Joe wondered, “How could you put a bottle of wine through a flat mailbox slot if shipped to you from a winery?”
The flat wine bottle was designed by Garcon Wines when wine lover Joe Revell joined an online wine club with his friends; they soon became frustrated because they missed deliveries that turned up when they were out at work. Noticing how his neighbor’s Graze snack boxes slid effortlessly through the letterbox, Joe had a revelation: why don’t we do the same with wine? Why are there no flat wine bottles?
Joe teamed up with wine retailing entrepreneur Santiago Navarro, who has excellent knowledge of the wine industry, and they set about researching wine packaging and UK letterboxes.
As determined entrepreneurs, they resolved to ensure that when you return from a hard day’s work, there’s wine waiting on the doormat and that this wine arrives in a vessel that looks beautiful on a dining table and is as close to the traditional wine bottle as possible. And, it fits through your mail slot.
The Wine World is Flat
Designing a revolutionary new bottle is thirsty work. The folks at Garçon Wines they have spared no effort to bring a superior and highly differentiated product into the marketplace. Flat is novel and distinct.
They worked hard to ensure that the materials used in their bottles are the safe & sound and environmentally friendly available.
They took care to ensure that customers drink to the health of our planet: Garçon letterbox wine bottles are made of 100% recycled PET and are 100% recyclable afterward to safeguard our environment.
Bottled Up
For many years I have been critical of wine packaging, particularly bottles that aren’t distinctive on the shelf. Luxury items like expensive perfumes and spirits all get to live in elegant and unique jars or bottles. I could go into a liquor store and with my eyes closed, feel the shape of a Jack Daniels or the Amaretto bottle and know its distinct form.
Did you know the global perfume market is only $73 billion dollars compared to wine’s $300 billion according to a recent post by my friend Robert Joseph? That means they have some hefty prices and margins and it shows in how they go to market. Why isn’t the wine business diverse with different shaped bottles too?
It has always puzzled me why more brands haven’t leverage distinctive bottle shapes as part of the branding activities, especially in the fine and premium wine segments.
Lessons from Garcon’s Flat Wine Bottles
- Sometimes when you solve a very particular problem, you uncover a more significant opportunity for brand differentiation. Flat wine bottles do solve the problem of fitting through a postal slot, but they also open up an opportunity for new stories and brands to stand out from the crowd. I hope they don’t stop innovating with bottle shapes.
- Packaging for most brands is the most crucial method of selling their product. Just look at method cleaning products brand as a classic example of signaling different from all the other brands on the shelf.
- Many spirits sell in flat bottles, so sometimes a unique idea can be tangential to your category. You don’t have to look too far from wine to spirits to get lots of ideas to sell your cabernet or sauvignon blanc.
Packaging design can be an afterthought in industries that are so used to everything having to fit on standard machines. Should packaging machines limit creative approaches to branding?
I can think of ten important roles for packaging. Nothing flat about these ideas.
Is your marketing a bit flat? You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Try my new chat feature on my site if you have a quick question.
Photos courtesy of Garcon Wines, all rights reserved. Photo courtesy of method, all rights reserved.
