Investing in Experiences w/ Aly Wente, Wente Vineyards

From weddings to concerts to a golf course, Wente Vineyards has a whole portfolio of experiences to share the Wente brand with consumers. Aly Wente, VP of Marketing & Customer Experiences, shares how Wente thinks about managing the portfolio of experiences and how they embed wine and the Wente brand into everything they do. From becoming more of a data company to refactoring their tasting rooms and driving people to the wine club, driving deeper connections with their customers is core to the ROI of experiences at Wente. Detailed Show Notes: Wente Experiences overviewChampionship golf course designed by Greg NormanTasting room with food & wine experiencesConcerts, including a tribute band seriesRent space for weddings and corporate eventsExperiences are viewed as a connected portfolioEverything should feel cohesive and true to the brandHospitality team overseas golf grill, tasting room, and booking eventsEmbody wine in every experience - concerts -> wine & music events; 5-star restaurant -> tasting loungeLook at ROI across experiences to see which to invest more in with limited resourcesRefactored tasting rooms, had two with different feels (one older, traditional, one more modern and food driven where the wine was more lost), into a single “tasting lounge” focused on wine with wine & food experiencesRecently upgraded tech to become more of a data companyUse CRM to take notes on customersTrack demographics and target some events to specific groupsKey metrics used for ROICustomer surveysEvent ticket sales and difficulty in selling ticketsSocial media engagementContextual ROI when at eventsWine sales at events - Wente makes money on wine, not ticket salesBetter understanding customer journeys and how they impact: New vs. existing customersRepeat visitation Club membershipLTV of customersThe primary goal of the tasting room and events is to engage customers and create relationships vs. being the most significant profit driver for the brandThe team needs to be resourced to dig into the data and track itWeddings Get a rental fee for property (high margin)Require min # of cases of wine purchased, and most people buy morePre-2020 - did >60 weddings/year, full-service incl wedding planning and catering - was not the most profitable businessToday - leaner experience - rent out the property with resources for planningPrimary priority - Flow into the wine clubThe “pinnacle” of ROI for experiencesClub members often spend more than club shipmentsFood & wine experiences convert the highest to the club - the more attention people get, the more likely they will join the club~6-8% of visitors become club membersProvide incentives for staff for club signups (~$30-50/signup + club prizes for top performers)Now have a “club booth” at experiences with customer incentives (e.g., 30% off 1st shipment if they sign up at the event)Secondary priority - Getting everyone’s emails that attend eventsBelieves digital experiences will always be around nowDuring the pandemic, Wente was 1st to have Amazon Alexa and Google Home virtual wine tastings, buying wine at the grocery store Get access to library episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.