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In today’s market, whether its introducing a new brand or revamping an existing one, it is crucial that the packaging is a direct reflection of the product and that it strategically positions the brand. Packaging needs to satisfy consumer needs and perceptions about their lifestyles. The packaging of a product in today’s overcrowded marketplace is crucial to its success. Labels and collars [144]
[152]
Wine labels are, however, a relatively new development and paper labels only made their appearance in the mid-19th century following the widespread sale of bottled wine and the invention of glues strong enough to stick paper to glass. Prior to that wines were sold unlabelled. They were stacked in bins and served in decanters so that bin and decanter labels were the precursor of the modern-day wine bottle label. [144] For many years, wines were identified by branded corks, as vintage port sometimes still is. [124] It was also the practice to emboss, on wine bottles, a glass ‘lozenge’ containing the vineyard owner or wine-maker’s initials. Early labels merely provided the chateau name and vintage.
But labels have come a long way since then and today wine labels have become one of the single most important communicators in brand promotion and a vital tool in persuading the consumer to buy a particular bottle. Shelf impact has become all important.
Labeling for the local and overseas markets has also required different
strategies and visual appeal. While locals will often buy a known, tried
and tested wine brand, knowledge of South African wines abroad is minimal
so that labels with a distinctly “South African” look and
feel are becoming increasingly popular and are proving to be a major purchase
motivator.[230]
Back labels are also increasingly being used for marketing and promotions. As wine-lovers have become more sophisticated and curious an increasing number of wine bottles have a back label giving further background information [270]. After the front label catches the eye, the consumer turns the bottle around to get vital information on the wine being bought – its style, history, vintage conditions, complementary food and so on. Wine-makers have taken to using the back label to make a strong brand-positioning statement and to actively market the wine.
Branding has become so important that house wines are fast becoming popular in South Africa -with restaurants, hotels and such like pressuring wineries to produce specially labelled house wines for their establishments. Peter Bishop, in Wynboer January 1996, relates an interesting story regarding wine labels. He relates how, when the label for Oom Tas changed from the old man with the pipe to a healthier looking vineyard worker, sales plummeted.. This occurrence was apparently not because of the picture change but because: “the etching on which the old label was created had a broken line, which made a minuscule part of the background look like a ‘7’. This was also the halfway mark for people sharing a bottle of what is known as ‘stetson brandy’. The new label showed no ‘7’ and this ruined a deep Cape tradition. SFW quickly re-established one of the Cape’s best kept trade secrets and sales soared.” [285] Wine labels are deemed to be so fascinating that collecting them has become immensely popular, with label collectors being known as vinititulists. Bottles, Cartons and Papsakke
Wine bottles were originally onion shaped and then, through various innovations, came the introduction of cylindrical bottles. It was with the development of these cylindrical bottles that the true potential of keeping wine was discovered in the 1730’s with the introduction of binning – the storing of wine in bottles on their sides. The effectiveness of the cork as a stopper was thereby enhanced because it was kept wet and fully expanded by the wine. The modern bottle shape evolved and became mass-produced, and today variations are a matter of aesthetics, lifestyle marketing, and branding - and have nothing to do with technical limitations. [282] Wine bottles are now being made in an array of shapes, colors and designs making a visual statement, reflecting a personality and creating an image to promote the product. Jupiter Drawing Room Design was asked to evaluate several recent designs.
The blue bottle, for example, first made its first local appearance with the launch of Blue White (made from chenin) by Irina von Holdt of Old Vines Cellars The plump bottle with its long slender neck is a sophisticated, modern, imported interpretation of the traditional Loire bottle used for chenin blanc.[280] And so onto cartons. Australia was the first country to put wine into collapsible plastic bags inside boxes in the early 1970’s. South Africa followed suit with the launch of the 5-litre Simonsig wine box in 1975. Only in 1979, however, was the packaging adequately developed and marketed here by Distillers, Gilbeys and SFW and boxed wine became big. However, legislation that banned the naming of varieties and vintages on the box (in an attempt to protect the quality of South African wine) curtailed its promotional value and led to the perception of boxed wine as “plonk” - which earned it the nick-name ‘Chateau de Cardboard’.
Still, changes to legislation in early 1999 and interesting new packaging trends suggest that boxed and other non-bottled wine may be entering a new era. Robertson Winery was the first to produce a certified wine varietal and vintage (Chardonnay 1998) in a box, following the amendment to the wine regulations [276]. Exciting new package designs for boxed wine positions this product for a niche market and offers new branding and promotional opportunities. [279]
All boxed wine, certified or not, uses a soft foil bag to contain the
liquid. These bags are known as pillows or papsakke (slack bags).
However, the papsak has a hugely negative image in the South
African market through its use as the primary vehicle for selling excess,
inferior-quality wine for the high-volume, low-priced end of the market
– the poor. The papsak is therefore widely associated with
the promotion of cheap wine sales to working-class or homeless alcoholics.
The papsak has caused a stir in the wine industry and in government
and there is pressure on the government to ban such cheap alcohol. Another way of selling large quantities of cheap wine in South Africa has been the “ses-man kan” (the six-man jug) – so-called for its apparently perfect 6-person quantity. With a convenient handle on the neck, wine was usually drunk from this jug by hooking the forefinger through the handle and balancing the jug across the arm and nestling it on the elbow which was then used to lift the jug to the lips. Corks
and screwtops When Dom Perignon introduced the cork as a closure for wine in the late 1600’s, he enabled growers all over the world to age their wines properly in bottles. The first cork stoppers for wine were narrow and tapered but the invention of the corkscrew made the use of tight fitting cylindrical corks the norm. Most corks today are branded with the code of the cork producer and in the case of fine wines with the name of the wine producer and sometimes the name of the wine and the vintage. [304] [305] [308] Corks for sparkling wine or champagne, while initially cylindrical, are wider than normal corks and have to be driven into the bottleneck resulting in the mushroom shape. They are held in place by a wire muzzle, against the force of the pressure of the gas inside the bottle.
The emergence of synthetic corks and screwtops for wine bottles in recent times is providing an increasing challenge to natural cork as a closure for wine bottles.[305] [308] As early as 1959 French winemakers began looking for an alternative to cork, fearing that supplies of such a natural product would dry up. Their answer was a metal screwtop which was first used in South Africa by Stellenbosch Farmers Winery in the 1977 for their popular Autumn Harvest range. While internationally, screwtops are being used increasingly widely for quality wines, in South Africa screwtops remain strongly associated with cheap wine, and there is still considerable snobbery and attachment on the part of many wine drinkers to natural cork. [228] [274] [281]
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