We hope that the previous Marketing Tips' strategies to build a strong brand and practices to maintain consumer trust have been helpful in planning or reviewing your branding strategy. But branding isn’t something you can set and forget.

Welcome to Marketing Tip Monday with SIP Certified. We know customers are looking for wines labeled as sustainable. While our longer-form episodes help you learn about the latest science and research for the wine industry, these twice-monthly micro podcasts will help you share your dedication to sustainable winegrowing so you can show your customers that you share their values.

This week we’ll go over ways you can manage the brand strategies you have already put in place.

Ensure Consistency with a Style Guide

Consistent imagery and language help to provide the voice and visual presence of your brand. A style guide is a document that provides guidelines for the ways in which you communicate through and about your brand. Style guides typically include your logo and any variations of it, your color palette, typography details, and design standards (think minimalist, modern, etc). Having all of this standardized and readily available for reference will help to give direction and provide cohesion for all of your visual communications.

SIP Tip: check out our Style Guide!

Bring in the Team

It’s important that your entire team is on the same page when it comes to branding efforts. Start your next team meeting with an overview of your branding strategy so that everyone is aware of your brand's communication style and messaging. And be open to their feedback! Every team member has a different experience when it comes to interacting with your brand. They can provide valuable insights into how the brand is being perceived, what efforts seem to be working, and which ones can use improvement.

Continually Share Your Story

Whether it’s in the tasting room, on your website, in your sales calls, or in casual conversations, telling your brand’s story in an open and authentic way is key to a consistent brand identity that people will recall and trust. Did you know that talking about your specific sustainability efforts can boost wine sales? In her recent research, Kathy Kelley Professor of Horticultural Marketing and Retail Business Management at Penn State University found that when brands shared stories about their sustainable practices and why they used them, consumers were willing to pay $1 - $4 more for a bottle of wine! Listen to her 22-minute interview with Craig Macmillan to learn more about her findings, and how you can experience these benefits.

More SIP tips to come!

Searches for sustainable goods have increased by 71% since 2016 making it more important than ever to share your message of sustainability. Continue to tell your customers how your brand protects the health of the people and the planet. It lets them know that by purchasing your wine they are supporting a brand that shares their values. Stay tuned for more ways to communicate your good work. 

Stay tuned for more Marketing Tip Mondays, where we will help you explore ways of incorporating your brand's sustainable practices into your messaging.

Check out the show notes for links to our latest tips to help you build your brand strategy and to sign up for our biweekly Marketing Tips newsletter. Until next time, this is Sustainable Winegrowing with the Vineyard Team.

References:

• **SIP Smart Training online course
• 161: Use Storytelling to Sell More Wine  
• 3 Ways to Build a Strong Brand
• Did you know...?
• Do consumers trust your brand?
• Marketing Tips eNewsletter
• SIP Certified