hello everybody Tom Ellsworth here and
welcome to case studies with the biz doc
this week we’re gonna talk about
yellowtail wine you know when you think
about wine you think about California
and maybe you think about France and
people that know their wine really well
may know other areas of the world like
Spain and Italy and even Argentina that
have some great wines but the typical
American and the typical person probably
doesn’t think about those they just want
to have a great bottle of wine from time
to time with friends and it was an
Australian company called the yellowtail
that brought their brand to the United
States and blew the lid off the market
I’m gonna show you a couple things today
when we talk about yellowtail the first
is lesson one will be know your target
customer they did a great job
identifying the target focusing on the
target and executing the second thing is
focus within anything you do you’re
gonna hear how they refuse to step away
from their plan stay focused on it and
it became a hit because they didn’t
panic and change anything and lastly
with all types of marketing be smart but
trust the numbers and trust the research
and let that be your friend as you move
forward so let’s take a look at
yellowtail well yellowtail started in
Australia as I said there was a family
an Italian immigrant family in Australia
called the Casella family and they owned
a basic large vineyard and they were
making bulk grapes and selling them to
other people and marketing some wines of
their own and they were doing pretty
well and enjoyed time in Australia and
had a really nice market presence and
everything and in 2001 that all changed
when a u.s. importer called W Deutsche
and Sons or the Deutsch family I guess
it was called they were a half a billion
dollar distributor in the United States
meaning they would look around the world
for wines they thought that could be
distributed and sold in the United
States and think about a type of wine or
a price point bring all that together
and then they would go out and
distribute it by selling it to wine
stores and locations where you and I go
and buy it they had been doing theirs
research and they said you know we’ve
been successful with an entry-level
French wine that was right around in the
dollar mark a variety of things that
they were doing to play in that market
they said you know there is a space in
the US market for a ten dollar wine that
could be an everyday wine or just a
friends and family hanging out on the
weekend wine not like a birthday or
anniversary fine wine for special
occasion but just a wine you could drink
just about any time they did the
research from the US market and they
discovered the tastes of the US consumer
very specific they found that people if
they’re gonna buy an expensive bottle of
wine they wanted it to have more of a
strong fruit flavor they didn’t like
certain dryness and other attributes it
really weren’t interested in they were
just interested in something that was
easy to buy easy to understand more
importantly tasted really nice and was
easy to drink the Deutsch family’s
knowledge of wines and growers around
the world led them to Australia and they
knew in Australia there were vineyards
and types of grapes that would produce
the kind of fruit and the kind of wines
that they were looking for for the
American consumer so they reached out to
the American Australian trade commission
of all people that’s right they called
the government and they said we’re
looking to partner with an Australian
vineyard so that we could kind of create
a brand around a wine bring it to the
United States and we want it to be like
this like this like this
Australia Trade Commission says you know
it’s our job to help kind of make these
partnerships and we know of somebody so
they were directed to the Casella family
remember I mentioned them and they’ve
been making wines for a while they got
together at the Casella family and the
deutsche distributor from America the
casella’s which were the Italian
immigrants running incredible vineyard
in Australia they got together and they
made a partnership a joint then venture
to bring a wine to the US and the
casella’s came up with the yellowtail
brand which is a wallaby and all the
coloring and everything you see here
they did the branding and marketing in
line with what Deutsch had already been
talking about the consumer it was a
great marriage it worked out very very
well they did some very clever and
innovative marketing and they brought it
to the United States you know one of the
things they did in their mark
was very I don’t know if you want to
call it luck because it really wasn’t
luck there’s a lot of researchers
involved but it was really they hit it
out of the park on the first try and
that was they had some specific things
they wanted to do about eliminating the
complexity of buying wine and
eliminating kind of the the snootiness
and the fufu ness of is that a good
brand is that a good brand they wanted
to make it very very easy for people to
understand and so they put together what
they called no jargon so no wine
terminology nothing complex just very
simple straightforward stuff that a
person coming to shop for it could
easily understand and pick up a bottle
of wine for friends and family and basic
you know daily sipping it was really I
thought very very clever so clever in
fact that in their first year they
really took off they dorch family and
all the distribution they were doing in
the US they had inroads with a lot of
people including a very large grocery
chain discount grocery chain called
Costco and the Deutsch family cut a deal
with Costco which really led to the
explosion of it well I’m not talked
about two things now first of all I’m
going to talk about what happened in
terms of the volume and then I’m gonna
get to the marketing a little bit so
let’s go look at some charts right here
when they introduced this wine in 2001
they did about a hundred thousand cases
wine is measured in how many cases did
you sell but take a look at this in a
few short years four and a half years
but to be all of a sudden they’re at
eight million cases and they believe it
or not in 2006 I believe it was
they outsold all French wines in America
outsold them this is one easy drinking
well marketed fantastically branded wine
from Australia so Italian immigrants
operating a vineyard in Australia made a
wine for the American market with the
Deutsch family you know you’re in a
global market when you have all those
names and nationalities coming together
nonetheless
they blew the lid off of it were very
successful the key to the success wasn’t
just the deutsches family being able to
distribute it and get it into the stores
because that was key an experienced
winery and an experienced distributor
working together they got a lot farther
than any startup vineyard would any
startup winery because one they both had
experience but they also had a new
product trying to break into a new lane
and they literally created new value one
of my one of my favorite books I love
reading from time to time and I reread
it it’s called blue ocean it’s a simple
book about marketing strategy you may
have heard of it if you haven’t heard of
it go get yourself a copy and read
through it and I think you’re really
going to pick up some tips for your own
marketing regardless of the company are
in so let’s take a look at the blue
ocean model and find out what the
Deutsch distributors and the Casella
winemakers did that had such a
tremendous effect first of all the blue
ocean strategy is based on one simple
premise let’s build a new value in a
brand new blue ocean that nobody has
sailed on the opposite is a red ocean
where there’s so many competitors
they’re like sharks that are attacking
each other and it’s a red ocean and
there’s no fish there’s just predators
attacking each other there’s probably no
profits left because everybody’s
discounting trying to get customers and
it’s probably not room for brand new
products so a blue ocean is where you
create new value and a new product to
have a new success and people say well
wait a minute wines been around for
hundreds of years how could this be new
well let’s go take a look they created a
wine basically for the coca-cola
Budweiser consumer this wasn’t a wine
for super high-end people who knew all
their wines and knew all the terminology
and this wines very dry and this duh duh
duh duh duh duh and this one’s got mm
too much tannins and all these things
that wine lovers would know they built a
great wine for the American consumer to
enjoy with friends family whatever and
is basically the Budweiser coca-cola of
wines but it’s wine and it was a great
product the blue oceans framework
suggests this what can you do
to raise the level of certain factors
above what is currently in the industry
now what can you do to reduce certain
things what can you eliminate and what
can you create because if you bring it
all together you might create a blue
ocean where no one is sailing before so
let’s take a look at what they did with
yellow tail first what did they reduce
well the first thing they reduced was
wine complexity all the jargon and
everything that went along with that and
oh that’s not a good vineyard this is a
good vineyard well how do you know which
vineyards which I’m just at Costco
trying to make a decision right they
eliminated all that so one of the things
that was nice was all the terminologies
all the stuff that went with boom they
eliminated it and they reduced the
complexities of the understandings that
consumer needed and they created in the
product an easy to drink fruity flavor
that matched with the American palate
and taste and what they found is
Americans like bold fruit flavors and
you know what’s interesting it also
pointed them to something else they
found in their research that this is
also why Starbucks had been popular with
America because it was a strong coffee
flavor that people getting a cup of
coffee doggone it I want a cup of coffee
that tastes like coffee well that same
attitude is well you know what I want
wine that tastes like fruit something
that’s fruity not fruit juice but
something that’s got a really rich and
good bold flavor but it has to be easy
drinking and also create you know a lot
of fun and ease when you’re going out to
buy it so they did all that and then
they eliminated a lot of the other
complexities so basically what they did
they eliminated complexities they
created a wine that was easy to
understand and easy to buy and they
created a new position in the market a
wine you could buy at Costco identified
by the label what it’s all about and go
enjoy a quality product not cheap box
wine that you might buy at 7-eleven and
I’m not picking on 7-eleven I’m not
picking on cheap box wine there are
people who enjoy that this was different
this was really set to be a good quality
wine product
and so with the casella’s and great
grapes from Australia and great
marketing and a distributor in the
deutsches that knew what they were doing
and getting the signature on a contract
from Costco they blew the lid off the
market and suddenly they were one of
them not just successful with yellow
tailless new product they were one of
the leaders in the American wine market
that’s what happened you know it’s
really interesting when I when I think
about this I think the lessons come back
number one know your target customer
they knew who they were going out this
was going to be like a Budweiser
coca-cola of wine but a quality wine
product not a cheap wine it gives you a
headache
second focuses your friend once they
focused on the consumer they focused on
finding the right grapes and the right
vineyard which led Doge to talk to
Australia trade commission which led
them to find the Casella family and the
marriage was made and lastly when it’s
time for marketing you know maybe they
were trying maybe they weren’t but they
created a blue ocean for themselves a
new wine product that you didn’t have to
go to a wine store and buy and go to a
wine store and have to understand all
this terminology and all these different
you know do I have to go to school
before I can go to a wine store and
actually buy something no they made it
so it’s easy to buy at Costco and then
when you bought it you say hey this was
pretty good this was a really really
great wine to sit here this afternoon
and have just a great wine when it’s
time for anniversary with your wife by
the champagne and by the good stuff but
whenever you guys hang out with your
friends and have a glass of wine go pick
up a yellowtail so the last lesson I
think is there was a little luck and
that the Deutsch family distributors and
the casella’s found each other kind of
by accident but at the end of it I think
we can see that between the two of them
this partnership was a success so as you
build your business I think what you
need to understand is there may be a
little luck but more often than not
there’s a lot of intentional nature to
building your business and staying
focused on what it is you’re doing
sticking with that be smart about your
marketing and guess what you may lead a
market so here we go all right if you
like this please come back Fridays and
see these case studies and subscribe
to value tainment the best content on
the internet for entrepreneurs
until then I’m Tom Ellsworth and I hope I left you better than I found yet
welcome to case studies with the biz doc
this week we’re gonna talk about
yellowtail wine you know when you think
about wine you think about California
and maybe you think about France and
people that know their wine really well
may know other areas of the world like
Spain and Italy and even Argentina that
have some great wines but the typical
American and the typical person probably
doesn’t think about those they just want
to have a great bottle of wine from time
to time with friends and it was an
Australian company called the yellowtail
that brought their brand to the United
States and blew the lid off the market
I’m gonna show you a couple things today
when we talk about yellowtail the first
is lesson one will be know your target
customer they did a great job
identifying the target focusing on the
target and executing the second thing is
focus within anything you do you’re
gonna hear how they refuse to step away
from their plan stay focused on it and
it became a hit because they didn’t
panic and change anything and lastly
with all types of marketing be smart but
trust the numbers and trust the research
and let that be your friend as you move
forward so let’s take a look at
yellowtail well yellowtail started in
Australia as I said there was a family
an Italian immigrant family in Australia
called the Casella family and they owned
a basic large vineyard and they were
making bulk grapes and selling them to
other people and marketing some wines of
their own and they were doing pretty
well and enjoyed time in Australia and
had a really nice market presence and
everything and in 2001 that all changed
when a u.s. importer called W Deutsche
and Sons or the Deutsch family I guess
it was called they were a half a billion
dollar distributor in the United States
meaning they would look around the world
for wines they thought that could be
distributed and sold in the United
States and think about a type of wine or
a price point bring all that together
and then they would go out and
distribute it by selling it to wine
stores and locations where you and I go
and buy it they had been doing theirs
research and they said you know we’ve
been successful with an entry-level
French wine that was right around in the
dollar mark a variety of things that
they were doing to play in that market
they said you know there is a space in
the US market for a ten dollar wine that
could be an everyday wine or just a
friends and family hanging out on the
weekend wine not like a birthday or
anniversary fine wine for special
occasion but just a wine you could drink
just about any time they did the
research from the US market and they
discovered the tastes of the US consumer
very specific they found that people if
they’re gonna buy an expensive bottle of
wine they wanted it to have more of a
strong fruit flavor they didn’t like
certain dryness and other attributes it
really weren’t interested in they were
just interested in something that was
easy to buy easy to understand more
importantly tasted really nice and was
easy to drink the Deutsch family’s
knowledge of wines and growers around
the world led them to Australia and they
knew in Australia there were vineyards
and types of grapes that would produce
the kind of fruit and the kind of wines
that they were looking for for the
American consumer so they reached out to
the American Australian trade commission
of all people that’s right they called
the government and they said we’re
looking to partner with an Australian
vineyard so that we could kind of create
a brand around a wine bring it to the
United States and we want it to be like
this like this like this
Australia Trade Commission says you know
it’s our job to help kind of make these
partnerships and we know of somebody so
they were directed to the Casella family
remember I mentioned them and they’ve
been making wines for a while they got
together at the Casella family and the
deutsche distributor from America the
casella’s which were the Italian
immigrants running incredible vineyard
in Australia they got together and they
made a partnership a joint then venture
to bring a wine to the US and the
casella’s came up with the yellowtail
brand which is a wallaby and all the
coloring and everything you see here
they did the branding and marketing in
line with what Deutsch had already been
talking about the consumer it was a
great marriage it worked out very very
well they did some very clever and
innovative marketing and they brought it
to the United States you know one of the
things they did in their mark
was very I don’t know if you want to
call it luck because it really wasn’t
luck there’s a lot of researchers
involved but it was really they hit it
out of the park on the first try and
that was they had some specific things
they wanted to do about eliminating the
complexity of buying wine and
eliminating kind of the the snootiness
and the fufu ness of is that a good
brand is that a good brand they wanted
to make it very very easy for people to
understand and so they put together what
they called no jargon so no wine
terminology nothing complex just very
simple straightforward stuff that a
person coming to shop for it could
easily understand and pick up a bottle
of wine for friends and family and basic
you know daily sipping it was really I
thought very very clever so clever in
fact that in their first year they
really took off they dorch family and
all the distribution they were doing in
the US they had inroads with a lot of
people including a very large grocery
chain discount grocery chain called
Costco and the Deutsch family cut a deal
with Costco which really led to the
explosion of it well I’m not talked
about two things now first of all I’m
going to talk about what happened in
terms of the volume and then I’m gonna
get to the marketing a little bit so
let’s go look at some charts right here
when they introduced this wine in 2001
they did about a hundred thousand cases
wine is measured in how many cases did
you sell but take a look at this in a
few short years four and a half years
but to be all of a sudden they’re at
eight million cases and they believe it
or not in 2006 I believe it was
they outsold all French wines in America
outsold them this is one easy drinking
well marketed fantastically branded wine
from Australia so Italian immigrants
operating a vineyard in Australia made a
wine for the American market with the
Deutsch family you know you’re in a
global market when you have all those
names and nationalities coming together
nonetheless
they blew the lid off of it were very
successful the key to the success wasn’t
just the deutsches family being able to
distribute it and get it into the stores
because that was key an experienced
winery and an experienced distributor
working together they got a lot farther
than any startup vineyard would any
startup winery because one they both had
experience but they also had a new
product trying to break into a new lane
and they literally created new value one
of my one of my favorite books I love
reading from time to time and I reread
it it’s called blue ocean it’s a simple
book about marketing strategy you may
have heard of it if you haven’t heard of
it go get yourself a copy and read
through it and I think you’re really
going to pick up some tips for your own
marketing regardless of the company are
in so let’s take a look at the blue
ocean model and find out what the
Deutsch distributors and the Casella
winemakers did that had such a
tremendous effect first of all the blue
ocean strategy is based on one simple
premise let’s build a new value in a
brand new blue ocean that nobody has
sailed on the opposite is a red ocean
where there’s so many competitors
they’re like sharks that are attacking
each other and it’s a red ocean and
there’s no fish there’s just predators
attacking each other there’s probably no
profits left because everybody’s
discounting trying to get customers and
it’s probably not room for brand new
products so a blue ocean is where you
create new value and a new product to
have a new success and people say well
wait a minute wines been around for
hundreds of years how could this be new
well let’s go take a look they created a
wine basically for the coca-cola
Budweiser consumer this wasn’t a wine
for super high-end people who knew all
their wines and knew all the terminology
and this wines very dry and this duh duh
duh duh duh duh and this one’s got mm
too much tannins and all these things
that wine lovers would know they built a
great wine for the American consumer to
enjoy with friends family whatever and
is basically the Budweiser coca-cola of
wines but it’s wine and it was a great
product the blue oceans framework
suggests this what can you do
to raise the level of certain factors
above what is currently in the industry
now what can you do to reduce certain
things what can you eliminate and what
can you create because if you bring it
all together you might create a blue
ocean where no one is sailing before so
let’s take a look at what they did with
yellow tail first what did they reduce
well the first thing they reduced was
wine complexity all the jargon and
everything that went along with that and
oh that’s not a good vineyard this is a
good vineyard well how do you know which
vineyards which I’m just at Costco
trying to make a decision right they
eliminated all that so one of the things
that was nice was all the terminologies
all the stuff that went with boom they
eliminated it and they reduced the
complexities of the understandings that
consumer needed and they created in the
product an easy to drink fruity flavor
that matched with the American palate
and taste and what they found is
Americans like bold fruit flavors and
you know what’s interesting it also
pointed them to something else they
found in their research that this is
also why Starbucks had been popular with
America because it was a strong coffee
flavor that people getting a cup of
coffee doggone it I want a cup of coffee
that tastes like coffee well that same
attitude is well you know what I want
wine that tastes like fruit something
that’s fruity not fruit juice but
something that’s got a really rich and
good bold flavor but it has to be easy
drinking and also create you know a lot
of fun and ease when you’re going out to
buy it so they did all that and then
they eliminated a lot of the other
complexities so basically what they did
they eliminated complexities they
created a wine that was easy to
understand and easy to buy and they
created a new position in the market a
wine you could buy at Costco identified
by the label what it’s all about and go
enjoy a quality product not cheap box
wine that you might buy at 7-eleven and
I’m not picking on 7-eleven I’m not
picking on cheap box wine there are
people who enjoy that this was different
this was really set to be a good quality
wine product
and so with the casella’s and great
grapes from Australia and great
marketing and a distributor in the
deutsches that knew what they were doing
and getting the signature on a contract
from Costco they blew the lid off the
market and suddenly they were one of
them not just successful with yellow
tailless new product they were one of
the leaders in the American wine market
that’s what happened you know it’s
really interesting when I when I think
about this I think the lessons come back
number one know your target customer
they knew who they were going out this
was going to be like a Budweiser
coca-cola of wine but a quality wine
product not a cheap wine it gives you a
headache
second focuses your friend once they
focused on the consumer they focused on
finding the right grapes and the right
vineyard which led Doge to talk to
Australia trade commission which led
them to find the Casella family and the
marriage was made and lastly when it’s
time for marketing you know maybe they
were trying maybe they weren’t but they
created a blue ocean for themselves a
new wine product that you didn’t have to
go to a wine store and buy and go to a
wine store and have to understand all
this terminology and all these different
you know do I have to go to school
before I can go to a wine store and
actually buy something no they made it
so it’s easy to buy at Costco and then
when you bought it you say hey this was
pretty good this was a really really
great wine to sit here this afternoon
and have just a great wine when it’s
time for anniversary with your wife by
the champagne and by the good stuff but
whenever you guys hang out with your
friends and have a glass of wine go pick
up a yellowtail so the last lesson I
think is there was a little luck and
that the Deutsch family distributors and
the casella’s found each other kind of
by accident but at the end of it I think
we can see that between the two of them
this partnership was a success so as you
build your business I think what you
need to understand is there may be a
little luck but more often than not
there’s a lot of intentional nature to
building your business and staying
focused on what it is you’re doing
sticking with that be smart about your
marketing and guess what you may lead a
market so here we go all right if you
like this please come back Fridays and
see these case studies and subscribe
to value tainment the best content on
the internet for entrepreneurs
until then I’m Tom Ellsworth and I hope I left you better than I found yet
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