Wine labels are like book covers. People judge the quality of the wine and whether they will like it or not based on the label. In other words, based solely on the book cover, a person may decide whether a book is good or not.

The same goes for wine.

Just like you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover, you may choose wine based on its label. In fact, a study by an Italian magazine reports descriptions on bottles of wine can convince buyers the flavor of the wine reflects what is on the label.

In other words, the quality of wine is perceived through the marketing of that wine. Similar to book covers, the wine label gives a wine a personality and clamors for your attention. You may be able to determine whether you’ll enjoy the wine from the information on the label.

What you can learn about marketing from a wine label

Here are five things you can learn about marketing from a wine label:

1. Use imagery

We are visual learners. Why?

Our brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text and 90 percent of information sent to our brains are visual. In fact, we remember 6.5 times more of it for a longer time when compared to text.

As a marketer, your job is bring your products and services to life. It is important to send out crisp and compelling messages to your audience to stand out in a noisy marketplace.

Marketing experts estimate that most Americans are exposed to around 4,000 to 10,000 advertisements each day. With the right images you can stand out from the crowd. For example, I stumbled upon this bottle of wine below from Bieler Family Wines. The pink car on the front of the label caught my attention.

But that is not everything that caught my attention which I will discuss more later.

The best way of making sure that your images perform is to learn a lot about your target audience. For example, this bottle of wine caught attention of two males who are 40 years apart.

For this reason, marketers should use relevant and high-quality photos that grab your attention.

2. Be colorful

Color is an excellent way to grab attention and convey meaning. In the case of this Bieler Family wine bottle, the color was pink. Color choice is important.

Learn how you can use color psychology to help build a strong and reliable brand. Various colors make small but powerful associations between a brand and meaning.

So, how do you choose a correct color?

Determine what response you want from your customers. Find out what gets them excited. And find out what their values and aspirations are. For example, Whole Foods use green in its marketing to communicate its food’s natural freshness. Whole Foods has specific reasons and motivations for choosing green to associate themselves with a certain audience.

Whether you realize it or not, color impacts how your brain views the world and how it influences our attitudes, our behaviors, and, above above all, our decisions.

It is critical to understand the impact of color psychology on marketing because 85 percent of consumers cite color as the main reason for buying a product. The right color combination can make all the difference in the world and help your company stand out.

3. Tell a good story

The art of storytelling has been around since before humans invented paper. From drawings in caves to reading stories online, stories have evolved. They are the preferred way of learning because stories intertwine with our subconscious. For generations, stories help us understand the world around us. We are hardwired for stories.

While we may forget most of them almost immediately, ones that are memorable tap into our emotions and stay with us.

Storytelling boils down to 7 common plots and these story structures can help your audience better understand and digest your messages. We hear stories from other humans so it is important to humanize your brand. We need to understand the people behind your brand.

Back to the Bieler Family wine bottle label. As you can read below, the wine label tells a story about Charles Bieler on the back. The label takes us on a journey of his life and how this Born to Run wine bottle is a culmination of his journey.

It is important for your brand to tell the story behind your products and services. This wine bottle communicated its story with the image on the front of the label with an image of the pink car and the description on the back of the label says: “So get in. Put the top down. And never look back.”

You can imagine yourself driving a Cadillac Deville pink in the heart of wine country and drinking this bottle of wine.

4. Be subtle and subliminal

Next, it’s important to consider how to portray your brand.

• humorous?
• reliable?
• friendly?

Determine how you want your brand to sound and behave as if it was a human being. What is your brand’s personality, voice, and tone? How does that personality fit into your messages?

Back to Bieler Family wine bottle, this brand wanted to tap into your emotion of having fun, and how you want to enjoy life with their “put the top down in your car” message. This subtle and subliminal message taps into your subconscious mind, grabbing your attention, and planting the seed of curiosity.

The art of mastering subtlety and subliminal messages is by creating powerful messages visually, through text, and through communicating stories in a cool and confident way.

It is important your marketing and communications are not pushy, needy, or spammy. Your target audience is more likely to respond positively to your messages of they are subtle and subliminal.

5. Write well

Let’s go back to the wine description from the Bieler Family wine bottle description again. If you read it over again (I pulled the wine label copy from their website so you could read it better), you can see that it is written well:

Born to Run Cabernet Sauvignon

When he was 22 Charles Bieler finished college early, painted a 1965 Cadillac Deville pink, and drove it straight into a wine industry he knew nothing about. For two years he lived out of his Caddy, touring the country and selling his father’s rosé out of the trunk. Over 20 years later and he still runs on that same passion and hustle. The result is a rich, soft California cabernet sauvignon blended with dark brooding and structured cabernet sauvignon from Washington State. A gorgeous blend that’s all its own and more complex than its parts. So get in. Put the top down. And never look back.

The power of great writing

It has great writing throughout. For example, look at this sentence:

For two years he lived out of his Caddy, touring the country and selling his father’s rosé out of the trunk.

You can imagine Charles (or even you) doing this.

Writing has the become the foundation for good marketing. When you speak plain English, your readers will understand what you are saying and will want to read what you have to say.

When you are writing for you brand, you should ask yourself:

• Does this copy tell people something new?
• Is it insightful and helpful?
• Is it entertaining?
• Are you addressing an overlooked topic?
• Does your writing make people think differently?
• Do you make your audience feel smart?
• Will your writing stand above others who have written about the topic before?

Finally, do you read your writing out loud?

Answering these questions will help you improve your writing. Take a look at each one of your sentences and see how many words you really need. Can you say something the same way but with less words? A sentence of 10 words can be 5 words.

Less is more with writing.

The Bieler Family wine bottle description maximized every word. They had a purpose for telling their story. A simple but powerful story. They said in a short amount of words. And they succinctly communicated how they become where they were today and why it should matter to you.

Bringing it all together

You can find marketing inspiration everywhere you look. You can learn a lot about marketing from a wine label and by following these 5 things you can improve your marketing. Use imagery. Be colorful. Be subtle and subliminal. Write well.

What do you think? What do you learn about marketing from a wine label? Does a wine label persuade you to buy that bottle of wine? Can you improve your marketing from analyzing a wine label?