What really caught our eye was the part about “Brand USPs,” or unique selling points. Here are some excerpts:

1. We don’t have a story. (Mark this if yours is “making wine with passion in a vineyard” or some version of this statement.”)

2. We have a story…But we’re not telling it consistently.

3. We know what differentiates our wine brand, and this is clearly and consistently communicated.

Since brand storytelling is one of our core services at Mooncatcher, we are in the business of helping clients make sure that their answer to this quiz is the third one.

It’s not as easy as it sounds. It always takes work to develop and deploy a compelling brand message, and sometimes a business must first be convinced that the work needs to be done in the first place.

Indeed, there are a lot of wineries who think that “making wine with a passion in a vineyard” is a sufficiently unique and compelling story. Of course, it’s not–unless your brand strategy is to blend in instead of stand out.

Also, a strong  message will have a difficult time gaining traction if it’s not consistently conveyed at all points of public contact. For example, if your web site communicates a strong message, but if that message isn’t strategically reinforced on your back labels, sell sheets, social media outlets or other marketing venues (including via the spoken word in the tasting room or on sales calls), your brand image will remain unclear to the consumer.

A lot of people get so caught up in the operational aspects of their marketing recipe that they overlook some of the key ingredients. It’s not always where you’re telling your story, it’s how you’re telling it. A winning story will succeed on old-fashioned paper and in new-fangled social media.

It boils down to a two step process. First, you have to take an honest look at how you are telling your story and take action if your story needs improvement. Next, you should carefully deploy that story across all points of public contact.

The bottom line is that if you have a winning story that is consistently communicated, you have taken a big step toward marketing success.

In a nutshell, the operator of the eyeglasses site Decor My Eyes (!) found that the more people complained about his site and service, the more site backlinks it generated…which in turn boosted his Page Rank in Google, sending the site to the top of Google’s results for key search terms! The result? More traffic and more sales. If you don’t have time to read the full article, check out this summary, which features the money quotes from the story.

Of course, the backlash was swift, and it seems that Google has manually intervened to put an end to this particular individual’s nonsense.

Nevertheless, the story is a vivid testament to the power of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and how continually fresh content combined with favorable backlinks can boost your online visibility to generate added sales or to meet other objectives. And you don’t have to be a jerk to enjoy the benefits.

One related example from our portfolio is the Official Santa Maria Valley Barbecue Blog that we created and continue to manage for the Santa Maria Valley Visitor & Convention Bureau. This blog has been praised by Sunset Magazine as a “Best Web Find” along with other accolades, and it today ranks highly in all search terms related to Santa Maria Style Barbecue, enabling the bureau to take online ownership of one of the valley’s top visitor attractions—specifically, the 150-year-old regional culinary tradition of Santa Maria Style Barbecue. The blog also serves as a critical ongoing chronicle and resource for the history, traditions, news and events surrounding Santa Maria Style Barbecue.

If you are serious about raising your search rankings, or if you simply want to boost your brand image with fresh and thoughtful content, you should consider a dedicated blog with a corresponding keyword strategy. A blog can also add juice to your social media efforts, bringing added credibility and authenticity to your community outreach while generating added traffic back to your web site.

The caveat is that, as with any marketing tool, an effective blog requires a measure of commitment, which means applying the necessary resources to generate  frequent posts with meaningful content. And if you are ready to do that, we are ready to help.

For example, some have questioned the lighthearted nature of the TSA’s Tweets, such as: “Travel Advice: Be on the lookout for turkeys with ‘fowl’ intent.”

While some are enjoying the fun, others have suggested that it is incongruous with the TSA’s national security role. As Gizmodo noted, “For instance, take this selection of silly Thanksgiving themed tweets. They’re so silly! And fun! Except, wait, this is the governmental organization tasked with helping make sure that flyers don’t murder other plane passengers and commit acts of terrorism. This is an agency ostensibly dedicated to public safety, on the eve of one of the busiest, most anxious travel days possible. They should be issuing travel tips, and safety notices. They should be helpful. And here are the messages they have for you, as if ripped down off of a middle school bulletin board.”

In other words, the TSA’s Twitter account seems to have created a branding issue. And the lesson is to make sure that your own social media activities aren’t undermining your brand image and message.

Too many businesses approach social media as a one-off promotional tool, as opposed to an important extension of their branding and marketing efforts. If your image and message are inconsistent at different points of public contact (such as the pithy TSA on Twitter and the super-serious TSA at the airport), it creates customer confusion, and ultimately weakens your brand.

In other words, don’t wing it on social media. That doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, but a little strategy and discipline will go a long way toward bolstering the effectiveness of your efforts.

Sauvage is a proprietary blend that celebrates the untamed terrain and natural flavors of our sustainably farmed estate vineyard in the upper Arroyo Grande Valley. Here, for more than 30 years, we have grown a selection of classic Bordelais varietals in a narrow sandy block that yields sparse, richly flavored clusters. This block is popular with the native wildlife, and deer, foxes, coyotes and even bears are routinely seen roaming around the vines. The grapes from this corner of the vineyard combine to create a smooth, supple blend with depth and complexity. While this wine will reward cellaring, those who like to walk on the wild side are encouraged to enjoy it in its youth.

In other words, they had it backwards. A friendlier attitude with proper glassware would have been much more effective. Wine doesn’t need to be dumbed down (which is just a form of condescension, is it not?) to reach more people. It simply needs to be friendlier and more accessible, and not only to the younger generation, but to everyone.

The good news is that a lot of strides have been made on this front in recent years. The wine industry is making a concerted effort to reach new customers. And at Mooncatcher, we are proud to live and work in what we feel is one of the world’s friendliest wine regions: Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo County and the greater Central Coast.

The bad news is that there’s still a lot of work to be done. For example, a recent study in Britain found that a full nine out of 10 people feel that “wine is shrouded in snobbery.” While the number might not be so staggering here in the United States, there is no doubt that many people still feel that wine is more exclusive than inclusive.

What can be done about it? We believe that it all begins on the front lines, at crucial points of public contact such as tasting rooms, special events and social media venues. To bring more people into your fold, you want to create a welcoming culture around your brand. This will ensure that no customer is left behind. And along the way, you will be serving the greater good of making wine more approachable to more people.

Again, this doesn’t mean dumbing down your product, or shying away from the notion of wine as a complex and thoughtful beverage. But it does mean making sure that you and your employees are on the same page when it comes to providing a welcoming spirit to novices and enthusiasts alike.

We turn these stories into marketing content that stands out from the crowd, and we also spread the word via media relations services.

On that note, to help you get a better picture of what we do, we share the following sampling of some of our recent activities and successes:

-Celebrated a client being featured as the cover story in a prestigious magazine distributed across California (we pitched and secured the coverage).

-Wrote web site content for a new winery on the Central Coast.

-Wrote branding and positioning content for an innovative wine equipment manufacturer.

-Managed a client’s Facebook account, generating steady growth in followers and customer interaction.

-Produced a promotional video in partnership with filmmaker Rob DaFoe for Hunter Ranch Golf Course. Click here to watch.

-Wrote newsletter (both hard copy and e-newsletter) and special event content for several wineries.

Acceptable marketing content no longer cuts it. Your content needs to be exceptional if it is going to cut through the growing noise and convert more customers. Let us know if we can help you take your story to the next level.

The mascots, called Wenlock and Mandeville, were promptly dismissed as “a calamity” and “patronizing rubbish,” among other things. Some pointed out that they looked unfortunately phallic as well.

Reports said that the mascots were carefully created with input from 40 focus groups spanning several months. The shape of the mascots is supposed to evoke the last drops of steel used to build the Olympic stadium, and their single eyes are meant to mimic a smartphone camera.

Somewhere along the way, between the dozens of focus groups, the mascot developers seem to have lost track of the fundamentals. As a London design agency owner said, “The first rule of mascot creation is to make something familiar and accessible, not something alien.”

The mascots are ultimately designed to capture the imagination of children, so adult disapproval may not be the final word on the dynamic duo. However, it’s not looking good for Wenlock and Mandeville, who may become emblems for a classic marketing pitfall: overthinking.

You see this “creativity by committee” pitfall on display every year during the Super Bowl. Despite their creators’ access to massive resources and research, many of the multimillion-dollar Super Bowl commercials fall totally flat.

The lesson? Sometimes you need to turn off the input and focus on the output.

Well, you can’t argue with results, right? Whether or not Apple’s new iPad is another smash hit, there’s no denying the phenomenal success of the company over the past decade.

So how does a company of that size churn out hit after hit without using one of the more fundamental tools of marketing research, the focus group?

Because they have something better than a focus group. They have absolute, unwavering focus. They know exactly who they are and what they are trying to achieve, and they are not easily distracted. They call their latest invention “magical and revolutionary”—and they do it with a straight face.

Simply put, in the realms of personal computing and personal electronics, Apple set out to create something different, and something better. And if you create something that is both different and better, the customers will follow.

So what is it about your product that is different? What about it is better? And are you truly and totally evangelizing your unique selling points in your marketing materials?

If you stay focused on continually answering these questions, good things will follow.

In that time (spanning 66 individual posts that earned the blog a nod for “best web find” from Sunset Magazine), the blog’s page views have climbed up to more than 2,000 per month. More importantly, the blog has enabled the Chamber to stake a bigger online claim to Santa Maria Style Barbecue, a regional culinary tradition that is a star attraction for the valley.

The Chamber copyrighted the classic Santa Maria Style Barbecue menu in 1978, and it was important to establish a similar sense of ownership on the web. Now, online searches for terms such as “Santa Maria Style Barbecue” and “Santa Maria BBQ” show the Official Santa Maria Style Barbecue Blog on the first page of results.

One person recently commented on the blog that the content had inspired him to plan a trip to the region, which was  a vivid demonstration of how online traffic can result in physical traffic.

Contrary to what some have speculated, social media venues such as Twitter and Facebook are not blogging killers, but rather blogging complements. As demonstrated in this article, blogs play an important marketing role in matters of both brand messaging and search optimization: “Whether you’re trying to build an online business, market your stuff, or promote a cause, those who seek maximum influence know that creating valuable longer content is the way to go.”

If you are looking to establish a blog that will stand out from the crowd and deliver tangible results, we would be happy to help.