Moments of Silence before BLANKbottle creates a storm

Pieter Walser is creating a big buzz in the local wine industrywith his BLANKbottle brand of wines. Not only that, but it seems the buzz has transpired to reach international audiences as well.

Pieter sent me an e-mail a while back, introducing me to his wines and his innovative marketing idea. He’s following global new marketing practices in engaging potential customers with his wines.

Firstly, he sold Mystery Wine without telling people what was inside. 10 cases of this wine were up for grabs for the person with the closest answer. Through this initiative he created traction to his brand and got people intrigued in the product as well as getting them to discuss the brand among their peers.

Another innovative move was when Pieter decided to involve his loyal clients in the pricing of the new wine, Moments of Silence. He was so confident about the quality that he gave 6 bottles on consignment to the first 20 orders received. The clients then had 1 week from delivery to assess the wine and packaging quality, decide what they thought its worth to them and pay him exactly that. Madness? Well, yeah, pretty much. Did it work? You bet.

Now typical human behaviour would suggest that people will conjure up ridiculous amounts for these wines. Our mind is programmed into skepticism, isn’t it?

As you guessed, it turned out to be a brilliant move on his part and he had tremendous feedback from his clients.

Pieter’s philosophy is to over deliver on quality, and while the majority of reviews positioned his wine in the R 50 – R 70 bracket, he decided to sell the wine for R 40.

Pieter form alliances with winemakers and exclusive wineries all over South Africa, identifying premium terroir in order to create small batches of interesting blends. BLANKbottle’s motto is to over-deliver on quality.

Pieter’s secret to achieving that lies in his method of sourcing wines as well as his direct-marketing approach. When a winery makes up a blend for an existing label, the wine needs to fit into their predetermined flavour profile, typically leaving limited amounts of exclusive runs that don’t fit into their range.

Pieter then identify and marry wines from different wineries (and even different terroir!), each with their own unique flavour profile, in order to create his interesting blends. Volumes/batches are small, exclusive and unique.

Hurry on over to his website to get the full story behind the BLANKbottle brand and also to order yours today