Annabel Taylor

May 2005
Nadine: My guest this week has been in the marketing business for 14 years following a successful publishing and hospitality career. Along with husband Greg, an export marketer, she is now working with the Hammonds at Terrace Heights Estate. Annabel Taylor, welcome to the programme.

Annabel: Thanks Nadine good to be here.

Nadine: Now Annabel, when I go into a bottle store there are hundreds of bottles on the shelf. How do you get a point of distinction when marketing something like THE wine?

Annabel: Oh absolutely. This is exactly what we did before we launched. We went into lots of bottle stores, stood back and just thought which labels are jumping out at us? and we really couldnt find many. So we thought what we have to do is develop a label that is so eye catching it literally does leap off the shelf at you. And also the name has to be completely simple. You know you often try a wine that you thought was wonderful, but you can never remember it again when you go into the store so with THE, it was a complete play on the word THE so its THE sauvignon blanc or THE pinot noir. We thought, keep it easy, keep it simple and its worked wonderfully for us.

Nadine: But I guess its a lot harder than it seems, though. Setting all that up the label and the name, that would have taken a while.

Annabel: Oh it did, it did. I know Greg and Steve were working on it, we all were, for a long time trying out the labels, looking at different designs. We wanted something contemporary, something very fresh that would stand apart from the quite traditional labels that are around. Particularly when we launched as well something that was quite new on the market. And we just wanted to reflect the fact that we were a new company as well. That we were you know getting out there doing something different.

Nadine: Well I know Steve said that originally the philosophy was all about winning an award. How important are medals in marketing for wine.

Annabel: They are very important. Absolutely. Weve just recently had great success with the Royal Easter Show again. And had 2 gold medals and sold out of our second label sauvignon and that certainly helped that was a massive help for us. But what we find, whilst the profile was excellent for us, we really have to get distribution up to the level that, if we dont say perform well at a show, we still are going to be able to market and sell that wine. Its really a double edged sword its excellent, absolutely but weve got to the scale now of production that we cant rely on winning.

Nadine: Youve got 60-40% split between the domestic and overseas market and I believe youre looking at China?

Annabel: Yeah, China is something were just recently looking into. Were not up there yet were just exploring the market. But it does seem to be a very viable market for us to approach. Especially as their palettes are very much attuned to red wine so our pinot noir is something that theyre very interested in though they are looking at the sauvignon blanc they are a wine producer themselves, but I think they recognise that New Zealand wine in particular is extremely high quality and its something that can work extremely well in their market. They have obviously a huge population, a very high middleclass population as well so theres plenty of money out there.

Nadine: The Hammond family is a good example of that give it a go ingenuity, but how important is it to get outside help?

Annabel: Oh, I think its key. I think thats what Steve and Linda have realised is that theyve got to a point now volume-wise that they do need some help. I think theres a problem where you can be very passionate about what you produce, but youve got to be able to step back from it to a certain extent and actually see really what you need to help you progress the company.

Nadine: Annabel, thank you very much for talking to us today we wish you all the very best for the future.

Annabel: Thank you very much Nadine its been fantastic.