterbury in New Zealand. And, as they continue to diversify further they are now taking these exclusive agencies out to the wider world of restaurants, hotels and other merchants too.
 
When it comes to being pigeon-holed, you could blame the retailer for not highlighting the diversity of its range, you could blame the trade for only commentating or referring to the company in relation to its award-winning speciality, or you could blame the consumer for concentrating its buying on the merchant’s most famours country or region, but if everyone keeps an open mind and the retailer takes action to avoid this from happening (as SWiG is doing), hopefully pigeon-holing can be avoided in the future.

To see its full range of wines visit www.SWIG.co.uk

Jane Parkinson, 28.09.2009