Naked Wines is backing a 20,000-strong community of wine drinkers, the ‘Naked Wine Angels’, who sponsor 25 individual winemakers to make them exclusive wines.
With echoes of the approaches used by more familiar ‘business angels’ who back start-ups, this approach to sponsorship see the Wine Angels order cases of wine from their chosen vineyards and wineries before the wine has been made.
The initiative revolves around an online hub and on this site anyone can buy wine but Wine Angels get major discounts and one third cash back offers, plus free samples and tastings, as well as invitations to vineyards.
By paying start up vineyards and new wineries and suppliers up front cash they aim to provide a bigger potential market to these new business and encourage interest in wine making and grow the business.
One of the objectives behind the scheme is to help winemakers spend more on growing great wine and less on selling and marketing it.
Comment:
This kind of ‘peoples’ sponsorship’ scheme may boost start-ups and small businesses and challenge both established providers and even advertisers. They tend to create active, engaged communities and consumers and aims to further boost consumer power and control over the business.
Almost a business form of crowdsourcing.
Links:
http://www.nakedwines.com/content/help_nakedwineangels.htm
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.