CraigCamp.com

The October edition of The Oregon Wine Press features a guest column by winemaker Bill Hatcher of A to Z, William Hatcher Wines and Rex Hill. Needless to say, Hatcher knows quite a bit about selling Oregon wine. His column takes a close look at a range of serious problems facing the Oregon wine industry, not the least of which is the dearth of an effective marketing strategy for Oregon wines. Writes Hatcher, At the Oregon Wine Board, marketing is relegated to subcommittee status—and the subcommittee has not met since last winter. Whether the misplaced belief that quality will sell itself, that exclusive events such as OPC and IPNC—certainly worthy in themselves—sufficiently translate to broad markets or that established wineries self-interestedly see no reason to encourage growth and hence, competition, the result is an industry threatening to reduce itself to an island of producers in an ocean of fruit.”

You can read the whole article here: http://www.oregonwinepress.com/index.php?pr=1008_19_Guest

It seems odd, but here in the Northwest surrounded by companies like Intel, Microsoft and Google, few wineries are even aware of Web 2.0 marketing, which is the most effective and cost effective way to market their wines. As Hatcher points out, the industry is facing tough times if they don’t get their marketing act together.