Pushing the Right Buttons

The key to successful marketing campaigns is knowing which buttons to push, and which to ignore. Take this recent campaign for cork. Yes, cork.

Up until about 15-20 years ago cork had a virtual monopoly on the wine stopper market. The percentage of wines using a cork stopper stood at around 98%.  With the increasing popularity of non-cork wine stoppers such as screw caps, plastic plugs and "zorks" however, that market share has dropped to 70%. Perhaps less.

Needless to say, the Portuguese Cork Association is not happy about this. So they have begun fighting back with a $22 million PR campaign based around the natural and (of course) "green" qualities of natural cork.

To that end they are funding the 100% Cork initiative, and so far they have been fairly successful. For example they've already generated over 30,000 "likes" on Facebook, with the majority of those coming from women. The particular concern of women on this issue may have been what inspired the creation of the video below. 

Note that this campaign mostly ignores whether or not cork is actually the best product to use as a wine stopper. So far the consensus seems to be that it is best for some wines (especially those that need to age), and perhaps not for others. But since there are legitimate arguments pro & con on that point, this button is ignored. 

That cork is more "green" and sustainable is difficult to argue however. So that is the point of differentiation used. Twenty or thirty years ago this might not have meant a lot to the average wine drinker. But these days it means quite a bit more, so this is a very clever positioning strategy. 

Four Takeaways: 1) Focus your communication on your strengths. 2) If you can legitimately attach a "green" label to your product or service, you should. 3) If it matters to women, it will very soon matter to men. 4) And of course - even a somewhat silly presentation will sound perfectly reasonable when delivered with a British accent.