Saturday, February 11, 2006

Stormhoek and social lubrication

Here’s a great quotation (via SMLXL) from Jason Korman of Stormhoek wine, uttered during a podcast conversation with Johnnie Moore and James Cherkoff.

We’ve had a lot of trade press recently. It tends to focus on the free samples to bloggers but they misunderstand what we’re trying to do. It’s like going into a bar and buying someone a drink. You do it not to give them a free drink, but to start a conversation. All we’ve done is use our product as a way to start conversations with people. That’s what marketing today is about: conversations with people. We’re lucky to have a product that is a social lubricant.

Conversing with potential customers via the blogosphere helped Stormhoek to double sales in less than twelve months. Stormhoek is now launching in the US by supplying wine for 100 Dinners in 100 Days - dinners, large and small, given by bloggers.